JONNY Gray's face wasn’t quite as angelic an hour or so after the Calcutta Cup had been won, but then second rows are supposed to be battle scared.
His nose had taken a blow or two or five, there were bruises all over him and the way the big fella sat down was in that careful manner which men 40 years older than him lower themselves into a seat after being on their feet for too long.
He was even slower getting back up, but this lack of mobility from this most mobile of rugby players was understandable.
This lanky lock made 25 tackles against England and missed one. Joe Launchbury with 15 came second in the tackle count. Gray really is a phenomenon and, in the second half especially, the Glaswegian got his man down, picked himself up off the floor, got back into position and made sure whichever white shirt was coming at him this time wasn’t getting past.
To do this for 80 and more minutes is incredible but, then, this 23-year-old is an extraordinary athlete who on his day, which Saturday most certainly was, is world class. Even if it looked as if he needed to go to bed as he fulfilled his media duties.
“I am battered and bruised and that’s the feeling in the dressing room,” said Gray. “The boys are pretty badly beat up. It was a tough game, but we knew it would be given the way England have been playing. Our boys may be struggling now but we can feel proud of our squad, especially given the way we started the Six Nations.
“I said last week how tough it is to lose when you represent a lot of people, and to say you’ve let them down in the way we did against Wales was hard. But we bounced back against France and although we made a few errors against England it’s been a very special day. There are a lot of things we need to tweak, myself included, but I couldn’t be prouder.
“To be representing your country is very special. You want to represent the people that are here, the people who are watching, the people who got you here, and your team-mates as well.
“You want to do everyone proud, so you know when you’re down on that deck you’re not helping anyone, so you just have to get yourself up. It’s a nice feeling to know that everyone in the team, or in the squad who’s on the pitch at that time, is doing the same for each other.”
Gray must have been running on fumes at the end and he admitted that the crowd, which at Murrayfield isn’t always as big a factor as you would want, helped him through.
For the entire game, the 67,000, at least those willing a home win, didn't stop singing, chanting and cheering. Every turnover, and there were so many, and every penalty won was treated like a last-minute try in the World Cup final.
“It’s great that in Scotland and Scottish sports there’s a real connection between the fans and the players,” said Gray. “You want to play for them. You represent a lot of people and you want to make them proud.
“You could hear them throughout the game and it makes such a difference, so thanks to all the people around the world who were watching, and to those people who were here. They made a big difference.”
So now it's on to Dublin and a superb Ireland side who have a Grand Slam in the sights.
Scotland’s record away from home is, as everyone knows, not far off horrendous and for them to be a genuine challenger, they must start winning these games. A decent performance and narrow defeat won’t cut it.
“It’s going to be another massive challenge, said Gray. “Ireland won again today so it’s going to be huge. They’ve been playing well for years and have some class players so it’s going to be difficult, especially out there.
“We have to focus on us. Against Wales a lot of things just weren’t up to standard. That feeling is a horrible feeling, so we don’t want to go back to that. It’ll be tough when you look at Ireland’s players, but we’ve got a week off to prepare and get ourselves ready.”
Gray more than once spoke of the errors his team made in what was Scotland’s best win since they won the Five Nations in 1999. This is a team striving to improve, which was good to hear.
And while Gregor Townsend’s men are not perfect, they took on and beat the world’s second-best side, and by some distance.
Scotland scored three tries to one and missed two great chances in the second half. Their kicking game was better, they dominated on the ground and drew England into conceding far too many penalties.
As Sir Clive Woodward, no great lover of all things Scottish, said: “It is almost a rite of passage for British coaches to get turned over at least once in their careers by an inspired Scotland side at Murrayfield and that's what happened good and proper on Saturday.”
Not even Gray could have put it better.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here