Andy Nicol: Gray shows his Lions potential with quite outstanding displays

Published on Saturday 19 March 2011 21:41

So Scotland finally got their first win in this season's RBS Six Nations and, in so doing, avoided the dreaded wooden spoon. But, boy, did they have to dig deep to defeat a good Italian side. Scotland produced their best 40 minutes of the Championship in the second half to finish off on a relative high.

I liked the way Scotland started the game. It was full of purpose, direction and attitude, the traits that were so badly lacking in the previous two home matches at Murrayfield. It set the tone for the match and it would appear that Scotland have learned how to start a game properly and not concede a try in the first ten minutes like they did in the first three games of the Six Nations.

As good as the start was, it still highlighted Scotland's Achilles' heel – the inability to convert pressure into tries. Twice Scotland made great inroads with breaks by Sean Lamont and Joe Ansbro but both times they could not find that killer pass or angle of run to reward the good play with a try. Simon Danielli must have been centimetres short but, instead of showing the necessary composure required to get over the line, Scotland had to settle for two kicks at goal by Chris Patterson.

What made this even more frustrating was that Italy went up the other end and scored a try with just about their first real attack in the Scotland half. Andrea Masi, the try-scoring hero from last week's victory over the French, was at it again, slicing through some pretty flimsy Scottish defence. Ansbro and Nikki Walker both made poor attempts to stop the flying full-back and he put Italy into a lead.

It was ironic that the most attacking player on either side left the field with injury before the end of the first half. Ansbro has played really well since he came back from missing the Irish game and certainly was a loss for Scotland.

Murrayfield had not witnessed a Scotland try since November 2009 and, after missing the earlier chances, I feared the worst. Thankfully, though, Scotland ended this unenviable record by scoring two tries in the second half from Nick De Luca and Walker. The first was the result of some composure on the Italian line by Nathan Hines to release De Luca and the second was a very powerful run by Walker, who took his try well. These two tries gave Scotland the cushion they needed to close out the game with some ease, although it still took another try-saving tackle from Paterson for this to happen.

There were many good Scottish performances – Geoff Cross justified his selection, John Barclay was back to somewhere near his best and Lamont continued to make an impact at inside centre. As hard as he ran with ball in hand, I wish he had run as hard when he kicked a loose ball through and looked like he was going to win the race when he slowed and allowed Leonardo Ghiraldini, the hooker, to secure the ball and alieviate the danger.

As well as these players played, Richie Gray was the stand-out player for me. He stole three or four balls at the lineout, he tackled like a back-rower and carried the ball with real purpose to set up good opportunities for Scotland.

He has been Scotland's best player in the RBS Six Nations by some distance and it has been great to see. There is no doubt in my mind that, if the Lions were touring this summer, then this young man from Glasgow would be on the plane. He has been outstanding in every game he has played and for a man so young to have made such an impact in a tournament such as this is incredible.

He has been the stand out but Andy Robinson will be quite happy, not with the results, but with how some of his younger players have really stepped up to the mark and have now given him options.

Ruaridh Jackson has now started three games for Scotland and looks comfortable and Ansbro has brought a real cutting edge to Scotland's back line. Lamont is not a young player but has certainly made it a tough choice when Graeme Morrison returns from injury and the battle for the No.9 shirt is very interesting indeed.

When the dust settles on this Six Nations, Scotland will look back with disappointment at a missed opportunity but at least they finished it all off with a victory yesterday.