PRICE WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD
Scrum-half recovers from his France pain with star showing
THINGS had gone a bit quiet for Ali Price. Since starring for the British & Irish Lions in South Africa last summer, his form had dipped. He knew it, too. Price was critical of his own performance in the defeat to France a fortnight ago, when he was outclassed by the little genius Antoine Dupont.
Not that there is necessarily any shame in being outplayed by the reigning European and World Player of the Year.
Yet, here’s the thing. If Dupont had done some of the things that Price did yesterday in Rome, the rugby world would be salivating.
This was a masterful performance from the Scotland scrum-half, whose wizardry tore Italy apart time and time again.
It was Price who leapt out of the defensive line and made a brilliant interception in the build-up to Scotland’s second try.
He also made a piercing linebreak and delivered an excellent pass for Stuart Hogg to score in the second half.
Indeed, Price was involved in the creation
He was absolutely tremendous and I’m really pleased for him
of four of Scotland’s five tries. It was a timely return to form.
If there were elements of frustration in Scotland’s performance towards the end, they were not to be directed towards Price.
On the day which saw him win a 50th cap, he delivered one of his most complete performances in a Scotland jersey and was deservedly named man of the match.
It was an all-action display which saw him cover every blade of grass inside the Olimpico as he helped the Scots get their hands on the newly-created Cuttitta Cup.
Paying tribute to the Glasgow Warriors scrum-half, skipper Stuart Hogg said: ‘I thought Ali was absolutely outstanding for the whole time he was on the field.
‘He was a live wire and kept the carrot in front of the donkey in terms of his kicking game. He asked a lot of questions of the Italian defence with his running game as well.
‘For him to win his 50th cap and to put in a performance like that, I’m incredibly proud of him. He was absolutely tremendous and I’m really pleased for him.
‘Ali did that for a reason (the interception). He shot out the line and made it happen. We talked a lot about our work-rate back and our hussle to make it incredibly difficult for the Italians.
‘Ali’s made the decision to go for it and what a decision it was. That’s what we’re about. The boys work incredibly hard for each other and have licence to make those raids and go for the big plays.’
Scotland winger Kyle Steyn was also delighted to see Glasgow teammate Price get back to his best.
‘He’s unbelievable,’ said Steyn. ‘It was great to see, especially on his 50th cap. He’s someone who wears his heart on his sleeve.
‘We all know how much playing for Scotland means to him. It was great to see him at his best — attacking, running the ball, making line-breaks and creating tries.’
Hogg, meanwhile, was pleased to see the team return to form with some of their attacking play. They scored five tries and probably should have had more.
Some of their counter-attacking play, in particular, tore the Italians to shreds. But the skipper shared the views of head coach Gregor Townsend with regards to some slack defending towards the end.
That won’t cut it against Ireland next weekend and Hogg was honest enough to admit that the Scots will need to improve massively in that department.
‘We knew fine well that in the first 20 minutes, Italy were going to be incredibly passionate on the back of their anthem,’ he said.
‘They are a different animal at home, so we wanted to ride the storm then really take it to them and I felt for periods of the game
we did exactly that. We started to come alive in attack. We knew what their defensive triggers were going to be and fortunately we managed to pick up on those and exploit them.
‘We talked about applying as much pressure to the Italian side as we possibly could through our kicking game — and a couple of the tries were built on the back of doing that, creating counter-attack ball.
‘That’s where we got our change from and we’re very pleased. But we demand a lot more from ourselves and try to keep teams down to as few points as we possibly can.
‘Italy got back into it and put us under pressure and there are a couple of things we’ll look back at where we let ourselves down.
‘We wanted to put our game on them for as long as we possibly could. Unfortunately, we slipped up at vital moments in the game and that is something we’ll look back on and be pretty frustrated about.
‘They applied a huge amount of pressure on us and as soon as they got on the front foot and we slip up ever so slightly, they become a tough animal to stop.
‘You have to stay in every single passage of play in Test match rugby. There were a few lapses in concentration. But, overall, we are pleased with the win.’