Becky Grey
BBC Sport at Castle Park

Number eight Sarah Hunter, who usually captains England, has just walked to the bench with a bright yellow H2O vest on.

Emily Scarratt will take over captaincy duties today as Hunter continues her return from a hamstring strain. Sure England players will be getting an extra dose of tactics with their water when Hunter is called upon.

Emily Scarratt leads England out into the spring sunshine. Rachel Malcolm does the same for the Scots.

It's anthem time.

Becky Grey
BBC Sport at Castle Park

Some of the key battles on the pitch today are a little closer to home than others.

The two fly-halves in action both play for Loughborough Lightning but their friendship runs deeper than that.

England's Helena Rowland and Scotland's Helen Nelson are flatmates too. Could be an awkward evening on the sofa after this.

BBC iPlayer

Go! Go! Go! Commentator Sara Orchard and England star scrum-half Natasha 'Mo' Hunt are live on the video feed from Doncaster's Castle Park.

Click at the top of this page to get across it.

Image source, Getty

Prop Bryony Cleall wins her second England cap today.

Her twin sister Poppy is at number eight and already has 43 tasselly commemorative hats in the top of her wardrobe.

The difference is at least partly down to a run of injury luck.

Aged 28, the Saracens front row has spent almost seven years out injured after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament, breaking her leg, picking up a stress fracture and then contracting coronavirus.

It been "the comeback to end all comebacks" she told BBC Sport's Becky Grey earlier this week.

Read more of Bryony's story here.

Image source, Getty

Rugby players like structure and gameplan so much, they manage to crowbar it into the leisure time as well.

England prop Shaunagh Brown's BBC Sport column reveals the tactics that have been employed around the team's covid-secure jisaw building.

"We are very organised with our jigsaw. You have 'pickers' and then you have 'placers'," she writes.

"The pickers will get the edges and the placers will put them together. Then you have a picker looking for certain colour schemes.

"Two pickers and two placers are ideal so I have fly-half Meg Jones as my picker and back Claudia MacDonald and flanker Harriet Millar-Mills have been involved too."

Stick it on the tacticsboard.

Image source, Getty Images

As ever with the Six Nations, there are more sub-plots than Lost.

New coaches. New faces. A postponed Rugby World Cup. A revamped format. And more.

BBC Sport's Becky Grey has rounded up five of the storylines that are worth keeping tabs on as the tournament rolls towards a climax at the end of the month.

Becky Grey
BBC Sport at Castle Park

England recorded an 80-0 victory against Scotland in 2019 and won 53-0 last year.

Here is hoping for a more even contest today, especially after Scotland claimed an impressive 13-13 draw against France in October.

Either way, the sun is shining down on Castle Park - perfect conditions for a feast of tries. This whole Six Nations in April thing is alright so far.

BBC iPlayer

This game is coming at you at more angles than a double dummy scissors.

You can watch on BBC iPlayer, listen on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and, if prefer your information slow and low on sense, follow this live text commentary.

Tune into the medium of your choice at the top of this page.

Image source, Getty

Christine Belisle makes her first start at tight-head for Scotland, having won four caps from the bench.

Louise McMillan and Siobhan Cattigan also come into the pack, with the latter taking the place of Jade Konkel, who is taking a break from rugby to become a firefighter.

Jenny Maxwell and Liz Musgrove are among the replacements after long-term injuries and Evie Gallagher could make her debut from the bench.

Scotland:Chloe Rollie; Rachel Shankland, Hannah Smith, Lisa Thomson, Megan Gaffney; Helen Nelson, Mairi McDonald; Leah Bartlett, Lana Skeldon, Christine Belisle, Emma Wassell, Louise McMillan, Rachel Malcolm (capt), Rachel McLachlan, Siobhan Cattigan.

Replacements:Molly Wright, Panashe Muzambe, Lisa Cockburn, Evie Gallagher, Jodie Rettie, Jenny Maxwell, Sarah Law, Liz Musgrove.

Image source, Getty Images

England's Helena Rowland will start at 10, while Zoe Harrison has dropped out of the matchday 23 after breaching coronavirus protocols.

Players must file a health report daily and Harrison lost her place because she failed to do this three times.

Wasps fly-half Meg Jones will fill the gap on the bench.

Centre Emily Scarratt captains the side as regular skipper Sarah Hunter continues her return from injury.

England: McKenna; Thompson, Scarratt (capt), Tuima, Breach; Rowland, Riley; Cornborough, Davies, B Cleall, Ward, O'Donnell, Aldcroft, Packer, P Cleall.

Replacements:Cokayne, Harper, Brown, Millar-Mills, Fleetwood, MacDonald, Jones, Kildunne.

Image source, Getty Images

Right, for those at the back, here is how this year's Six Nations is different from previous editions.

Forget your usual six-team round-robin. Coronavirus considerations have put pay to that.

Instead we have two groups of three. Pool A is England, Scotland and Italy. Pool B is France, Wales and Ireland.

Each team plays every other in the pool over three weekends of action, before a finals weekend - on 24 April - which pits teams against the one in the equivalent position in the opposite group to decide the final overall standings.

Got it? Good.

Image source, Getty

We've been waiting a long time for this.

It was way back on 1 November - five months and a little more ago - that England wrapped up the 2020 Six Nations with a landslide victory over Italy.

Since then we have seen the men's tournament take place, 13 rounds of the Premier 15s, the postponement of the 2021 Rugby World Cup and the announcement of the Great Britain Sevens training squads.

But now we are ready to rev up the trusty old Six Nations and what better way than with the oldest rivalry in international rugby.

And at least it is a little warmer than in 2020.

BBC Sport

England's Helena Rowland will start at 10, while Zoe Harrison drops out of the matchday 23 after breaching coronavirus protocols.

Wasps fly-half Meg Jones will fill the gap on the bench.

Centre Emily Scarratt captains the side as regular skipper Sarah Hunter continues her return from injury.

Scotland have named an unchanged back line from their last game against France in October.

Rachel Malcolm skippers the side from blindside flanker.

Evie Gallagher could make her international debut if called upon from the bench.

England: McKenna; Thompson, Scarratt (capt), Tuima, Breach; Rowland, Riley; Cornborough, Davies, B Cleall, Ward, O'Donnell, Aldcroft, Packer, P Cleall.

Replacements: Cokayne, Harper, Brown, Millar-Mills, Fleetwood, MacDonald, Jones, Kildunne.

Scotland: Rollie; Shankland, Smith, Thomson, Gaffney, Nelson, McDonald; Bartlett, Skeldon,

Belisle, Wassell, McMillan, Malcolm (capt), McLachlan, Cattigan.

Replacements: Wright, Muzambe, Cockburn, Gallagher, Rettie, Maxwell, Law, Musgrove.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC iPlayer

Saturday, 3 April

15:00 BST: England v Scotland, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

20:00 BST: France v Wales, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

Saturday, 10 April

14:00 BST: Italy v England, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

17:00 BST: Wales v Ireland, BBC Two Wales, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

Saturday, 17 April

17:00 BST: Ireland v France, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

14:15 BST: Scotland v Italy, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

Saturday, 24 April

TBA: Italy v TBC, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

TBA: England v TBC, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

TBA: Scotland v TBC, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport website & app

Image source, Getty Images

The Woman’s Six Nations will look a little bit different this year. Coronavirus and the difficulties in keeping the mostly amateur players safe have resulted in a new slot in the calendar and format for 2021.

The competition will be played in a reduced format across four weekends in April.

Rather than play each of the other teams in a round-robin, countries will be split into two pools and play two group games before a finals weekend.

Each team will play two pool games, one home and one away, before matches to decide placings on the final weekend.

The team that finishes first in pool A will face the side who finishes top of pool B to decide the Six Nations champions, with other teams playing the side that finishes in the equivalent position in the other pool.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be played alongside the men's but was postponed because teams are mainly comprised of amateur players, causing complications with how to play safely during the pandemic.

For the first time all the games can be watched live by fans with no over-lapping kick-off times.

Fans in the UK will be able to watch all the home nations games across the BBC on the iPlayer, Red Button with England's final match broadcast on BBC Two.

BBC Sport

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