England v Scotland: Alex Mitchell says England want to end Calcutta Cup ‘hurt’

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England v Scotland: Alex Mitchell says England want to end Calcutta Cup ‘hurt’

England are intent on ending their four-year “hurt” against Scotland when the old rivals meet in the Six Nations, says scrum-half Alex Mitchell.

Scotland have won the last four Calcutta Cup matches and Mitchell says English motivation is high to deny Gregor Townsend’s side a record fifth consecutive victory.

England will welcome Scotland to the Allianz Stadium on 22 February in high spirits following their last-gasp win over France, which curtailed a run of seven defeats against Tier One nations.

“We are hurting for the last four years at not getting a result [against Scotland],” Mitchell told BBC Sport.

“This Six Nations campaign is still up for grabs so it’s a massive game for us.

“We know Scotland are a quality opposition with some quality individuals so we can’t take them for granted.

“We know we have to just put a performance out there.”

Mitchell was influential in England’s late recovery against Les Bleus, moving the attack from a wearied rolling maul at the line-out to a buoyant midfield, where Elliot Daly glided through the French defence to score the winning try.

The Northampton Saints scrum-half, 27, says he noticed an opportunity amid the forwards arm-wrestle, which Daly exploited.

“The France defence was changing the whole time,” Mitchell added.

“They had two defenders and then one as [Damian] Penaud was doing a really good job behind the maul covering both sides.

“We noticed a mismatch in the open so we shot that way and scored. You have a split second to try and make the right decision and luckily we did.”

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