Speedster Cipriani owes his extra pace to a Scot

Should the 20-year-old Londoner succeed in turning Murrayfield on Saturday into a scene straight out of Chariots of Fire, the Scots will have to blame one of their own - the formidable Margot Wells.

Cipriani puts his conversion from reasonably quick into a genuine speed machine down to four years' intensive work on the track with the wife of Britain's 1980 Olympic sprint gold medallist, Allan Wells.

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The Wasps flyer, who will be England's most youthful last line of defence since a teenaged Alastair Hignell lined up against Australia in 1975, had the foresight to enrol with Mrs Wells for specialist training as soon as he left school.

He said: "At the start, I went to see her six times a week for six weeks. Soon I began to see a massive difference in my pace.

"It all came about when I played in a sevens tournament with a friend of mine and I noticed how much quicker he'd become. He told me he'd been working with Margot Wells. She's a very strong woman, so working with her gave me the added benefit of improving my mental strength."

Statistics suggest Cipriani is probably the fastest English player in the game, with a personal best over 30 yards of 2.69sec.

Cipriani's first international start as England's ninth full back in little more than 12 months had been signposted long before head coach Brian Ashton bowed to the clamour for his installation there by dropping Iain Balshaw to the bench. He has almost played as often there as at fly half.

Appropriately, Cipriani owed his entire conversion from football to another full back who moved like greased lightning, Christian Cullen. The then 14-year-old schoolboy's discovery of the All Black helped dissuade him from signing as a YTS trainee with Reading FC.

Cipriani said: "Christian Cullen has always been my idol. He got me into rugby in the first place. Until then I was pursuing three sports as seriously as I could - cricket, football and rugby.

"The offer from Reading was very tempting. I loved playing football and loved scoring goals but then I began to watch Cullen.

"There just seemed to be something about rugby. Moving to a rugby-playing school was a big factor and I loved the camaraderie. There was camaraderie in football as well but rugby began to appeal to me more.

"I want to be the best in the world at what I do. I'm a long, long way off achieving that. Playing in big matches like the Heineken Cup Final has given me some confidence but this is something else.

"Scotland against England with all that history surrounding the fixture. I'm really looking forward to it." He may be following a long line of recent English full backs - Balshaw, Joah Lewsey, Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto, Nick Abendanon, Mike Brown, Mathew Tait, Olly Morgan - but Cipriani is different. Apart from bringing Olympian pace and a sharp rugby brain, he will also bring a new line in headgear.

"I've always worn a head guard since I was 17," he said. "It doesn't make me play any better or any worse but my mum has always asked me to wear it."

James Haskell's ankle injury forces England to start in Edinburgh the way they finished in Paris, with Leicester's gangling Tom Croft on the blindside of the scrum.

Lee Mears replaces Mark Regan at hooker with George Chuter on the bench.

That should nudge the 36-year-old Regan closer to the knacker's yard but the Bristolian departed sounding like General MacArthur: "I shall return..."

Scotland, still without Jason White, have recalled Lions No 8 Simon Taylor instead of Kelly Brown for the first time since the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina last October.

The other change sees Glasgow centre Graeme Morrison, last capped almost four years ago, replacing his club colleague Andy Henderson.

SCOTLAND: Southwell; R Lamont, Webster, Morrison, Walker; Paterson, Blair (capt); Jacobsen, Ford, E Murray; Hines, MacLeod; Strokosch, Taylor, Hogg.

Substitutes: Thomson, Dickinson, Smith, White, Brown, Lawson, Parks.

ENGLAND: Cipriani; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo; Wilkinson, Wigglesworth; Sheridan, Mears , Vickery (capt); Shaw, Borthwick; Croft, Easter, Lipman.

Substitutes: Chuter, Stevens, Kay, Narraway, P Hodgson, Tait, Balshaw.