RICHIE Gray may be the most instantly recognisable figure in the Scotland squad thanks to his height and his shock of blond hair, but he has no interest in seeking additional attention. Even on the special occasion of his 50th cap tomorrow, when a player would normally be expected to indulge in a spot of self-satisfied reflection, the 6ft 9in lock would rather be allowed to get on with his job.
For one thing, he does not wish to detract from a potentially bigger milestone for a team-mate - Sean Lamont will win his 100th cap if he comes off the bench, becoming only the third Scot behind Chris Paterson and Donna Kennedy to reach that landmark. And, perhaps more significantly, the only thing Gray really wants to celebrate is the victory against Samoa that would guarantee Scotland a place in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup.
“Not considered it,” the 26-year-old said when asked what he thought of reaching his half-century. “Someone mentioned it today - I was aware of it, but hadn’t thought about it too much.
“The reality is there are lots of things at the weekend more important that we’ve got to get through. There’s also a bigger milestone in the squad with Sean getting to 100 anyway.
“First of all it’s incredible. He’s in a very small handful of people who’ve done that. An incredible achievement, the way he’s stuck in. His competitive nature has allowed him to be as good as he is. He’s an incredible athlete, a great guy, and a lot of guys look up to him in the squad and take advice from him.
“No celebrations until victory: he’d say the same thing. His focus is winning the game at the weekend and not getting carried away about cap milestones or anything else. I haven’t even thought about 50 caps.”
It is customary for a player winning his 50th cap to lead the squad out of the tunnel, and Gray will almost certainly observe that tradition - but only, he insisted, if his team-mates force him. “Not particularly interested in that. If I’ve got to do it, I will, but I’m more interested in the game. They’ll maybe have to push me out the tunnel.”
Thankfully, Gray will be a whole lot less diffident when it comes to the game itself. After taking a time to get going in their earlier Pool B wins against Japan and the United States, Scotland will need to get into their stride immediately against Samoa, he believes. The fact that the match is essentially a knockout will be an advantage in achieving that goal.
“It will get us out of the blocks quicker. It’s a huge game - if we win we’re in the quarters, but we’re against a dangerous Samoa side that has nothing to lose. They’ll be hurting after [losing to ] Japan and they’ll want to go out on a high, so we’re very wary.
“They have a point to prove and they’ll want to go out, chuck the ball about and play their brand of rugby, so it’ll be very difficult. We’ll need to come out of the traps, otherwise we could have a tough afternoon.
“We need to impose ourselves in defence. I don’t think we did that against South Africa: we let them come at us. And we need to also fire our shots in attack.
“We pretty much defended for a half against South Africa, which is pretty difficult to do, so we need to hold on to the ball, and do to them what SA did us, try to frustrate them. We’ve got a pretty clear plan going into the weekend.”
In essence, the plan should have two elements: impose a structure on the game that prevents the Samoans from using their brute strength to best advantage, and then create openings that backs such as Mark Bennett and Stuart Hogg can exploit. As far as Gray and his fellow-forwards are concerned, the first part of that plan entails at least achieving parity in the set piece.
“They’ve got some big boys, so set-piece wise it’ll be a tough slog when it comes to scrums and mauling - which is something we need to improve from the weekend, because as a pack we’re hurting from that. We’ve given ourselves a really tough time over that and we want to come out and change it.”
If Scotland then go from holding their own to holding the whip hand up front, they could use the prowess of Gray and his younger brother Jonny in the lineout to launch some attacking mauls at the Samoan defence. “It’s something we’ve looked at and are looking to improve on. We’ve been close and we put some pressure on against the US, but didn’t quite get over the line, so it’s a definite focus.”
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