IT IS nine years since Scotland last won the Calcutta Cup. Eighteen since they last won the Championship in its old guise of the Five Nations, 27 since they last won a Triple Crown, and 34 since they last beat England at Twickenham. If there are any keen students of rugby statistics and history in Vern Cotter’s squad, you can only hope they decided to take a break from such pursuits over the past fortnight.

Certainly, Cotter and his assistant coaches have gone out of their way this week to emphasise that today’s Six Nations encounter is about the here and now. History is only a burden, they have implied, if you let it get on top of you. This Scotland squad is out to make history, not be victims of it.

So what will they have to do to record a first win in London since 1983? Do everything as well as their opponents, and do at least one thing better - finishing off attacks.

It’s simple, really, at least on paper. In practice, Scotland will have to withstand extreme pressure for long stretches of the game, perhaps especially in the scrum, which means that patience will become a cardinal virtue. At the same time, they must also somehow conserve enough energy to score a couple of tries at least, and to force their way into positions from which kickable penalties will come.

“We’d like to play rugby, for sure, but we need to make sure our set piece is really good and we don’t over-play in the wrong parts of the field,” assistant coach Jason O’Halloran said yesterday, emphasising that need for patience. “We can’t just fire the ball left, right and centre - we need to make sure we get some go-forward. It’s often talked about earning the right to go wide, and I think that’s what we’ll need to do in this game, in the early part for sure.”

With Gordon Reid at loosehead prop alongside two Glasgow Warriors team-mates, the scrum looked more secure against Wales than it did in the two previous games. The Gray brothers in the second row have been outstanding, and the back-row combination of John Barclay, Hamish Watson and Ryan Wilson has the ability to turn defence into attack swiftly.

That latter quality will be crucial, because Scotland will not win unless they can impose themselves in attack at times. Waiting and hoping for England to display weaknesses will not be enough, as was shown in the last round of games, when the Italians’ no-rucking tactics confused Eddie Jones’ team, who nonetheless managed to run in six tries in a bonus-point win which put them three points clear at the top of the table.

“Any team would have been caught out by Italy’s commitments to those tactics,” O’Halloran said when asked if England’s possible inability to think on their feet could be exploited today. “I’ve seen those tactics used before, but I’ve never seen it sustained for 80 minutes.

“We would have taken a bit of time to adjust to that, but hopefully not 40 minutes. It’s a difficult tactic to come up with solutions but we’ve talked about it this week and we’ve some contingencies if a team pulled it on us.

“I’m not critical of England at all. They scored six tries and claimed a bonus point, so if you can still get a result like that it shows they’re a quality outfit, that’s for sure.”

Where England’s quality really shines, and where they expect to have the upper hand over Scotland, is on the bench. Their starting 15 is impressive enough, but when you can bring the likes of the Vunipola brothers on for the last 20 minutes or so you know you have serious strength in depth.

The aim of introducing such powerful players will be to maintain relentless pressure on the Scottish defence, and if possible speed play up at a time when the starting players on both sides are beginning to flag. Scotland have solid substitutes of their own such as Tim Swinson, who can cover in the back row as well as at lock, while Cornell du Preez will have a big role to play on his debut if he comes on to replace Barclay, Watson or Wilson.

Over the piece, however, Scotland do not have such impressive options for later in the game, and that could become an issue if they are forced by injuries to go to the bench early, as happened against France. O’Halloran and his colleagues are certainly aware of the onslaught that is to come from England. “We’ve got a respect for what that group has done off the bench - led them to victories in the latter part of games which they were on the brink of losing - so they certainly present a threat in the last 10 or 15 mins.

“So no lead is a good lead against England. We need to make sure that we marry that up with our bench: it needs to come on and give us some energy as well. We need to realise that it’s a 23-man game tomorrow.

“But we need to start well to be able to challenge in the last 15 minutes. So our focus initially is on the first 20 minutes of the game, and then we’ll focus on the last 15 later.”

The games against Ireland and France both came down to the closing stages, with Scotland winning the first but losing the second. If they keep today’s match alive until that late they will have won one battle. If they then go on to win the game at the death - as, at their best, they are capable of doing - it will go down as one of their greatest ever results.