The old enemies will give no quarter

There will be no holding back from England or Scotland when they meet at Eden Park with both sides determined to claim a quarter-finals berth at the expense of their longest-standing rivals.

While England will be guaranteed a place beyond the pool stage with a two-point win, the Scots must win by eight points and deny the “auld enemy” a bonus point to have any hope of extending their Rugby World Cup 2011 campaign beyond Saturday.

"There's everything to play for," said Scotland centre Sean Lamont. "They'll be coming out fighting and it's a classic Scotland-England derby. Here we go again."

Scotland have made six changes to the side that suffered an agonising 13-12 defeat to Argentina last week, with coach Andy Robinson putting all his best and most experienced players on the park.

"We have to go for it,” he said. “We pick our sides to win games."

Captain Alistair Kellock is back after a two-game absence at the expense of Jim Hamilton. Euan Murray returns to the front row for Geoff Cross and Richie Vernon comes in for Kelly Brown at number 8.

Past irrelevant

In the backs, scrum half Mike Blair is in for last weekend's captain, Rory Lawson. Simon Danielli replaces Graeme Morrison with Lamont switching to inside centre after playing left wing last week. Joe Ansbro returns at outside centre and Nick de Luca drops to the bench.

Chris Paterson makes his 15th Rugby World Cup appearance, a Scotland record, at full back.

While Scotland’s form against England in recent years is less than impressive, having only won two of their last 10 encounters, Kellock believes the past is irrelevant.

"I don't mind being written off at all,” said the skipper. “It's a Test match, what happens within the 80 minutes will decide the outcome, not what's gone before or what will come afterwards.

"It wouldn't really matter who we were playing, it's a huge match for us. It's knockout at this stage for us, but the fact that it's against England, a team that we've played against a lot, a team who are our oldest rivals, just gives it an added extra."

England have made just three changes to their starting XV with wing Mark Cueto dropped in favour of Delon Armitage. Matt Stevens and Courtney Lawes come in for Alex Corbisiero and Tom Palmer, who are on the bench.

While England could still reach the last eight with a defeat, vice-captain Mike Tindall was succinct in summing up the team's attitude to the prospect of progressing in this manner.

Greater duress

"It's not an option," he said.

Manager Martin Johnson said: "It's knockout rugby, let's not worry about points differences and things like that. We've got to win; they've got to win. It's what World Cups are about.

"If we get it wrong there's a chance we could be sitting at home on Tuesday."

While the English are approaching Saturday’s match with a do-or-die attitude, Scotland are the team under greater duress in the knowledge that just a victory will not suffice.

"We know the job we need to do, but it's still a lot of pressure,” said Lamont. “None of the boys are ready to go home yet. None of them.”

The Scots must beat England by at least eight points, a winning margin they haven’t managed since 1986, but Lamont believes it is a manageable challenge.

"England can leak tries and they've shown in this tournament that they can concede,” he said. “There's no reason why we can't get a few points against them.”

"It's not a pile of points. Eight points we need, it's not a massive difference."