England must feed off Murrayfield hostility to weather the Scotland storm

There are myths about Murrayfield that we hear about every year. Some I agree with, some I don’t, but I can honestly say it is a stadium where the conditions can be like nowhere else. It is one of the hardest stadiums to play in because the shape of it means that when the wind gets inside the bowl it just doesn’t stop swirling.

The key for England, then, is to get their preparation right. You can try to acclimatise in the warm-up and that does make a difference, but if the players have not got their mental approach right in the buildup it’ll be a long day at the office because the forecast looks dreadful. For me, that would start on a Monday morning. One of the first things I would do is check the weather forecast and from that moment on I was able to start my mental prep.

If rain and wind were predicted I immediately knew that my defence and my aerial skills would be paramount. I would spend time in training honing those skills, or if there wasn’t time within the sessions, I would scrub up on them before or after. I just don’t subscribe to the viewpoint that players can be taken by surprise by the conditions. It has to play a huge part of players’ preparations so you can plan accordingly.

I expect that George Ford has been raining spiral bombs down on England’s back-three players all week to get them ready. It’s a tactic that makes the ball so unpredictable in its movements, it disables players from trying to get up into the air, trying to own the space and be protected. That will absolutely help and I fully expect to see him try it if and when he comes off the bench. On top of that, I’m sure Eddie Jones will have had the buckets out, soaking the balls in water.

From a coaching point of view, most of them are control