JOHN Jeffrey is discussing how the Calcutta Cup has changed over the years, something of a specialist subject considering he was at least partially responsible for the incident when this priceless sporting heirloom was almost damaged beyond repair. That was back 1988, when the post-match dinner between these two oldest of enemies spilled out onto the streets of Auld Reekie and ended with Jeffrey and Dean Richards allegedly playing football with it as they staggered back along Princes Street.

First competed for in 1879, of ornate Indian workmanship and decorated with cobras and an elephant, the Calcutta Cup stands for a different, Corinthian era of the sport, when strapping lads could invoke the spirit of Bannockburn yet still abandon such parochial concerns by getting blind drunk together afterwards. But the advancement of professionalism has changed rugby and changed this rivalry forever.

Scotland versus England could never be just another fixture but time has moved on from its high watermark, David Sole marching his team, warlike, onto the Murrayfield surface for the Grand Slam decider in 1990. While remembering set piece drills and lineout calls was also part of the package, Ian McGeechan that day invoked the memory of his father, who had spent much of his life outside Scotland, and the wider Scottish diaspora, in a Churchillian pre-match address. "I told the boys that on top of the five million Scots at home, those people would be with them today, those proud people watching from all corners of the world," he has said.

Depending on who you talk to, a potent mix of ingredients that day included Margaret Thatcher, the poll tax and the residue of bitterness towards England for the contribution of their football hooligans in Glasgow in '89. Images of the day witness Scott Hastings walking, trancelike, into the fray, while four years later things all got too much for his brother Gavin, when - perhaps still haunted by the memory of another glorious missed opportunity, the 1991 World Cup semi-final in Edinburgh - he broke down in tears when his efforts came to nought due to a late, disputed Jon Callard penalty. If it is little wonder then that this current squad seem keen to compartmentalise such emotions in case it becomes their downfall, it is also worth noting Scotland have won the Calcutta Cup just three times in the 36 years which have elapsed since that fateful day at Murrayfield.

"In the old days, you’d get the Rob Roy, the Braheveart, all that sort of stuff," said Jeffrey this. "You’d get the emotion. There might be a wee bit of that at some point now but not much. These days it’s won with cool heads, not with emotion. You win with passion, but you lose with emotion. If you look at the national anthems and they’re crying their eyes out, you think ‘that’s wrong’, because the kick-off is in 30 seconds’ time and they’re not thinking about it.

"These guys are professional," the 56-year-old Borderer said. "They’ll have their move off the first lineout, the first kick-off and they should be thinking about that as opposed to what it means to beat the Auld Enemy or whether Nicola Sturgeon is sitting in the stand, or whatever twist we’re going to do this time. When we played, it was Poll Tax why we beat them in 1990, supposedly. But that’s out the window now."

Quantifying success is a difficult business in the Six Nations, a tournament in which Scotland lost all five matches last time out, but still laid crucial foundations towards an excellent World Cup effort. Yet at the start of a new World Cup cycle, against an opponent in transition, perhaps now may just be the time to beat England for the first time since 2008.

"What would be successful 6 Nations for Scotland?" said Jeffrey. "The bottom line is, it’s a results business and you’ve got to win games. How you win games is probably through all this planning for the next two weeks, and not Jim Telfer coming in ranting and raving with five minutes to go, or crying when you get presented with your jersey. Those little bits should always be in the game, I think it’s nice, but that doesn’t win you the game.

"England are a new team; let’s not give them the chance to settle into their structures," he added. "Raise the tempo, raise the pace, move the game round and about, because Eddie Jones has been quite clear that he wants to go back to old England virtues."

With Scotland bringing in Richie Gray as a consultant on the breakdown, the confrontations in the trenches should be fierce. "It's not rocket science, you know what our front row’s going to be, and what our second row’s probably going to be as well," he said. "When our first up boys are playing, we have a really strong pack, capable of taking anybody on."

The game may have moved on but some characters stay the same. Of his farm near Kelso, Jeffrey once memorably said he could only find one shortcoming. "If I stand on a hill I can see England."