Gray: England pose massive challenge

Jonny Gray has warned that Scotland will be in for a familiar sorry story if they do not make improvements before facing England.

Vern Cotter’s side will travel to Twickenham in a fortnight’s time looking to claim their first Triple Crown success in 27 years.

But the Glasgow forward said: “It’s going to be a massive, massive challenge to go down to England and win. Every game in the Six Nations is getting closer and closer. It took a late try to separate Wales and England a couple of weeks ago. Our game in France was decided by just six points.

“It just shows the small margins that are at stake, so we need to get better. We can’t stand still.”

For those getting ahead of themselves, footage of Saturday’s 29-13 win over the Welsh provides the clear evidence that Cotter’s team remain a work in progress. While Tommy Seymour and Tim Visser provided the match-winning tries after the interval, Scotland were lucky they only went in four points down at the break after being out-muscled by Rob Howley’s side.

“It was a very hard win,” said Gray, pictured. “The first half was pretty frustrating. They put a lot of pressure on us. But I thought in the second half we stuck to the gameplan, changed things up a wee bit and all in all we’re very happy to get the win against a very tough and very physical side like Wales.

“We’ll enjoy this but we have a week off now and we’ll look at the improvements we have to make, because there was some sloppy moments which we have to tidy up.”

With Greig Laidlaw ruled out of the Scots’ final two games with England and Italy, flanker John Barclay has inherited the armband.

It was expected the loss of Scotland’s regular captain would have a destabilising effect but Gray revealed the Gloucester man was never further than a phone call away to provide some guidance where necessary.

And he hailed the way their new leader – and the rest of the team– negotiated the trickier moments against Wales.

He said: “It was a blow losing Greig. He is an amazing rugby player and an amazing guy. But it’s not just about one guy. Everyone stepped up. Barcs has done an incredible job.

“He was outstanding with the way he led us through the week and the way he spoke. He made the right points. But there were others too. Finn in attack was also a big voice this week.”