Leaders on park will lift us, says Richie
Whether it’s handed to his little brother Jonny or not, richie Gray believes Scotland shouldn’t be too concerned over who will captain the side against Wales.
Indeed, the big second row insists too much has been made already of who will lead the team out at Murrayfield in the Six Nations showdown on Saturday following the injury to regular skipper Greig Laidlaw.
For him, it doesn’t matter who is captain. there are enough leaders all over the pitch to compensate.
‘Obviously, teams need a captain and need to be led well but let’s not get too bogged down with it,’ said the 27-year-old lock.
‘We’ve got a good leadership group and whoever is captain will step up and take it on from there. We’re not going to win or lose the game by whom we name as captain — we’ll win by how we play the game.
‘Of course, losing Greig in terms of the quality of his play out on the pitch is a huge loss but we have boys in the team who are defence leaders and attack leaders and these guys can step up.’
Jonny Gray, flanker John Barclay and scrum-half henry Pyrgos, if he gets the nod ahead of Ali Price, are the three main contenders to become captain.
to Gray senior, all have their merits with his 22-year-old sibling, who finished the defeat to France in the captain role following injuries to Laidlaw and then vicecaptain Barclay, up to the task if called upon.
‘It was Jonny’s first time as captain of Scotland when he was playing with me when he took over against France but it wasn’t a strange feeling at all,’ said the 62-times-capped star. ‘It is just the way things are and shows how good a player Jonny is and the responsibility he has.
‘there are a lot of co-captains in the modern game, so it’s not solely a one-man leadership at the best of times. Jonny and henry Pyrgos are doing a great job at Glasgow leading the team together.
‘Jonny is growing very well into that leadership role and he calls our lineouts with Scotland. he’s moving up into that captaincy role. he is a reserved guy in training and on the pitch as well. he’s not running around shouting, he says what needs to be said.
‘Actions speak louder than words in his case? exactly. that’s the kind of guy he is, that’s how he likes to go.
‘Playing second row alongside him, we have to tackle like back rows against Wales as that’s just the name of the game these days.
‘the english second rows made an amazing number of tackles and carries in their last game against Wales and now we have to do the same against them at Murrayfield to gain a foothold in the match.’
the toulouse lock and his brother have been the best performers in the Scotland pack, with richie making the most carries in the first two games with an impressive 27.
Not to be outdone, 30-timescapped Jonny has made 42 tackles, more than any other player in the squad.
Both put in superb defensive performances in the narrow loss to France.
‘We didn’t play anywhere near as well as we could have done across in Paris,’ he continued. ‘All of the boys were very frustrated the day after the game and we spoke about how we didn’t get anywhere near to how good we could be when we returned to training this week.
‘We weren’t able to get into our flow or the way we wanted to play. You need to give credit to France for stopping us from doing that but it was very frustrating.
‘It was our own errors which cost us and we can play a lot better than that and we need to rectify that this weekend against Wales in what will be a tough encounter and a physical test.’
Prop Gordon reid agreed with Gray that the team has leaders all over the park who he wants to ‘stand up for Scotland’ against the Welsh.
‘We need to front up,’ he said. ‘Wales are going to come out and try to bully us up front in play and mentally bully us. We just need to stand up for ourselves and stand up for Scotland.
‘At the scrum, we don’t look to take shortcuts. We grit our teeth and do things the hard way. Is that the wrong thing to do when you compare it to some of the methods used by other sides? Not really. We just need to work a bit harder. If there is a problem, we’ll get there.’
“We will only win by how we play the game”