Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend says he believes it’s ‘too early to say’ if England are a better, more cohesive unit than the side they defeated in last year’s Six Nations championship. The Scots have had a stranglehold on the Calcutta Cup in recent years, beating their arch rivals four games in a row in the Six Nations and are looking for a historic fifth straight win when they travel to Twickenham in two weeks time. Spirits are dampened in the camp after Sunday’s 32-18 loss to Ireland at Murrayfield while Steve Borthwick’s side recorded an impressive 26-25 win over France. “I’ts probably too early to say” said Townsend when asked if he felt England were a more improved side from recent defeats to Scotland. “I know they played really well against Ireland last year, two weeks after we’d played them. “Then they were very competitive against the All Blacks in the summer. They then had three very close games at Twickenham against quality opposition although they lost them all. And they started really well against Ireland two weeks ago, and they had a great win [against France]. “So they’re obviously competitive in every game they play. They’re always going to have strengths - they’ve got some brilliant players throughout their system and they’ll be full of confidence next time they play.” Borthwick made tweaks to his starting XV after an opening round defeat to Ireland with Marcus Smith’s move from stand-off to full back the most eye catching. However, having won the match against the French, Townsend doesn’t expect to see much tinkering from his counterpart ahead of Scotland’s visit to London. “I wouldn’t have thought they’ll make many changes from a win against France. They have made changes, so [that is] another reason I don’t think they’ll make changes again to chop and change things. They’ll want to build cohesion now they’ve got that chance to do it on the back of a win. “Any fixture we play in the Six Nations is going to be a tough fixture and there’s going to be a lot of history in it. Will it narrow the focus? Yeah. I think going to Twickenham is always a challenge, and even though we won there two years ago, that took a huge effort, and that’s the level we have to deliver in two weeks’ time.” One of the biggest talking points following Scotland’s defeat to Ireland came after a nasty collision between Finn Russell and Darcy Graham saw the Edinburgh winger sent to hospital with a concussion while co-captain Russell left the field for a Head Injury Assessment (HIA). When he did not return to the field most assumed he had failed the HIA but Townsend revealed that he actually passed the test and the decision not to bring him back was made by their own coaching staff. Despite this, Townsend defended the HIA process, saying: “I think delayed symptoms might happen. I think the process is obviously agreed: you see the actions on the field, if there was any concussive symptoms they would be ruled out straight away. But there wasn’t. He obviously passed everything that he was asked to pass. “In a way it’s great that there’s another check, which is us as a coaching staff saying ‘No, you’re not right’. So that's important. We definitely don’t want to cut any corners here.” The Six Nations now enters the first of two breaks where there will be no action this weekend before returning later in the month. The plan for Scotland is to head to Spain for a warm weather training camp to prepare for the match with England. “We’ve done that every time we’ve gone to Twickenham - we usually start the campaign against them - and it’s worked well,” said Townsend. “It means that - touch wood - we get guaranteed warm-weather training, then we fly directly on the Thursday into London. “I don’t think there will be too many players playing this weekend. Chatting to the French coaches, they’ve been pretty good with their plans for Blair and Ben. And there’s no English Premiership games. Finn might not be available anyway, so we should have a fresh group ready and available for that week’s preparation. “[We get] guaranteed training outdoors. All the nations have had training camps. I think Wales were in France, Ireland were in Portugal, and England were in Spain or Portugal. I think the risk of training in January, February . . . We’ve been lucky this last couple of weeks, we trained outdoors, but often you don’t do that. “We’ve always done it on away games. You’re flying to the venue for away games, so it just gives a chance to get guaranteed training, but also be together. And it’s worked really well. I think the three occasions we’ve done it, we’ve won at Twickenham, and at Cardiff last year. So it’s meant that we’ve gone into those games well prepared.”