Boot on the other foot for Paterson's duel with Jonny

The man with the Midas goal-kicking touch is getting ready to take aim at Twickenham tomorrow afternoon. His fellow countrymen can hardly wait to see him line up a pot at the posts and the opposition have every reason to fear the deadly swing of his boot. Oh, and by all accounts, England have a pretty handy place-kicker too.

Jonny Wilkinson might be about to make his long-awaited return to England duty with his celebrated left boot (plus the right one that clinched the World Cup three years and three months ago) but the statistics say that the most potent points-scoring weapon going into the 2007 Calcutta Cup match actually happens to be the right foot of Chris Paterson.

Not that Scotland's right-wing and captain - an engagingly self-effacing teetotaller of a Borderer - is remotely concerned that his phenomenal goal-kicking record has slipped under the radar of due recognition south of Hadrian's Wall. "I'm happy with that," Paterson said, with a smile of quiet satisfaction.

The Galashiels man does like to go about his kicking business with the minimum of fuss - no crabbed arm action and dramatically prolonged pause for him, just two steps back, two to the side, a quick peek at the posts, a raising of the left arm, a swoop of the right boot, and bang. And a hitting of the target, too, rather more often than not.

In nine international matches as Scotland's designated goal-kicker in 2006 Paterson landed 30 out of 34 efforts - 40 out of 44 if the non-cap contest against the Barbarians is included. Those are success rates of 88 and 90 per cent. In the Six Nations last year, when Paterson landed five penalties out of five in Scotland's 18-12 win against England at Murrayfield, his percentage was top of the pile at 89; Ronan O'Gara was next best with 70.

Compare those figures with Wilkinson's record for England - 81 per cent - and you have a measure of Paterson's pedigree as a boot boy. Not that the 28-year-old Edinburgh winger begrudges the 27-year-old Newcastle outside-half any of the adulation that has come his way, such as a paean from a Poet Laureate ("Jonny, the power of your boot ... is a triumph we gladly salute," Andrew Motion enthused in "A Song for Jonny").

"Jonny deserves it more than I do," Paterson said. "He's kicked at that percentage for a number of years. Yes, he's missed kicks, but he's taken them on from some pretty difficult places. I remember watching one in Wellington into a strong crosswind from the touchline on the 10-metre line and thinking, 'This is pretty special'. I think he's the world's best. Dan Carter's kicking at a pretty high success rate as well, but Jonny's the guy who changed the face of the game, really."

Still, Paterson is the guy who has changed the face of the goal-kicking game for Scotland. Not since the distant days of Peter Dods - the Gala full-back who thumped over three penalties and a conversion in Scotland's last win at Twickenham, a 22-12 success in 1983 - have the Scots been blessed with such a model of post-potting proficiency.

For that happy state of affairs, Paterson attributes much of the credit to Mick Byrne, the Australian kicking guru who worked with Scotland from 2002 to 2005. Byrne, who now helps the All Blacks and Carter, taught him to adopt an approach to practice considerably more restrained than that of the famously obsessive, compulsive Wilkinson.

"Mick was a huge, huge help to me," Paterson said. "Sometimes, if I'm kicking badly, I just walk away - Mick used to say, 'If you're out of sync, don't keep forcing it and pick up bad habits for when you come back tomorrow. If it's not working, go'. Similarly, if you hit one and it's perfect, you think 'Oh, aye, I'm in the stride,' take two or three more kicks and then go. Sometimes I'm out there for 40 minutes; sometimes just 10."

In one respect at least, the 80 minutes at Twickenham tomorrow will be momentous for Paterson. He will be making his 70th appearance for his country and he stands just four points short of the 500 mark in international rugby. Above all else, though, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Peter Brown (1971) and Jim Aitken (1983) as the third captain to lead Scotland to victory at Twickenham since 1938.

His uncle, Duncy Paterson, played at scrum-half in the 16-15 win of 1971, scoring a try and dropping a goal. The younger Paterson has twice savoured Calcutta Cup victories on home soil, but in three visits to Twickenham he has been on the suffering end of England scores of 43, 40 and 43 again.

It remains to be seen whether England's points-scoring talisman will pick up where he left off, with that dream of a drop goal in the Telstra Stadium in November 2003, but Scotland's captain is happy to see him back. Unlike Denis Law, who chose the golf course instead of the television set on the afternoon of the 1966 football World Cup final, Paterson was one Scot who could bring himself to watch England - and Wilkinson - go for World Cup glory.

"I did get up and watch it," he reflected. "And I was jealous, really. You probably wouldn't choose wanting England to win, because I'm Scottish, but as a sort of appreciative guy I thought, 'Well done. You deserved to win that'. And they did."

Kicking Kings: How Scotland's captain measures up to the World Cup winner

Chris Paterson

2006 record for Scotland:

88 per cent success rate in internationals (30 successful kicks out of 34).

90 per cent in all games for Scotland (Including 10 out of 10 against the Barbarians).

89 per cent in Six Nations (17 out of 19).

Record-breaking:

On 26 February 2005, Paterson equalled the one-game scoring record set by Gavin Hastings of six penalties in the 18-0 win over Italy. This performance helped to ensure that Scotland would avoid taking the wooden spoon for the second year running.

Jonny Wilkinson

Record from 1998 to 2003:

52 internationals, 817pts.

81 per cent success rate.

For England:

Penalties: 161.

Conversions: 123.

Drop goals: 21.

Test tries: 5.

For the Lions (three caps):

Points: 36.

Penalties: 7.

Conversions: 5.

Tries: 1.

Record-breaking:

Most points scored in the Six Nations (89 in 2000). Most points in a single Six Nations match (35 against Italy at Twickenham in 2001).