England's 80-point thumping of Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend looked, on the scoreboard, like another routine Red Roses rout. On Squidge Rugby's tactical breakdown, the argument was more nuanced — and the conclusion was that Emily Scarratt's short reign as attack coach has already produced a meaningful shift in how the world's No. 1 side want to play.
The headline change is kicking. England had the biggest jump in kick volume of any Women's Six Nations team through the first two rounds, and the first half at Murrayfield saw Zoe Harrison and Emma Sing drive two full kicking duels England actively chose — a departure from the 2022 World Cup, where the Red Roses almost exclusively counterpunched.
"They are using their kicks for length as attacking kicks by kicking on the front foot," Squidge argued. "Even in their own 22, they're just having a look at little sneaky ones down short side — seeing if they can get Lucy Packer to find just get Jess Breach to make a few meters, get Feyn Davies to make a nice little carry and get a tackle bust or whatever."
The crucial tactical decision Squidge identified was playing a double-playmaker back-three. With Singh at 15 and Ellie Kildunn alongside her, the Red Roses matched up perfectly against Scotland's most dangerous weapon: Helen Nelson's box-kick chaos.
"Having two fullbacks in the backfield, having Helen Roland who can cover there, having Meg Jones, who's played a bit of fullback in her time, Jess Breach, who plays there at club level, who is the physically fastest player in that England backline — like Zoe Harrison's played there when she was younger. They are covered all across that back line to cover these kicks."
The result forced Nelson into increasingly high-risk territorial kicks as the Scottish fly-half chanced her arm looking for bouncing ball. A handful went dead on the full.
"If we want to be England, we've got to be brave," Squidge said of Scotland's approach. "And they're covering everywhere else. If I'm going to get this, I have to be like du Preez in the Champions Cup final a few years ago and hit onto the exact blade of grass."
Off the ball, Squidge's most striking observation was how much of England's attack is now built on the back of phase-play "maths" — stacked set moves improvised on the run.
"A lot of it is maths, you know. And the thing — because England have, I'm confident I'm being that situation repeatedly — England have trained this more than anybody else. And so they will be able to look at how a game is going, look at how a team is defending, and just use that maths and piece together different components of set moves to make up something completely unique they've never run before."
The Meg Jones try under the posts and the Sarah Bern finish off a long build came from precisely that adaptive play — a line drawn by a distracted defender, a short ball switched to Singh running a hard line, an offload that killed the pursuit. Scotland were beaten by physical mismatch and system sophistication, not by magic.
Squidge was at pains to defend Scotland. The hosts, they said, were not poor.
"If you went through this game and added the moments in which the team that were better over that passage was Scotland versus England, and then did that for the last like five years of games, I reckon this might be the game where Scotland got on top the most."
The hard truth is the ruthless finishing. England, Squidge argued, were as clinical as any Red Roses side in memory.
"They were ruthless. And it's very easy to look at a game which you ship 80 points in and feel like Scotland were terrible. I don't think they were that bad."
Looking ahead to the remainder of the tournament, Squidge predicted Wales — whose defence has tightened under its new coaching group — may avoid a blowout when the two sides meet, while Italy remain vulnerable. The final-round showdown with France now looms as the true test of whether Scarratt's kicking-led attacking evolution is a straight-line progression, or a one-match high-water mark.
