Watson starts in solitary Scotland change for showdown with England

Owen Farrell, the heartbeat of Jones’ England, is now a major doubt for the Triple Crown decider after sustaining an unspecified leg injury during training on Thursday.

England coach Eddie Jones told a news conference later that Farrell was doubtful for Saturday’s match but moments afterwards said he would be “alright” to face Scotland.

We’ll know by 3pm tomorrow whether it’ll be Farrell or Ben Te’o wearing the 12 shirt at Twickenham, with England expected to leave it until the very last minute to make their decision.

Dan Cole, the only member of the squad to start all 17 of England’s consecutive wins, is again named at tighthead with the captain, Dylan Hartley, at hooker.

The England coach aimed a sly dig at Italy’s tactics while suggesting that he thought Romain Poite had not understood the laws of the game correctly, rather than his players.

The most likely contingency would see Ben Te’o promoted from the bench to fill the void at inside centre and Jonny May, who is now acting as 24th man, stepping on to the replacements bench.

But after naming his side he said: “We want to give our fans a really good performance”.

“We’ve got some great goalkickers – George Ford”, added Jones.

When Eddie Jones’ side had their final training session yesterday Farrell was unable to take part.

Scotland’s only defeat in their last five test matches was to France in Paris in round 2 of the RBS 6 Nations.

England play Scotland live this Saturday 11 March at Twickenham, with another Six Nations Grand Slam victory still on the cards.

“We’ve done a lot of good stuff”.

Jones has been responsible for 16 of those victories in a dream first 15 months in the job but the last of them, against Italy two weeks ago, clearly still rankles.

“I think he’ll be OK but we’ve got plenty of back-ups so it’s not a worry”. The mood is exceptional.

Should the Red Rose turn the screw it could be a long day at Twickenham for the visitors but they have largely found solutions to their problems at scrum-time, any sort of platform that Reid and co can lay will bring their clinical backline into play. Everyone is looking forward to playing Scotland.

“Somebody will fly up and try to go low on the first ball carrier and try and get him on the ground, second bloke onto the ball”, Beattie said. That’s what we’ve done this week, what we are trying to focus on.