Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has called for calm heads in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham and says his players won’t be suckered into any pre-match mind games. Despite a dominant run which has seen the Scots win their last four matches against England, Steve Borthwick’s men will start the match as odds-on favourites after beating France a fortnight ago. Scotland’s tame defeat to Ireland has prompted a series of articles in the English media which have essentially dismissed the visitors’ chances of victory against a seemingly revitalised home side. Townsend would not be drawn into any tit-for-tat, but is confident that his team won’t over-react to negative perceptions of their performances by English commentators as they seek a historic fifth successive win over the Auld Enemy. ‘The emotion will be there,’ he said. ‘I think it’s there before every Test match — especially in the Six Nations. I would say, though, that maybe in the past, and I’m speaking personally here, that emotion was too much of a factor. Too much emotion came out and not enough calmness and clarity in what we were doing. ‘So I know the passion will be there, the passion will be there to play for your team-mates, to play for your country, to show an improved performance from the last game. ‘But we have to be calm amongst the chaos, which there will be at times at the weekend. ‘I don’t think it’s ever the case that a game of rugby is won by who’s up for it more. Sometimes, it’s lost by being up for it too much. ‘I mentioned earlier that I’ve certainly had that experience as a player and, in 2019, I felt I got the players up a bit too emotionally for the start of the game. ‘You’ve got to be lucid, calm, in control, but you have to be aggressive. You’ve got to be physical, and you’ve got to bring that out. Maybe in the past we got the balance too much on the passion and emotional side of it.’ Pressed on comments and jibes in the English media, and whether they had been noted in the Scotland camp, Townsend continued: ‘Everyone has their own opinion. We know we’re not favourites. ‘England are favourites, there’s no denying that. They will be confident after beating France. They will want to go on a run now. ‘I don’t know if the players are looking at it, social media or rugby, they’ve got their lives to lead, so you’d have to ask them individually. ‘If the players have spoken about it, I’ve not been there for those discussions. I think the focus is on us delivering a better performance than against Ireland, and delivering a performance that can get us a win. ‘I think if you ask the Welsh supporters, the Irish supporters and the French supporters which is the biggest game you play every year? They’ll choose the English game out of all. ‘They’re the biggest nation that we come up against, so it’s great for a supporter as banter and, if you can get one up over your nearest rivals, your most historic rivals, then it means more.’ Townsend stressed the importance of his players getting their campaign back on track after the championship’s two-week break. After the defeat to Ireland at Murrayfield, he admitted that Scotland’s tournament would effectively be over if they lose at Twickenham. ‘It’s a chance for us to stay in the championship,’ he said. ‘We’ve won one, we’ve lost one, so we know another loss will mean that’s the Six Nations over in terms of being in the mix at the end. ‘You always want to bounce back after a defeat, and I believe that the way we aim to play can put us in a position to win against any team we come up against. ‘But we didn’t get that out enough against Ireland. We’ve got to do that constantly for 80 minutes against England.’