Scotland believed their own hype: Reid

Gordon Reid admits Scotland fell into the trap of believing their own hype before their Six Nations opener.

But now the prop insists Gregor Townsend’s team will take nothing for granted as they look to write a new chapter in the history books against England.

It is 10 years since the Scots last beat the Auld Enemy – and 14 since they even managed a try on home soil against against their rivals.

But that was all expected to change this time round as they marched into the championship on the back of a hugely impressive autumn campaign in which they pushed New Zealand to the brink before destroying Australia by a record margin.

However, that optimism was quickly wiped out by a shambolic display in Cardiff as they were punished 34-7 by Wales in this year’s tournament opener.

A 32-26 win over France last time out has repaired some of that damage but Reid stressed there will be nothing left to chance as cautious Scotland now face up to Eddie Jones’ all-conquering outfit at Murrayfield.

“I think there is a lot more to come from us,” he said. “Against Wales everybody hyped us up – ‘Scotland are going to win, Scotland are going to win’ – and I think we obviously believed that.

“We believed we could just go and win, just needed to show up – and as you all know, and you (the media) all wrote, we didn’t do that well.”

The last Scot to score against England in Edinburgh was Simon Danielli back in 2004.

Reid, however, did cross the whitewash as Vern Cotter’s side scored three Twickenham touchdowns last year – but even that was not enough as Jones’ men dished out a merciless 61-21 drubbing.

The loss of hooker Fraser Brown to the sin bin just two minutes in set the tone for an ill-disciplined display – a repeat of which Reid says Scotland cannot afford.

“It showed the importance of keeping a lid on things the last time we were down there,” he said.

“Last year we let our emotions get to us a little bit too much and that resulted in them beating us by a hefty amount.”

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