Maro Itoje’s father Efe will pray for the England captain before he attempts to unleash controlled fury on the Scots at Twickenham on Saturday.
England could have done with some divine intervention in recent Calcutta Cup clashes having lost the last four and not beaten Scotland at HQ for eight years.
Itoje will chat with his dad before the team board a bus from Richmond, where they stay on Fridays before games, to head to the ground.
And once there the skipper urge his side to bring the emotion to their game without letting the lid blow off.
Itoje said: “My dad likes to pray for me before a game so before we leave the hotel I’ll often speak to him and he’ll say a short prayer for me.
“You don’t want blind rage and you don’t want blind, beating-your-chest fury, but you need some of that. You definitely need an element of that, but you also need accuracy.
“Rugby is not a game of brute force alone, you need accuracy and you need to have the composure to identify space and execute. Wherever we land in the balance of the two is something that we have to feel, but we need elements of both.
“Rugby is an emotional game. In my opinion it is a game that requires more emotion than most other sports because of the nature of what we do. We want our team to be full of emotion. But we want that accuracy.
“We don’t want blind emotion that clouds your judgement. But we need some of it so we can get to the place we want to get to.”
England have such a dismal record against Gregor Townsend’s team that fly-half Fin Smith was 14 when they last beat them at Twickenham.
Smith was part of the side who beat France 26-25 a fortnight ago but defeat this afternoon (SAT) and it will be back to square one for Steve Borthwick’s side.
A win keeps them in the Six Nations title hunt and players have been straining at the leash to get after the Scots at their training base in Bagshot this week.
Itoje added: “It’s a great sign when training is a bit edgy or feisty because it shows that the team is hungry. You don’t want nice training. You don’t want it too respectful, where you’re not pushing each other.
“You want to grow and compete. You want that within reason – you don’t want to be playing Tests on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday – but you want that vibe and you want the energy.
“I feel the team is ready and hungry to win these encounters. Two weeks ago, was an example of the growth. Now it’s about growth on growth.”
Prove that win against France was not a flash in the pan and England are in business with Italy and Wales to come but Itoje insists they have to take their chances – unlike the French two weeks ago.
“We need to seize our moments,” he said. “In any game you have a finite amount of moments that are there for you to take.
“Scotland are a good team, no doubt. Their record against us dictates that. But I believe that if we do our job when get into those moments we will do well.”
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