Glasgow prop Euan Murray believes the way the Scotland front row stood up to the much-vaunted Italy pack is one positive from the defeat at the hands of the Azzurri in the RBS 6 Nations Championship.
Italy recorded their first victory away from the Stadio Flaminio in this tournament when they stunned Scotland 37-17 at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Despite the defeat, the front row of Murray, hooker Dougie Hall and Gavin Kerr have made genuine progress and can no longer be considered the weak point of the team.
Murray said: “It’s definitely nice to part of a Scotland front row that’s being praised. We’re all learning and all improving and I’m feeling more and more comfortable in international rugby.”
Forwards coach George Graham announced himself delighted with the way his props and hooker stood up to the test and noted that Italy had displayed their respect by naming a full front row on the replacements’ bench for the Edinburgh clash.
Murray enjoyed another fine game on the loosehead and is now a fixture in Scotland’s pack having only played two Six Nations matches.
He said: “The Italians are really good players and it was a good experience. They had a whole front row on the bench too, which they used, so that made it a bit more challenging.
“Our set piece was reasonably solid as the game progressed but we’ll look back at the video and see what we can improve on.
“We’re coming up against some of the best front rows in the world and it’s good to challenge yourself against that. I’m learning in every game, every scrum even.
“The Italians were some of the best scrummagers I’ve come up against but we knew that would be the case because they have a reputation for being a dominant pack, especially the front row.
“Any prop can pose a different problem. Last Saturday we stood up to the challenge well. They were on a par with England, who are a good scrummaging unit.
“It was unfortunate that we allowed them to score after Chris Paterson’s try. We had some momentum and they hadn’t scored for a long time so we were thinking we were right back in it and within striking distance but they got a couple of penalties and pulled away.
“We made a mistake at the restart and you can’t afford to make errors otherwise you see what happens.”
