The two sides will contest the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield next Saturday, with the visitors overwhelming favourites to retain the trophy after a muscular victory over France in Paris last weekend.

Scotland have slumped to three consecutive losses in this season’s RBS 6 Nations, and although there were signs of improvement against Ireland in their last outing, Frank Hadden’s men still looked some way off the sort of form necessary to pick up wins against the likes of Brian Ashton’s rejuvenated side.

But Blair said: “Obviously, it is a massive challenge, but there is no such thing as an easy game in the Six Nations so I don’t view it as any more daunting than any other match we play in this tournament.

“Results might not have gone our way, and we haven’t performed the way we would like to yet, but we still believe we have it in us to pull off a result against any team in this competition.

“For example, in the Welsh match, we didn’t put in a performance at all, but we were right in there until the final 20 minutes.

“So if that is what happens when we play poorly then surely we stand a good chance of getting a result when we are playing well.”

Blair was impressed by England’s performance against France, but he was not blown away by the standard of rugby on display.

“As expected, it was a very strong English defence, which pounced on any errors made by France,” he reasoned.

“They seemed to have a well-organised attack as well, with good ball carriers and a couple of good generals behind the scrum. So it is going to be tough, but we are looking forward to the challenge.

“There is no doubting it will be a very tough game but there will be opportunities for us, I’m sure.”

Blair expects home advantage to be a key factor in the match.

“It’s great to play at home in front of a packed Murrayfield crowd and I’m sure they’ll get behind us,” he said.

“That tends to happen in the English game, and hopefully we’ll be able to raise our performance for them.

“There is a special edge to the England game, especially as they reached the World Cup final last year, and the fact that we beat them last time they were up at Murrayfield.”