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Maro Itoje has called on his England side to be “bulletproof” as they seek to clinch a first win at Murrayfield in six years on Saturday. England can keep their grand slam pursuit alive by successfully defending the Calcutta Cup and Itoje has urged his side to create their own history despite their recent wretched form in Edinburgh.

With England on a 12-match winning streak and Scotland suffering a shock defeat by Italy last week, Steve Borthwick’s side are clear favourites for victory. Their only victory at Murrayfield since Eddie Jones’ first game in charge came in miserable weather in 2020, however, with Scotland securing victories in 2022 and last time out in 2024.

England have been regularly knocked from their stride on Scottish soil with a pre-match fracas in the tunnel preceding the 2018 defeat. Jones was furious two years later when he thought a Scotland supporter had thrown a bottle at his head of elite performance Neil Craig, while, two years ago, Borthwick said that his players had “played small” after relinquishing an early lead.

Having won all of their matches since their defeat in Dublin at the start of last year’s tournament, however, Itoje is confident England are well equipped to deal with whatever awaits them at Murrayfield. He said: “It is not that hostile! They like us here! When you play away from home you generally have to be sharper, you have to be … there are things that happen you just have to roll with, there are things that happen that you just take on the chin and make sure you are bulletproof to the scenarios.

“I want us to be aggressive, accurate, play with confidence. Every time we play them and every time we play them up here it’s always a physical game. I just want us to be confident; I want us to be the aggressors and take pride in how we play. Just put ourselves on the front foot. Attack the game. We’ve built confidence throughout this last week and previous games and the more we are together it feels like we are pushing in the right direction, and I want us to continue in that spirit.

“I have never been part of an England team that felt fearful or felt we couldn’t go out there and win. But I definitely feel that now with this group of players, there is a good, solid alignment between the players and the coaching staff. It feels like we are really on the same page and the more time we spend together it feels like we are becoming more and more cohesive.”

Gregor Townsend is under mounting pressure after a disappointing autumn was followed by an opening defeat in Rome amid reports he has agreed to take over at Newcastle Red Bulls once his Scotland contract expires after the 2027 World Cup. In the Calcutta Cup, however, he has an impressive record of five wins and a draw in his eight matches against England.

Itoje added: “We know in recent times we have not been as successful as we would have liked to have but the issue has not been the stadium, the issue has been our performances so regardless of whether it is up here, or down at Twickenham, or anywhere else in the world, what we need to get right is our performance.

“It is not about dwelling too much on previous history. This is an opportunity for us as a group to create new history, this is an opportunity for us to be the type of England team we want to be, going to these amazing stadiums and performing well. That is the positive message we want to try and reinforce.”

Meanwhile, Ben Earl is backing Henry Pollock to take any wind-up tactics from opponents or Scotland supporters in his stride. “He’s dealt with everything else,” said Earl. “Trust me, he gets it way worse in training than anywhere else he’s had it. He’ll be all right.”