The day on which Gordon Reid scored his only international try ought to have been a career highlight, but with the not insignificant matter of 61 English points also to be taken into consideration, he looks back on the occasion as a source of embarrassment rather than elation.

With three wins in their previous four matches, Scotland had enjoyed their best Six Nations Championship in more than a decade and made the trip south confident of ending the long wait for a Twickenham win.

A hat-trick for Jamie Joseph featuring among the seven tries registered by the home team that day, out-going head coach Vern Cotter’s encouraging stint placed in a rather different context by his last day in charge.

“I have blurred memories of it. It was great to get a try but, on the other hand, the scoreline obviously wasn’t the best. We were really disappointed,” said Reid.

“It was a tough one to take. You try to take a positive in that I was quite happy that I scored, but you would take that away for the win. I think they embarrassed us a little bit when we were down there. The scoreline was just too much for us.”

The scale of the defeat, a record points tally in the fixture, played a part in Scotland’s much improved response last year, when they matched the three tries they had scored in the fixture the previous year, but this time put in a much more resolute defensive effort in running out 25-13 winners.

“I felt we did take that on board, we wanted to do better,” Reid said of the lessons that had been absorbed at Twickenham.

“We knew we could do better and I think that’s why, with other reasons too, we were pumped up at Murrayfield and hopefully we can continue that at Twickenham.”

With Scotland having won Calcutta Cup encounters on their own pitch on seven occasions since they last claimed a victory at Twickenham two and a half years before the oldest member of the current squad, Greig Laidlaw, was born, there is ready recognition of the extent to which the odds shift according to the venue.

“We know it’s a tough place to go and win,” said Reid.

“You can see that with the results England have had at home, they’ve beaten a lot of big teams, but we want to go down there, do our stuff and try to get that victory.”

The Scots also know that their hosts are being urged by their head coach Eddie Jones to retaliate against the slights he believed were directed his way last year, but Reid reckons that can work both ways.

“It motivates us. We know how big a game it is. We’ve not won down there in a long time,” he said.

“It’s massive. They’re going to be coming out firing after what happened at Murrayfield last year. We got one-up on them at home, so they’ll come out firing. We’re excited for the game and we’re obviously going to take some positives from the game against Wales last week. We also need to work on some of the negatives that we had last week. The boys are keen to get out there, move forward and put things right.”

Reid is just one of nine players who has started each of those previous meetings with England and of those there are five – Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Ryan Wilson and John Barclay – who are currently sidelined through injury, yet the prop has not played in this year’s Six Nations.

His only Test appearance of the season having been against South Africa, it is conceivable that his scrummaging ability will see him called upon again, but he readily accepts that the form of the rival who has been keeping him out has been more impressive than his own when it mattered.

“You always want to be involved, but I knew I wasn’t playing the best around Christmas time,” said Reid.“I wanted to improve and get better and I feel like I’ve done that. Gregor (Townsend, Scotland’s head coach) has obviously noticed that, so he’s brought me back in and I’m happy with that.

“As a person, you don’t say: ‘I’m definitely going to be involved.’ You always wish and you always hope that you can represent your country and come back up the road to where the thistle is.

“I can be raging, I can be annoyed, but the thing is, Gregor’s there to make a decision, I just need to back it.

“Allan Dell was playing awesome last week, I thought he had a really good game. He was cracking and his decision was to keep him on and I would have kept him on, because he was running hard with the ball, he was scrummaging well. His stats show that he hit something like 45 rucks and that’s being first or second there, so I thought he had a classic game. For me it’s just great to be here.”

The match will be the first between the teams in London since Reid headed south to join London Irish two years ago and with his wife living in Scotland he admitted that personal considerations contributed to his loss of form, but he has rediscovered his appetite for the game and is keen to play a part in changing the mixed view of Scotland in and around the English capital.

“I’ve spoken to a few boys and they see us as quite a big threat, especially in the backs and in the back row. They see us as a threat and as a fast-flowing rugby team, which we want to be perceived as,” he said.

“There are always a few boys who take the p*** a wee bit, but they do see us as a high-tempo team.”