In rugby's amateur days, hardcore forwards - and some backs - invariably went out for a pint or two the evening before a match to settle their constitutions. The professional game has clearly moved on as yesterday Brian Ashton, the England head coach, deflected questions about Danny Cipriani's removal from the team to play at Murrayfield this afternoon.

The decision to deny Cipriani his first international start was his alone, Ashton said, taken because of the young London Wasps back's “inappropriate behaviour” in visiting a West End nightclub in London shortly after midnight on Thursday morning. Cipriani's penitence left Ashton unmoved, although he said: “I have spoken to Danny, I'm very comfortable with what I said to him, he'll be back in camp on Monday night and it will have no bearing on his future selection for England.”

In other words, Ashton has made his judgment, executed it and sent a warning to the other young guns in or around the squad about how he believes professional sportsmen should comport themselves. Whether he chooses Cipriani for the final RBS Six Nations Championship match, against Ireland at Twickenham on March 15, will depend on the quality of Iain Balshaw's display now that he has been restored at full back, but clearly Ashton, a former teacher, is of the short, sharp school of punishment.

“I didn't consider any other course of action,” Ashton said. “I don't think I'm a draconian coach at all, despite what some people may have said about me in the last 24 hours. I respect everyone's opinion, but it happens that I'm the man in charge and I made a decision - someone has to.”

Cipriani said that he was only delivering match tickets to a friend at the nightclub and Wasps believe that a more measured response would have been appropriate. “I had two conversations with Ian McGeechan [the Wasps director of rugby], I respect his point of view, I understand his position, I explained my thoughts, that was it,” Ashton said. “Ian has his job to do, he does it exceptionally well, I have my job to do.”

England's code of conduct lays down no curfews, but Cipriani was ill-advised to be running errands so late at night some 60 hours before an international match. What the Scots have made of it all only they will know, but it leaves Chris Paterson, their fly half, in the curious position of laying down a kicking strategy against Balshaw and Lesley Vainikolo, two of his Gloucester colleagues.

Clearly Scotland would have examined Cipriani under the high ball, particularly if the weather is wet and windy, as it was in Edinburgh yesterday, and they will be eager to do so against Balshaw, who was far from faultless in that respect against France a fortnight ago. “We have talked about that, about errors in communication, and I hope we get the best out of him and the guys alongside him [Vainikolo and Paul Sackey],” Ashton said.

“I would think Iain looks upon this as a remarkable opportunity to show that what I have done [in dropping him] was totally the wrong decision, that when he gets back to the dressing-room he can turn round and give me two fingers.”

But for this England side, today is a serious examination from a home team frustrated at their inability to build on the gradual improvement they showed last year. Only three members of the starting XV (Phil Vickery, Jonny Wilkinson and Simon Shaw) have known victory in a Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield and of all the international teams playing this weekend, only France are more inexperienced than England. It is five years since England put together three successive wins in the Six Nations, fluctuations in form that played havoc with their global standing and their confidence.

Scotland expect them to come via route one - the selection of five forwards among the home team's replacements says as much - even if Ashton wants to see his team's all-round game take another step forward. “The championship was out of our hands as soon as we lost our first game [against Wales],” Vickery, the captain, said. Neither he nor his squad is placing too much store on winning in Paris, given the extraordinary selection procedure adopted by France this year, and winning by three points today will be enough for Vickery.

He was at Murrayfield in 2000, as was Ashton, when a better England team than this arrived for a grand slam against a Scotland side beaten in all four previous games, only to be blown off course by Duncan Hodge, of Edinburgh. In recent years England have been at their best with their backs to the wall, Vickery suggested, which is the position Scotland occupy. Whoever wins, and England's form makes them favourites, will be entitled to a drink this evening - and possibly a trip to a nightclub.

Scotland: H Southwell (Edinburgh); R Lamont (Sale Sharks), S Webster (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow), N Walker (Ospreys); C Paterson (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh, captain); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), N Hines (Perpignan), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), A Strokosch (Gloucester), A Hogg (Edinburgh), S Taylor (Stade Français). Replacements: F Thomson (Glasgow), A Dickinson (Gloucester), C Smith (Edinburgh), J White (Sale Sharks), K Brown (Glasgow), R Lawson (Gloucester), D Parks (Glasgow).

England: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (London Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons), T Flood (Newcastle Falcons), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), L Mears (Bath), P Vickery (London Wasps, captain), S Shaw (London Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), T Croft (Leicester), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: G Chuter (Leicester), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), P Hodgson (London Irish), C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Newcastle Falcons).

Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa).