Six Nations 2025: 'Feelgood stories on turbulent day for Scotland'
2025-02-02
Category: sports

In the bowels of Murrayfield on Saturday, Jonny Gray spoke after appearing in his first international rugby match in almost two years.Gray is not the most gregarious member of this Scotland squad. He's not a natural performer in front of the cameras. But he's honest and likeable and, most importantly, he's back.When he started to talk after the victory over Italy, his words had a power of their own. Once the mainstay of the Scotland pack, he has had a miserable time with injury.From the day in late April 2023 when he blew out his knee playing for Exeter, to early September 2024 when he turned out for his new club, Bordeaux, Gray played no rugby.He wanted to make himself available for the November Tests but just didn't feel like his body was ready. Then he got injured again. No action in the six weeks leading up to Saturday, he wondered what the day held for him.We saw Gray out there on the pitch and we heard from him afterwards, but what we knew nothing about was the anguish he'd gone through in all those months.How difficult was that time? Very, he said. Did he ever doubt that he'd play for Scotland again? Yes, he did. How special was Saturday? He spoke of his two young sons who were in the stand, the first time the pair of them were there to see their father play for his country. Emotional? Just a bit. And it was lovely. You didn't really need to hear his words to know what it meant to him, it was written on his face as he thanked the people who stood by him and believed in him. 
'Scotland's own analysis encouraging'
On a fairly turbulent day for Scotland, Gray was one of the feelgood stories.Huw Jones was man of the match which was fair enough given his hat-trick, but you could have just as easily given it to Rory Darge, whose work-rate and influence was massive, or Zander Fagerson, who has Test Lion written on him from top to toe.The gnarled old props of Scotland would have voted for Fagerson en bloc, no debate. The Peter Wrights would acknowledge Jones' treble while pointing you in the direction of the hard men who created the platform in the first place.Fagerson scrummaged well, carried 16 times - only Blair Kinghhorn carried more, but he wasn't always carrying in the heaviest of traffic like Fagerson - and made 69 metres with ball in hand. That's kinda mad.There were four Scottish players ahead of him on the metres made count and all of them were backs. Three of those played 80 minutes and the other played 72. Big Zander was out there for 68 minutes of world-class graft. He was immense. Again.For Scotland, it was a pleasing win, but their own analysis was encouraging. Finn Russell was hard on himself. Darge spoke about their looseness in that tricky spell when Italy came at them. Their breakdown work needs to be a whole lot better, he said.None of these guys need telling that if they have another period of inaccuracy and vulnerability against Ireland then they're not winning that game. That lapse was worrying, but better to have it against Italy, when they could recover, than against the Six Nations champions, who would not have let them off the hook.
Jones wasn't getting carried away. A hat-trick, sure, but Ireland are up next and if any team is capable of taking the smile off a Scottish player's face it's the Irish.Ireland have won 10 in a row against Scotland. Last year in Dublin, Gregor Townsend's side were defensively sound but it was still a two-score game before Jones scored late. The visitors never looked like winning. In the three meetings before that, the contest was as good as over in minutes 40, 62 and 60."We've wanted this one for a long time and never quite get it," said Jones of the holy grail of a win over Ireland. "It's a huge challenge for us. "It's the big match temperament, isn't it? That's what we need to find within this squad. We've sort of had it in games but never strung it together. "I feel like I say the same thing every year."
Scotland competed well in Dublin last year, but the main feature of their day was dogged defence of their own line rather than anything they did in attack. They also gifted Ireland seven points early from a botched lineout.  Go back over the 10 losses and you'll find multiple examples of awful Scottish errors costing them."Last year was one of our best performances in Ireland and it was a close game," Jone added. "But, again, one of those we didn't quite take our chances. "This is the one we want. They've had our number for years now. "It's time to front up and have a really special performance. You don't want to say anything that is going to come back to bite you, but I think we have an inner belief. "But we've said that before and not been on the right side of the results."Familiar words that Jones says he's tired of uttering. Sunday is an opportunity to ensure that he never has to utter them again.