NONE of the current Scotland squad was born the last time the team won at Twickenham, but playmaker Finn Russell has insisted the squad will not be worrying about that dismal record when they take on England there on Saturday. It was way back in 1983 that the Scots last won in London, and although six years later they came away with a draw, since then they have suffered quite a few heavy losses.

But according to the Glasgow Warriors stand-off, the players have not been taking history lessons this week. Instead, they have been putting all their efforts into ensuring that this time things will turn out differently.

“I guess we’ve spoken about it a little bit, but not really looked at it that much,” Russell said when asked about that 34-year run without a Calcutta Cup win south of the Border. “We’re just going down there to try and win this game. That’s what we’re focusing on just now.

“We’re just trying to win the game at the weekend, and if that makes history then it’s a bit better. But we’re just looking to do as much as we can this week to get ourselves ready for the weekend.”

Scotland have already ended a couple of losing runs in this year’s Six Nations Championship - they won their opening game for the first time since 2006, and went on to beat Wales for the first time in 10 years. But again, Russell does not think the squad will be too motivated by the desire to end another unwanted record.

“No, I wouldn’t say we’d use it as motivation, because that’s all in the past,” he continued. “I try not to look behind. It’s looking ahead to what we can do as a team and how we can get best prepared for the game at the weekend.

“I suppose there are a lot of things on this game, but as a team we’re not really looking at all that. We’re just focusing on this game and that’s what we’ve done the whole tournament - and that’s why we’ve got a couple of results.”

Scotland assistant coach Nathan Hines suggested earlier this week that England could be ‘paralysed’ by the fear of defeat when they are so close to setting a new record of consecutive wins for a senior international side. They will equal the All Blacks’ record of 18 wins on the trot if they defeat Scotland at the weekend, and will be out on their own on 19 if they go on to beat Ireland a week later in the Championship’s final round of fixtures.

But Russell accepted that, after beating Ireland and Wales and so still being in with a chance of winning the title, Scotland will also be under pressure to perform on Saturday. “I'd say there is pressure on both teams.

“It's always going to be like that when it comes to the last couple of games in the comp. For them, they've done so well to get this far. They'll be confident.

“We know how tough it will be. We've not won there for a while. I've not really thought about going down there - it's been more focusing on the game in hand. It's not where we’re playing, but who we’re playing."