Scotland’s big forwards are ready for a head-on clash with their England counterparts at Murrayfield on Saturday which they know will go a long way to determining the result of the match. So says Allan Jacobsen, who is establishing himself this season as the first-choice loose-head prop, as he castigates his side for the “schoolboy” errors that have undermined hopes of a triumphant RBS Six Nations Championship.

“I’m excited,” he says. “Assuming I’m selected it will be the first time I have started against them and the first time I have played them at all at Murrayfield. We have got to go into the game with the attitude that we are only worried about ourselves and playing the way we can play.”

Scotland go into the game desperate for a win that will revive a championship that started full of hope but is ending with the threat of the wooden spoon and possibly even a whitewash. The Calcutta Cup is followed by a match away to Italy, who are also without a win but are nine points ahead on points difference.

“We are under no illusions it will be tough against both of them up front,” Jacobsen says. “We are going to have to go in there, work as hard as we can and get our game right. If we do that we will be in with a shout. We’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes that have been the real reason for our downfall and if we can cut those out you will see a different level of performance.”

With Jacobsen being joined in the front row by Ross Ford and Euan Murray, all of them weighing in at more than 18 stone, the England forwards will not have the huge weight advantage in that department that they have had in the past, and Jacobsen knows that matching the visiting team in the scrum would nullify a key weapon for the men from south of the border. “Our scrummage has not been as consistent as we would like but we have shown in patches what we can do. If we can do that for the whole match, we will cause them problems,” he says.

As predicted, Jacobsen was joined at Scotland training yesterday by Scott Murray, who was dropped from the squad at the start of the season but might be in line for his 89th cap this weekend with Jim Hamilton, the Leicester lock, ruled out by an ankle injury and Scott MacLeod, his Llanelli Scarlets rival, struggling to overcome a shoulder injury.

Other call-ups for the Murrayfield session yesterday included Craig Hamilton, the Edinburgh lock, Simon Taylor, who has proved his fitness by coming through two full games for Stade Français, plus Ben Cairns, Graeme Morrison and Calum MacRae, all of whom are battling to replace Nick De Luca, the centre who has also been ruled out by an ankle injury. In De Luca’s case the damage was less severe than first feared but is still bad enough to keep him in the stand on Saturday.

Nathan Hines, the Perpignan lock, was also unable to train yesterday but to the relief of Frank Hadden, who is already facing the possibility of losing three potential locks, the damage is not too bad and he is expected to return to full training today, after the team is named.

The odds are that Scotland will go into Saturday’s match with a completely different front five from the unit that played in the win over England two years ago — depending on MacLeod’s fitness test — though Hines and Ross Ford, the hooker, did come on as replacements.

“It was a good feeling,” Ford said. “This year the England pack have been going well so there is a lot of onus on us to stop them. It will be a key area. Their front five let them control games and we have to get in there and disrupt them. The start of the game against Ireland shows the pace and intensity that we want to play at — if we can control the pace and keep it at that level then we can take the strength of the English forwards away from them.

“Everybody was happier playing the way we did in the first 15 to 20 minutes against Ireland, with that sort of speed and building pressure. There is no reason we can’t do that for 80 minutes.”

— The clash of former champions will dominate the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup when the sides play for quarter-final places. Boroughmuir, the league champions, will head for Melrose, who looked in ominous form when dispatching Glasgow Hawks, the holders, at the weekend in one of only two guaranteed all top-division ties. There could be a third after Cartha Queens Park, from the second division, and Ayr play their outstanding tie with the winners due to host Currie. The other top-division match sees Dundee, who are all but relegated in the league, travelling to Watsonians. Jed-Forest, who eliminated Stirling County, get a home tie against Hamilton.

Sixth-round draw: Aberdeen v Hawick, Watsonians v Dundee, Jed-Forest v Hamilton, Musselburgh v Biggar, Haddington v Selkirk, Cartha Queens Park or Ayr v Currie, Melrose v Boroughmuir, Gala v Heriot’s. Ties to be played on March 15.