'Bambi on ice' Richie Gray makes dismissive Jeremy Guscott pay dearly

Published on Thursday 10 February 2011 19:33

JEREMY Guscott's role as antagonist of the Scots had gone a bit quiet in recent years, but lock forward Richie Gray revealed this week that his terrific performance in the Stade de France on Saturday owed something to the former England centre's renowned ability to put his foot in his mouth.

Typically, looking for a contrary view, Guscott wrote in a newspaper column before the start of the RBS Six Nations Championship that he could not understand why people were labeling the Glasgow lock as a player to watch in the tournament. Gray's improvement this season from a promising young kid into an adept and powerful professional had all and sundry picking him out pre-tournament as Scotland's "one to watch".

Guscott dismissed that, insisting that Gray was "slow and cumbersome", like "Bambi on ice" and predicted that he wouldn't have any impact on the 2011 tournament. Even as Gray was striding through French tacklers during Saturday's game, setting up the field position for the first try, winning lineout ball against Imanol Harinordoquy and getting back to make try-saving tackles, and those comments were thrown back at him by a fellow ex-England international, Guscott shouted "but he'll still finish on the losing side".

The successful British and Irish Lion did have the grace to admit this week that he had got it wrong, stating: "I had some banter with Lawrence Dallaglio recently over Richie Gray and have to concede that I was very wrong in my appraisal of him. His performance against France made him Scotland's man-of-the-match. He played better than I anticipated and I'm pleased for him and Dallaglio that he did. He looks a very decent player and, if he continues with those kinds of performances and keeps himself injury free, he will be a Scotland regular for a long time to come. My player of the weekend has to be Richie Gray for proving me so wrong."

Relaxed and smiling, Gray revealed that he had gone out to find the offending article and still had it at his Glasgow flat. "My girlfriend texted me on the morning and said he had been quite harsh on me, so I went out and bought the paper and had a good read through it, and it gave me an extra drive for the game.

"I just wanted to read what he said and some might say his comments could have been justified, looking at certain games he's looked at. Everyone's got their opinion and I'm not saying it's the wrong opinion. I suppose everyone's got their opinion and I'll just try to change it as much as I can.

"But it wasn't my main motivation on Saturday; not at all. I wasn't going out to prove somebody wrong, but to play my best for the team. That was the motivating factor."

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• Follow our Six Nations coverage on TwitterAsked what he thought of Guscott as a player, the 21-year-old replied: "That was a bit before my time so I can't comment on that."

Gray is an eminently likeable big lad, quiet and unassuming off the field, but clearly a performer who feels, even at 6ft 9in tall, he needs some blond hair dye to stand out. His teammates speak of a terrific aggression in his play on the field, which is notably absent off it, and he has been able to take in the praise heaped on his substantial shoulders this week without allowing it to deflect him from the disappointment of the result and determination to improve the poorer aspects of his game that were not as widely noticed. "There has been a lot in the press, in France and back home, and I've been getting a tough time from the guys, a bit of slagging (from Scotland teammates]," he said, "but that's always good. These guys will keep you down to earth.

"Ultimately, I was very disappointed after the French game because I thought, as a team, we were playing very well, but there were certain elements of our game that weren't going as well. The set-piece work as an eight has to improve and, although we were doing good things with the ball, we were coughing it up cheaply and the French, who on their day are one of the best counter-attacking sides in the world, fully exploited that.

"I took a lot of positives as well as the negatives. My scrummaging will certainly have to get better and certain aspects of my defence will have to get better as well. Those (try-saving tackles] were just a case of me being in the right place at the right time, other players would have done the same, and there were aspects of my defence elsewhere that I wasn't happy with.

"I enjoyed the game and it's always nice to read positive comments, but I don't read much into that."

Gray does not possess the same mental scarring that some of his teammates might as a result of last year's meeting with Wales. For the fresh-faced lock he appeared off the bench for the final three minutes of normal time, to win only his second cap, his first having come off the bench against France a week earlier.

Everything was still new, there to be experienced for the first time and taken in.The fact that his side shipped ten points in the time he was on the field appears just to have melted into the whole Cardiff debut experience.

He has revelled in battles with the Welsh, at age-grade level and in the professional game, notably earning the BBC2 Wales Man of the Match award when Scotland U20s defeated their Welsh counterparts in 2009 for the first time, 18-17 in Perth, and scoring a fine try in the win over the Ospreys at Firhill this season.

The former Kelvinside Academy schoolboy always seems pretty relaxed but he is focused this week on the challenge that awaits from Bradley Davies and Alun Wyn-Jones on what will be his first Six Nations start at Murrayfield. "What I've come up against playing Welsh teams is always a really aggressive side. They like to go out and impose their physicality. There is a familiarity with playing their teams, because you pick up certain traits from certain players, which is a good thing. However, at international level everything's upped a gear."

That may be the most significant lesson that Gray has earned from his first run of starts in the autumn - how things change, and skills are tested more, when the intensity rises in the Test arena. He is still a young man, only 21 last August, and last season his form dipped at this stage as he tried to cope with the new demands his ability brought. Scotland coach Andy Robinson is a big fan of Gray's, and he also had a laugh at Guscott's comments this week, adding: "Jerry always knows his forwards, doesn't he?"

But, irrespective of the praise and criticism that comes Gray's way, it is clear and encouraging for home supporters that Scotland's friendly giant is focused only on using a tough French lesson to find the winning path at Murrayfield tomorrow.