Scotland must not waste potential

N assessment of where Scotland and England are after the autumn series, with another Calcutta Cup clash to come at Twickenham in the middle of the Six Nations, is an interesting comparison. It's made even more pointed by competition for places on the 2025 Lions tour.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

AN assessment of where Scotland and England are after the autumn series, with another Calcutta Cup clash to come at Twickenham in the middle of the Six Nations, is an interesting comparison. It's made even more pointed by competition for places on the 2025 Lions tour.

Scotland's comprehensive victory over Australia last weekend, which derailed the Wallabies' Grand Slam tour hopes - and a further win over Fiji, plus a battling performance against South Africa - has seen them emerge in better shape than England.

Scotland's record of having won five, lost one and drawn one of the last seven Six Nations encounters with England - including two wins and a draw at Twickenham - is another feelgood factor, with the trip south of the border no longer the daunting prospect it was.

However, while I want to get excited about Scottish rugby, I've learned over 20 years or more to take a breath, and to see how it goes. Scotland have had times when they have beaten France or England, but then they usually undo it by losing to Wales or Italy.

My reservation is not so much in Scotland's all-round ability, but whether they can be consistent enough to win four games in the Six Nations - because that would be a vast step up.

The 1990 Grand Slam team was one of Scotland's best - and there was a follow-through from that into the Lions tours of 1989 and 1993, when I played alongside players of true quality like the Hastings brothers, Finlay Calder, Derek White and John Jeffrey.

Since then, the Scottish representation in Lions Test teams has shrunk, and it has coincided with them usually only ever winning two or three of their Six Nations fixtures. In addition, they have not made the World Cup semi-finals since 1991 - although with South Africa and Ireland in their 2023 World Cup pool their lack of further progress was understandable.