None of England's backs has a more detailed knowledge of Scottish flaws and assets than Jeremy Guscott. It was the Bath centre who scored England's try in the 1990 grand slam decider at Murrayfield, the last occasion on which Scotland triumphed (13-7) over the auld enemy.
An astute reader of tactics in the test arena, Guscott will have briefed his team mates on the preferred options of Gregor Townsend and Alan Tait, two of his Lions colleagues on the successful 1997 tour to South Africa. If England are to preserve a Twickenham record against the Scots that stretches to 1983 they know they will have to stop Townsend and Tait taking control of the midfield, in which Scotland destroyed Wales a fortnight ago.
England will also rely heavily on Guscott's ability as a strike runner, given the lack of world-class finishers in their line-up. The prince of centres, as Jack Rowell once called him, is sharply aware of his distinctive role in the England set-up.
It is a measure of the need to improvise in the absence of the injured Will Greenwood and Phil de Glanville that the 19-year-old Jonny Wilkinson, who prefers to play at out-half, has been drafted in as Guscott's midfield partner. No one doubts the Newcastle man's precocious footballing gifts, nor his capacity as a Test goal kicker, but there is a big question mark over his ability to punch holes in the Scottish defence and create the kind of space Guscott requires to perform at the top of his game.
Ominously, Gary Armstrong, the Scotland captain, has targeted Wilkinson, not Guscott, as the three-quarter his team must subdue.
The contrast up front was heavily underlined in England's favour at Twickenham two years ago when the hosts won 41-13, a record margin of victory in the Calcutta Cup. If anything, the England pack, which includes five survivors from that day, has become stronger and quicker.
It remains to be seen whether Scotland's loose forwards, Eric Peters and Peter Walton, can succeed with the traditional scavenging policy that sometimes slows down or spoils England's ball at the set pieces.
Neither side is likely to give much away in the psychological battle which often finds the protagonists at a peak of motivation in this fixture. The Scots are riding high on the strength of their scintillating 33-20 victory over Wales while England, for all their shortcomings in 1998, have the scalp of the world champions South Africa on their belts.
Even so, Clive Woodward, the England coach, refuses to contemplate triple crowns, grand slams or the World Cup at this stage, having suffered a series of set backs last year that began with the opening Five Nations defeat by France. "I believe this will be one of the most open championships for years because all the countries involved have improved out of sight," he forecast. "We badly need to get off to a winning start which means Scotland has to be the crunch game for us."
It will nevertheless be a shock should Armstrong and Townsend be allowed to weave the kind of creative patterns to shred an England defence that conceded just one try in their tests against the Wallabies and the Springboks. Far more likely is a one-sided scenario in which a re-vitalised Tim Rodber cleans out the Scottish line-out and fashions the silver bullets England desire. Guscott and company should have chances enough to send the Scots home to think again.
