" English players "

It all depends what you mean by English, of course.

Getting involved in discussions about ethnicity can be a risky process on these forums and it's easy to upset people. So I'll be careful.

I think it's highly likely that many of these players will be of Irish descent and/or musical friends. There are and have been "Irish Music Scenes" in both England and Scotland for many years. The core of these usually have an obvious connection with the homeland but also attract many local non Irish musicians.

As I mentioned earlier, there was far less of a Scottish scene even in Scotland itself as far as pub sessions went until relatively recently...it only really took off from the late seventies onwards.