Scotland camp stays buoyant - win over England can set up Six Nations title tilt

It seems far-fetched in the aftermath of the performance in Rome but the scrum specialist insists it is too early to write off Scotland’s chances in a championship they have not won for 27 years.

“It's only the second game of the tournament, any team in the tournament can still win it,” said de Villiers. “Italy will go out and surprise other teams as well, they're a really good outfit and I think it's going to be tight all around this tournament. It's important that we get that enthusiasm back and we've got that enthusiasm back to go and deliver a great game.

“England are a team who have had good results recently, they've been consistent. A result against England obviously will turn everything around and put us on the right track to win this tournament.”

The bookmakers do not share de Villiers’ confidence: Scotland are 100-1 to win the Six Nations while England are 9-4, second favourites behind France (8-15).

Scotland have had the measure of England in the Calcutta Cup under Gregor Townsend, losing only twice in eight contests since 2018. And you have to go back to 2020 for England’s last win at Murrayfield. But Steve Borthwick’s side are heading north on the back of a 12-match winning streak.

By contrast, a dark mood has enveloped Scottish rugby, with Townsend under more scrutiny than ever before in his near nine-year reign. A disappointing autumn campaign followed by the loss to Italy in the Six Nations opener has heaped pressure on the head coach who was linked last week with a move to Newcastle Red Bulls when his Scotland contract expires.

Townsend is tied to the national team until the end of next year but is already doing consultancy work for Red Bull. He insists he has signed no deal with Newcastle but the story was an unwelcome distraction on the eve of the Six Nations.

Despite this backdrop, de Villiers said the mood in the camp was upbeat and there was a determination to flush the Italy result out of the system by beating England.

What the vibe is like in Scotland camp

“The vibe is excited to go into a very important game,” said the scrum coach. “This game coming up ignites a lot of passion in Scotland and I'm sure in England as well, so we are very excited. There will always be outside noise, if I can put it that way, going on. That's the nature of this game. It's high-stakes, it's Six Nations, and if you don't get results, fans out there will be disappointed and people will obviously look into things and maybe want change, but for us nothing changes in terms of what we do on a day-to-day basis.

“Yes, we would like a better result and this weekend is a perfect opportunity to go and do it in a high-stakes game where both teams will be very passionate and driven to deliver a result.”

Italy outperformed Scotland at both the scrum and lineout during the 18-15 win in Rome and de Villiers conceded it took the Scots “a bit of time to get into the game” at the set-piece.

“We found some solutions to some of the problems we had in the first half, but at this level of the game you want to find them as quickly as possible and as effectively as possible,” said de Villiers. “That's where we want to grow, and will grow this week.”