SEAN Maitland may not have been born in Scotland but he insists he has as much determination as his team-mates to see off the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield on Saturday – thanks to his Glaswegian grandparents.

The New Zealand-born wing hopes to face England for only the second time in the opening Six Nations tie, having switched allegiances to Scotland in 2013.

The 27-year-old made his international debut at Twickenham three years ago, but it was a bitter-sweet experience. It took the London Irish back just nine minutes to register his first try, but from there England took over, eventually winning 38-18.

Injuries have denied Maitland the opportunity to face the English in the two meetings since but he should finally get a second chance this weekend.

While Maitland insists a victory would mean just as much to him as his native colleagues, he will not allow the occasion to spoil his focus.

He joked: “My grandparents made it pretty clear that I had to hate the English. Not many people in New Zealand like the English.”

Maitland went on: “It is a massive match. It has been sold out for months and the atmosphere is going to be unbelievable. But at the end of the day, it is just a game of rugby.

“I have been playing rugby since the age of five and my mindset is always: ‘It is just another rugby game’.

“I made my debut against England in 2013 and haven’t played them since because of injury, so if I get the opportunity to play, that will be awesome. It was mixed emotions that day, making my debut and scoring a try, but we got put away by a good England team.”

Maitland says he has shaken off the pain of Scotland’s last-gasp defeat to Australia in the quarter-finals of the World Cup and is ready to help Vern Cotter’s side build on their performances at the tournament.

He said: “It was tough. I live in London and have to drive past Twickenham every morning and it reminds me of that day. But we have to take the positives out of it. We were one refereeing decision away from the semi-final, so we have to try to build on that. It is the same group of players and in the last two days you can see there is way more confidence and a desire to get better and improve. We let ourselves down in the Six Nations last year, coming last, so there are definitely a lot of points to prove this year.

“There are no excuses now. I know there are people outside the environment who expect things from this Scotland team, especially after the World Cup. We have to take our opportunities and grind out games if necessary, which we did at the World Cup.”

Maitland, who has shaken off a shoulder injury to declare himself fit for action, added: “When you are playing against a team that you have always beaten for the last six or seven years, then you are going to have that self-belief, so England will have it.

“But for us, maybe in the past the emotion has probably been too much. We haven’t just focused on our skillset and how we wanted to play. We had a chip on our shoulder. Now, we are just focusing on us, we are not worrying about results and what happened in the past. We are just working on how we are going to beat England.”