England scrum-half Paul Hodgson has warned Quins’ England trio Danny Care, Ugo Monye and Nick Easter not to under-estimate Scotland when they clash in the Six Nations at the weekend.

Care, Monye and Easter all retained their starting slots for Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield after last month’s 20-16 defeat to Ireland ended hopes of a Grand Slam winning campaign.

Scotland crashed to a 16-12 home defeat to Italy last time out and face the prospect of winning only the wooden spoon this year.

But Epsom’s Hodgson, who misses out at the weekend having been dropped in favour of Leicester Tigers youngster Ben Youngs, reckons that will count for nothing come the weekend.

“They may have lost their last four home games, but at the same time they have played some great rugby and have been unlucky,” he said.

“Up there they always seem to raise their game against the English.

“The atmosphere is pretty intense and the challenge will be immensely tough.

“We are going to have to be at our very best to nullify them, put the onus on us and sway the momentum our way especially early on - otherwise the longer the game goes on the harder it will be.”

Hodgson was on the field - as a replacement for Care - when Tommy Bowe scored Ireland’s winning try, and he admits there has been a lot of soul searching in the camp over the last fortnight.

“Defensively we slipped off a bit. The boys were very, very disappointed. There was some good harsh honesty about things, which was good,” he added.

“There was some things said and some things that needed to be corrected. I think the team is better for and I’m sure the guys will do a fantastic job this weekend.”

*Paul Hodgson was speaking as he supported the RBS RugbyForce scheme at Sutton & Epsom RFC, which is designed to help local rugby clubs improve their facilities.

To register your club for the official RBS RugbyForce weekend on June 5-6, visit www.rbs6nations.com/rugbyfoce.