Joe Ansbro’s reward for his debut try for Scotland was having to stand up and sing on the team bus back to headquarters, but the centre can hold a tune and his head high after lifting his team to a win over Ireland at Murrayfield.
Ansbro’s try three minutes from time ensured the Scots beat Ireland at Murrayfield for the first time since September 2001 and, even though the test was a Rugby World Cup warm-up with experimentation from both sides, the London Irish player stressed the difference between a 10-6 victory and a narrow loss cannot be underestimated.
The Scots left it late for the try from a sweeping first-phase move orchestrated by replacement centre Nick De Luca for the only try of a disjointed game, but Ansbro said the team had kept faith the score would come.
He said, “No-one was panicking. At half-time we were confident that the space was there for us to take, our big runners were getting over the gain-line and there was no pressure.
“Everyone was quite composed and how we attacked wide in the last couple of minutes of the game shows that.”
He added, “You can’t underestimate winning.
“This was a proper test match even if it’s billed as a warm-up, and we need to have that ruthless mentality that we want to win games.”Had to scoreAs for the try, Ansbro knew he’d score as soon as De Luca’s floated pass reached him with 35 yards to run to the line.
He said, “I had to score when I got the ball there was a lot of space to run into and even though there’s guys coming across I’d have been furious if I hadn’t taken that chance.
“The thing is that I’ve got to sing a song on the bus now, but I’ll go for the comedy angle… I’m no Kelly Brown!”
For playmaker Ruaridh Jackson, there was great encouragement in the way the Scots kept pressing right until the death to get the win.
“It’s a warm-up but winning is important, it builds momentum and keeps the mentality we started against Italy in the Six Nations,” he said.
“I thought we played some really good stuff at times and again just didn’t quite finish it off.”
He added, “To go in with no points on the board after that first half was frustrating, but there was never any panic.
“We knew we were trying things and they wouldn’t always go perfectly to plan, but it was good to see our fitness pay off in the end.”More pressureJackson was particularly pleased the way the try came after Scotland had twice set up attacking lineouts and failed to take advantage but persisted.
He said, “Those were frustrating, but we’ve talked in the last couple of weeks about positive mindsets and not getting down, keeping moving forward, and it worked out in the end for us.”
Head coach Andy Robinson was concerned at the quarter-hour delay for kick-off caused by the number of fans arriving late and buying tickets on the day, swelling the attendance to over 28,000, saying the players were “fully loaded.”
“I’ll be making my comments to the people who made the decisions, it’s right that we look at what happened,” he said.
“Safety is obviously important for our supporters and the decision that was made was the right one, but it’s one of those where we had players who were ready to go.”
Robinson thinks Scotland’s off-loading game will show up more against Italy, but also wants to see his side play percentages more in their own half.
He said, “One of the areas is how we tactically play inside our half from the 10-metre line to the halfway that’s a key element to building pressure on the opposition.
“We’ve got to improve our ability to put pressure on the opposition and use the kick option as well as running options.”
He added, “We’ve also got to look at our forwards’ speed off the defensive line.
“They tackled well but Ireland got some good go-forward and the better teams will punish you if you allow that.”