Wales wing North set for return from
well as Laidlaw, Scotland lost a number of players to head knocks and Josh Strauss also picked up a Six Nationsending kidney injury.
“It’s always a different game when you play France, it’s very attritional and it’s more of an arm wrestle,” said the man who now plays for Toulouse after a spell at Castres. “It’s about big contacts in the scrum and the maul and it does take its toll on you.
“I face that every week at club level but international rugby is different from club games. There is a higher intensity about it.”
Scotland were competitive in France but let things slip away and failed to follow up on that opening win over Ireland.
“The positive to take from the France game was that we didn’t play anywhere near as well as we could have done and yet we were still in it at the end,” added Gray. “All of the boys were very frustrated the day after the game. 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.”
In players’ parlance the next game is always the biggest game but Gray did concede that this encounter with Wales, who Scotland are looking to beat for the first time since 2007, is looming as the defining match of the campaign. Win and it’s on to a shot at the Triple Crown at Twickenham, lose and things start to look a bit bleak.
“It’s a huge game obviously,” said Gray. “It’s the middle of the championship, the teams seem evenly balanced and a lot could swing this weekend. If we were to pick up a win we’d pick up a huge amount of momentum and confidence. We would then go into the last two games with a decent shout at a strong finish.”
0 Jonny Gray, left, and Richie Gray present a united front against France in Paris, where the younger George North is on course to return from injury when Wales resume their RBS Six Nations campaign against Scotland on Saturday.
The Northampton wing missed Wales’ 21-16 defeat by England in Cardiff ten days ago because of a leg injury, and was replaced in the starting line-up by Alex Cuthbert. But North, who has scored 28 tries in 66 Tests, trained yesterday and is in the selection mix for BT Murrayfield.
“We are looking very healthy all round at the moment,” said Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards.
“We are definitely healthier than we were in the England week. We are selecting from a position of strength. George North has trained today and is raring to go.”
Wales’ interim head coach Rob Howley is due to name his starting line-up tomorrow, with North’s potential return possibly the only change.
Bath No 8 Taulupe Faletau featured off the bench against England and will be pushing hard for a starting place. However Howley might opt against changing the previous starting back-row trio of Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty which performed so impressively in the England game. Meanwhile, Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney and Conor Murray have all been passed fit for Ireland’s clash with France in Dublin on Saturday, with Andrew Trimble also finally over a groin complaint.
British and Irish Lions stand-off Sexton missed Ireland’s opening two Six Nations encounters after suffering a calf problem in Leinster’s 24-24 Champions Cup draw in