Team dynamics have been key to the successes achieved by Scotland’s newest European champions according to the man who skipped them to that title in Estonia at the weekend.

Twenty four year old Bruce Mouat and team-mates Grant Hardie (26), Bobby Lammie (21) and Hammy McMillan (26) have taken the sport by storm since competing together for the first time last season.

It was a surprise when, after Mouat and Gina Aitken just missed out on earning Britain a slot at the Winter Olympics in Korea and after he and his World Junior champion quartet had been well beaten by veteran Dave Murdoch’s team in the 2017 Scottish Championship final, the new line-up was unveiled. With Bobby Lammie keeping his place in the rink, Hammy McMillan joined as their lead, having previously competed at European and World Championships with Team Brewster, while McMillan’s cousin Grant Hardie, who had previously been skipping his own team, joined as third.

Back-to-back victories in tournaments in Canada, the world’s leading curling nation, last September, served notice of their potential and they made history by becoming the first British men’s team to win a Grand Slam title on their next trip across the Atlantic, beating then Olympic champions Team Jacobs and 2016 world champions Team Koe on the way. They maintained their consistency throughout the season, going on to win the Scottish Championships and getting the better of Team Smith - Britain’s representatives at this year’s Winter Olympics - in a first ever play-off to decide who would represent Scotland at the World Championships. Mouat’s men returned from that event in Las Vegas with a bronze medal and consequently started this season ranked fourth in the world.

Having narrowly lost to Niklas Edin’s reigning European and world champions in the round-robin stages in Tallinn, however, they remained very much the outsiders ahead of the European Championship final which looked to be turning out predictably when they trailed 4-2 at the halfway break. However, they levelled at the next end, crucially claimed a two at the eighth to move 6-5 in front and after pressurising Edin into blanking the ninth, completely out-manoeuvred the Swedes at the last to claim three more shots and run out convincing 9-5 winners. A decade after a Scottish men’s team last won the European Championships it was an exceptional debut and Mouat acknowledged that it was more than they could have hoped for so quickly, saying: “It’s our first major championship title as a men’s team. This is something special and we will hold it close to our heart.”.

Having also performed well at the first of the newly instituted curling World Cup events in China earlier this season, their next target is the second World Cup leg and they are also determined to retain their Scottish title, which would mean they would go to next year’s World Championships in Lethbridge, Canada.

“It’s nice to have a week off before we head to Omaha for the first World Cup event to be held in America and we really want to prove ourselves on the world stage, not just European,” said Mouat.“Now every championship we go to we’ll be working hard to win it and we’ll also be working very hard to make sure we’re the team going to Lethbridge. We didn’t think we would win a Slam as soon as we did. We’d hoped to do that one day, but didn’t expect to so quickly and now I don’t think we should be scared of any event.”

Seeking to explain the speed with which they have become such a force, Mouat reckoned the key was the way they back one another.

“We really support each other and know exactly what we need to say to each other at the right time and if something doesn’t need said we work out a way of fixing it,” he said. “We’ve got a really close knit team and work hard to keep positive and not show negative emotion on ice. That showed in how we stuck together after a rough game versus Russia and we came back out and beat one of the best Swiss teams of recent years, which was a good way to prove our strength. Our team dynamic has created the right atmosphere, so we’re not afraid to play anyone and apparently we’re now the best in Europe. I guess other teams won’t like the prospect of playing us now when we come out and really fire.”