Gavin Hastings admits he is struggling to see how Scotland turn their Six Nations around against an England side ‘firing on all cylinders’ when the two old foes meet at Twickenham.

Many tipped Scotland to be outside contenders ahead of the Championship, a view that appeared to be backed up by an impressive 33-20 victory against Italy in the opening round.

But since then Gregor Townsend’s side have struggled as injuries have taken their toll, with Scotland losing their last three games in the Championship to Ireland, France and Wales.

And while Scotland legend Hastings insists England won’t be thinking about revenge following their defeat at BT Murrayfield last year, he expects Scotland to be up against it at Twickenham.

“Revenge is a pretty strong word,” said Hastings, speaking on behalf of Land Rover. “I think clearly England were disappointed with the performance last year and they have moved on leaps and bounds since then.

“I think from Scottish perspective we just need to hope that they can come down and produce a performance that is going to make the supporters proud.

“Eddie has not lost too many times in charge of England and I would expect them to be firing on all cylinders on Saturday and it is going to make it very tough for Scotland.

“Some of the performances have not been as bad as the results have suggested, but it’s very difficult to see how we’re going to turn things around on Saturday given the woeful record Scotland have had at Twickenham over the last forty years.”

Scotland were the latest side to suffer defeat at the hands of Grand Slam-chasing Wales in Edinburgh last weekend as Warren Gatland’s men made it four from four with an 18-11 victory.

The hosts gave Wales a scare in the second half as they piled on the pressure, though, and they even threatened to cause an upset after Darcy Graham’s try closed the gap to four points.

But Hastings, who made 61 appearances for Scotland and is widely considered one of the country’s greatest players, was left frustrated with their decision making at times after the restart.

“Scotland have certainly not made the right decisions at the right time during this Championship, you saw against Wales last weekend when they squandered a few kickable penalties,” he said.

“I just could not understand the rationale for doing so and that’s been a slight disappointment and frustration for me and I think Gregor said that it was decision-making on the field.

“The thought was that they might be able to score from the lineout. I watched the game and they were on top of Wales and they were pounding the line strongly.

“Wales were defensively very good though and we weren’t able to break them down, but that was the frustration from me and amongst many hundreds of Scottish supporters.”

  • Gavin Hastings is a Land Rover ambassador. Land Rover shares and understands the values of rugby. @LandRoverRugby