Owen Slot digs up some stats and reviews a sorry state of affairs following the Calcutta Cup anti-climax in The Times.

"Really, it is a sporting miracle that Scotland can match England in the Six Nations Championship. Let alone occasionally beat them. Did you know, Johnnie Beattie said shortly after winning the man-of-the-match award, that there are as many registered referees in England as there are registered players in Scotland? "I didn’t know, so I went back and checked and found that Beattie had got his information horribly wrong. Probably all those endorphins still rattling through his veins after showing England what a back-row forward can do when he is not only big, but fast and intelligent, too. "No, Beattie is way out with his stats. There are 38,019 registered referees in England, which actually significantly outnumbers Scottish rugby players. There are only 32,817 registered players in Scotland. Measured head to head, there are 66 times more senior male players in England than there are in Scotland."