Hogg laughs off Eddie Jones mind games

Scotland are shutting out the noise surrounding their Calcutta Cup clash with England - so that means paying no heed to Eddie Jones' mind games.

Scots' captain Stuart Hogg reckons there was no chance of England's coach getting inside his head after the Australian claimed the hosts were going to have to deal with the burden of being "red-hot favourites" in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Laughing off the comments, the 29-year-old responded on Friday: "We just concentrate on getting our things right. It's irrelevant what's written, what's said.

"We have got respect and admiration for everything Eddie has done in his rugby career.

"As a coach he has done absolutely tremendous work with some of the best sides in world rugby, and you know that he is always going to chuck a comment in here and there.

"So I'm not biting! I'm not getting involved in that."

Hogg did admit, though, that facing England was once a "scary" prospect earlier in his career but the Scotland captain now goes into Calcutta Cup clashes with no fear.

Hogg made his Scotland debut 10 years ago this month while the team were in the midst of a 10-match run without victory over their biggest rivals.

The situation has changed with Scotland only losing once in four meetings and ending a 38-year wait for victory at Twickenham 12 months ago.

Hogg said: "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sometimes worried about playing England, especially in the early years.

"For me, some of the names you used to play against for England, it was quite a scary task.

"Not now. I truly believe in the ability of myself and the ability of the squad that we can go out there and win, and it has shown over the last four years or so.

"We view England as the same as every other team. We respect them