Steve Borthwick plays down whiteboard info

England forwards coach Steve Borthwick has played down the speculation surrounding leakage of the team's selection for the upcoming Six Nations clash against Scotland.

A picture of whiteboard placed on the pitch at the Surrey training base revealed the XV which might feature for the Calcutta Cup tie at Twickenham on Saturday.

The line-up indicated that Billy Vunipola, who made a comeback from knee injury will be replacing Nathan Hughes while Ben Youngs, Jonathan Joseph and Jack Nowell also earning a recall. The whiteboard also had words like 'Beat Scotland' and 'Play From LO (Maul)' in it.

However, Borthwick denied on handing Scotland any advantage ahead of the crucial tie.

"There's nothing significant in it at all. In training we go through all different kinds of permutations, different combinations of players," Borthwick said.

"As coaches, we like to watch players together, to see what works well."

Borthwick was also pleased to see the return of Vunipola, who featured for 72 minutes for his club Saracens in the recent Aviva Premiership game against Newcastle Falcons.

"Billy looks in very good shape and has worked tremendously hard," Borthwick said.

"In him and Nathan we have two fantastically powerful number eights who give us options in the position."

Scotland's last victory at Twickenham came in 1983 but Borthwick refused to write off the Dark Blues, who had impressive wins against Ireland and Wales.

"Scotland are a good team. We had a great week's preparation in Oxford last weekend and the first half of this week has so far been excellent," Borthwick said.

"We will have to be at our best playing against them. They have some real strengths in their pack and across their team. They're a smart team."

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