Hadden reveals England planning

England may be something of an unknown quantity when they face Scotland at Twickenham at the start of this season's RBS 6 Nations - but coach Frank Hadden is confident that his team will not be caught by surprise when the two teams meet on February 3.

England endured some dreadful results towards the end of former coach Andy Robinson's tenure but with Brian Ashton recently installed as his replacement, a drastic change in approach is expected.

"We've got some ideas about what their team might be, but it involves a lot of guess work," he said. "Having said that, we have watched their players playing for their clubs and when they step up to international rugby it is very difficult to play much differently to the way you play for your club - so we are not completely in the dark."

"We've done our homework on these guys and we have a good idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are," he added.

"And we have already spoken about what will happen if player A plays with player B and so on. In that sense we are as far ahead of the game as we think we can be."

As for his own team, Hadden believes that his players are as prepared as they can be at this stage in the season - but he will not be pushed into naming his first-choice Scotland's side.

"I have already explained to the players that selection started last November and it kicked in big style in January when George Graham and Alan Tait came on board as full-time assistant coaches. That was when we started to go into real detail on combinations and individual strengths and weaknesses, but there is absolutely no point making that final choice until we have to," he said.

"I'm pretty close to having my 15 for the England game, and hopefully it will be nailed down by early next week.

"I've told the players that despite the number of injuries we've currently got in the squad, everybody who has been training with us this week is, in my opinion, capable of playing international rugby.

"Now that's not always been the case when Scotland squads have got together, and I couldn't be happier with the pressure being put on players in the side by players who want to be in the side. That is going to be a tremendous strength in this championship."