When seeking, last week, to show how ready he and his management team are to encourage competition for places, Gregor Townsend’s choice of illustration seemed telling.

“We know Greig (Laidlaw) for example, how much he cares for the Scotland team and how he is playing. Ali (Price) is playing well too and that is the competition levels we want whether captain, vice-captain or those who have played a number of years. Their position will always be under threat if somebody else is playing really well,” said the head coach.

The timing of the observation seemed all the more telling at a time when the biggest criticism of the Scotland team’s performance a few days earlier from both inside and outside the camp, had been the lack of energy in evidence in another lacklustre effort away from home, Townsend recognising that when saying: “We chatted to our leaders to get their feedback on whether anything we did during the week led to that lack of energy during the first 10-15 minutes.”

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Given the importance of scrum-halves in whipping the pack into action, while deciding how and when to release the ball and their fellow backs, it is inevitable that it is a position that might be looked at when addressing such issues.

All the more so, because as important as Laidlaw has been to the national team as the player who has captained Scotland far more often than any other in history, it was the high energy Price that Townsend preferred at the start of last season’s Six Nations Championship, only for his eagerness to inject pace into play to backfire badly in the opening match, most obviously when he threw the pass that was intercepted by Gareth Davies which allowed his opposite number to open the scoring.

The decision making authority Laidlaw brings to proceedings was important that day and ever more so as the campaign was salvaged with wins over France and England.

However, as a slave to his rugby instincts, that has represented something of a compromise for a head coach who seems oblivious to the evidence that speed can be lethal to his own team’s prospects when facing shrewder opponents.

That, in turn, would seem to make the recall of Price to the starting line-up this particular week, an ever greater risk when the opponents are those against whom the 25-year-old had such a difficulty day in last year’s championship.

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Since then Price hoped there would be a chance of redemption when Glasgow met the Scarlets soon after the championship, only for Davies to intercept another of his passes to score one of their tries in a commanding win.

With Laidlaw unavailable due to club commitments in November, Price got another chance when Scotland opened their autumn Test series back in Cardiff, but that, too, was a difficult day.

An ever-upbeat character, however, he is coming off the back of having scored his third international try in the closing stages in Paris, having been part of a posse of players whose introduction during the final quarter made a visible difference, says he is ‘absolutely’ ready to start if called upon and reckons there is no despondency within the squad after back-to-back defeats quashed this latest championship bid as they prepare to meet the unbeaten Welsh.

“Obviously we’re disappointed but you’ve got to park it,” said Price.

“There’s no point in dwelling on what happened, you can’t change that game, you can’t change the result. We’ve still got two massive games left that we can have a good crack at finishing high up in the table at the end of the tournament.

“There would be nothing better than getting back to winning ways I guess. It’ll be a massive one at home against a team going for a Grand Slam, if that’s not motivation for you, I don’t know what is. We’ve reviewed the France game, no point on dwelling on that anymore, there’s a new challenge next week.”

That is not to say they are not seeking to learn from the experience and address the gulf between their performances at home and on the road.

“We’re at home against Ireland, 60,000 people backing us and they provide us with energy. You go away to Paris and it’s a brilliant ground, the French crowd are fantastic but they’re obviously rooting against you. Maybe it’s that. It’s a tough question to answer why it was a bit flatter performance than the week before,” Price observed.

“Everyone says, essentially it’s the same team so no matter whether you’re home and away it shouldn’t make a difference. I don’t know the answer.

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“The week’s prep was good. Momentum has a big part to play in these games and the French got off to a good start, got the crowd behind them, they got lifted and that came through our errors which supresses us slightly.

“The start to games are massive, the first 10-15 minutes are massive, and they came out of the blocks well. That dampened our energy we wanted to bring to the start of the game.”

Ironically, one of Scotland’s better starts to a Six Nations match away from home in recent years, was in Wales last year when it was that interception pass thrown by Price which changed the momentum, but there was much more to the way they were then out-played in the opening half that day than that.

“We’ve worked on a few things working into next week,” Price said of this latest opportunity against the Welsh.

“They kick the ball the most out of any team we play (so) our work rate when the ball’s in the air is going to be massive for us. On the flipside of that our tactical kicking is going to have to be on the money, more than it was, to play in the right areas of the field. There’s a few things we’ve worked on to put the right things in place.”

Energy levels will be part of that, but so will deciding on how and when to expend it. The decision-making will, as ever, be key, starting in the selection meeting.