With the party in full swing at Murrayfield last Saturday night after a rousing victory over England, Gregor Townsend joked about finding the right time to tell his players to stop drinking.
It was only tongue-in-cheek. The Scotland head coach wanted his players to enjoy the moment – and rightly so. It had been a superb performance.
But the notion of a post-England hangover is about more than just a few sore heads the following morning. There is tangible evidence of its existence, and of it stretching into the next week.
During the Six Nations era, Scotland have beaten England on nine occasions; 2000, 2006, 2008, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026.
Yet, incredibly, only once have they then managed to win their next game the following week. That was against Wales in 2023.
Let’s go in chronological order from the start in 2000. Scotland’s win over England came on the final weekend, so that technically doesn’t count, albeit they did lose the opening game in 2001 against France.
Scotland enjoy victory over England, but they nearly always lose their next Six Nations game after beating the Auld Enemy
Gregor Townsend, above left, savours the win over England at Murrayfield with Gregor Brown
In 2006, Chris Paterson and Dan Parks kicked all the points against the reigning world champions as they won 18-12 at Murrayfield, only to then lose 15-9 against Ireland in Dublin next time out.
In 2008, against an England team who had reached another World Cup Final only a few months earlier, Paterson and Parks once again kicked all the points in a 15-9 win at Murrayfield.
It would be Scotland’s only victory of the championship. The following week, they crashed to a 23-20 defeat against Italy at the old Stadio Flaminio.
In 2018, with Finn Russell and Huw Jones running riot, the 25-13 win over England was then followed by another walloping in Dublin as Scotland lost 28-8 to Ireland.
In 2021, the euphoria of finally beating England at Twickenham in round one fell flat when Scotland then lost 25-24 at home to Wales the following week. That one was a real sickener.
In 2022, Wales were at it once again. They beat Scotland in Cardiff after Townsend’s side had once again started their championship with a 20-17 victory over England at Murrayfield.
That was the game where Dan Biggar was hobbling around and basically playing on one leg due to injury, yet still managed to kick the winning points. Again, galling stuff.
Scotland’s moment of glory last weekend will mean nothing if they lose next game in Cardiff
The triumphant Scots need to raise their game against when they travel to Wales on Saturday
Then we saw the exception in 2023 when Scotland followed their victory over England by beating Wales the next week.
But 2024 was maybe the worst of the lost. The Calcutta Cup triumph was followed by Scotland blowing a 12-point lead to lose against Italy in Rome.
The evidence is there in black and white. As much as Scotland might rail against the suggestion that they raise their game to higher levels against England than any other team, the facts tell a different story.
To borrow an old line from the legendary Jim Telfer, Scotland seem to climb their Everest against England, only to then fall off a cliff the next week.
Whether it’s a failure to replicate the same emotional energy, only they will know. But that’s the challenge facing them against Wales this weekend.
Given that Wales have suffered two heavy defeats so far against England and France, Scotland will be fully expected to win in Cardiff, which is a strange dynamic in itself.
But that’s the state of play. Scotland lock Scott Cummings, who was a colossus last weekend, admits it’s high time they changed the narrative and freed themselves from the post-England hangover.
‘We obviously know that we can push on and we believe we can push on,’ said Cummings. ‘Last weekend was just a start for us. It’s now we need to back it up.
Scotland enjoy being branded winners but can they back it up for rest of Six Nations?
‘We’ve beaten England before. We’ve done this before in the Six Nations quite a few times, and we probably haven’t backed it up after that. So that’s definitely a big focus for us.
‘It’s a tough one because we felt good going into the Italy game as well. We’ll obviously be sitting there with Italy in the back of our mind and we know that we can’t let our performance dip to that point again.
‘In a way, it’s easy to get up for England with it being such a big game and coming off the back of the defeat to Italy. It’s now up to us to create our own energy.
‘We’ve talked about how we can’t let that be a one-off last weekend. We’re tired of that being our narrative.
‘We want to set our own story in that and definitely want to push on and not let that just be another one of the stats [of losing after beating England].’
Scotland were on the receiving end of some haymakers in the aftermath of Rome. The criticism was fierce and unrelenting over the course of the week leading up to the England game.
Asked if winning the Calcutta Cup had taken some of the heat off, Cummings replied: ‘No, I wouldn’t say so. I don’t want it to, I want the heat on us.
‘I think we’re a team that might be going in a strong, confident mood. But we need to view every moment as the most important moment of the match. If we don’t, then I don’t think we’ll get the win out of it.
‘I don’t think the pressure is off us. I like to think in international rugby the pressure is always on you to perform well. It’s another massive game for us.’
Finn Russell was on fire against England and fans will expect him to be influential again in Cardiff
Cummings is wary of writing Wales off despite them shipping over 100 points in their two defeats to England and France so far.
He also has full respect for Steve Tandy and Danny Wilson, two coaches who he knows well from Scotland and Glasgow Warriors.
‘They have played two very good teams,’ he added. ‘They were away to England at Twickenham first up and then having France at home.
‘It was a tough couple of games but I obviously know some of their coaching staff, Steve Tandy and Danny Wilson, and they’ll be obviously pretty up for this game, having worked with us in the past.
‘We’re expecting a pretty solid, gritty performance from them and they’ll definitely be tough to break down.
‘They’re going to be a team that’s obviously hurting and like we were last week, that often brings the best out of teams. So we’re expecting a massive fight from them.’
