Gregor Townsend accuses England of offside breach as mind games begin

Scotland will attempt to put the pressure on referee Nigel Owens by urging him to stop England from busting the offside line at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Gregor Townsend is so worried about the England defence that Scotland’s coach has opted to pinpoint their speed off the line as illegal, claiming Eddie Jones’s men move too soon and should be penalised.

As attempts to win the battle of the minds, Townsend’s is a tepid attack. All teams play right on the edge and when the defensive line moves up as one it is tough for referees and touch judges to quickly decide if they are offside.

However, Townsend knows he has to do something to try to stop England from closing down his dangerous back line.

“It’s definitely something we have highlighted to our players,” he said. “It will be interesting to see whether they [England] stay onside.

“We watched the game from last year and we’ve watched their games over the last few weeks and to generate that line speed, especially off first phase, you have to make sure you stay 10 metres back off lineouts before the ball is delivered and you don’t get beyond the back foot of the ruck in phase play.

“If they are able to do that and still generate line speed, then we have to deal with that.

“You’d need to look at their last few games to see whether they do come offside. That’s down to the refereeing team to see if it does happen. We’ll meet [the officials] tomorrow, so we’ll see what we’re going to talk about over the next few days.”

Meanwhile, Scotland vice-captain Ryan Wilson is looking to the home support to help turn the tables of recent Murrayfield clashes.

England travel to Edinburgh looking to make it three wins out of three in this year’s championship and extend an unbeaten run in their rivalry with Scotland which stretches back to 2008.

No8 Wilson said: “[The support] is something you pride yourselves on. It’s your home ground, we talk about it a lot and have to protect this place. People come here and we want to make them proud. When it’s on your own soil its a little bit more important.

“You go out and put a little bit more in front of your own fans. You still go away to other stadiums looking to win but it’s probably easier when you’ve got your own fans behind you.”