A FEW years ago, the notion that Richie Gray would be in a winning Scotland squad at Twickenham was highly implausible, and for two good reasons.

First, the lock forward had fallen out of favour with the coaches and seemed unlikely to play for the national team again. And second, Scotland just did not win at Twickenham, did they?

That changed in 2021, of course, when Gray came off the bench in the second half in the team’s 11-6 triumph – their first at the London venue since 1983. Two years on, and with his Indian summer showing no sign of cooling down, he is out to repeat the experience – in front of 80,000 fans this time compared to the empty stands in front of which the pandemic-hit Six Nations was played out back then.

Now 33, Gray is well aware that Twickenham on Saturday will be a more daunting prospect than it was in 2021. But that result, and the victory a year later at Murrayfield – as well as the remarkable 38-38 draw in 2019 – give him grounds to go into Saturday’s match with a certain understated confidence.

“In 2021 we won down there, albeit in very different circumstances with no crowd, but we take belief from that,” the Glasgow forward said via Zoom from Spain, where Scotland are training. “Recent results against England have been favourable, but we’re under no illusions as to how big the challenge is. They’re under new management so will have a point to prove. They’ll also be hurting from the autumn and will come out all guns blazing. So we’ll need to match them.

“The challenge is to do it when there are 80,000 getting behind their team – how do we react under that pressure? But I certainly believe we can.”

Gray’s own impressive form this season, and more generally since he returned to the Warriors from France in 2020, is another factor in that self-belief. But, asked how high the levels of optimism in the squad were ahead of the Championship, he made it clear that no-one was getting carried away.

“I don’t want to get pulled into that question, as it’s always the one where we say, ‘We’ve got a great squad, we’re optimistic and want to do well’. And it comes out ‘Scotland are going to win the Six Nations’ and we all get carried away.

“We’ve got a good group, we work hard and have quality players. I believe we can do well in the Championship but, it’s an old cliche, but we have to go just one game at a time. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

The revival in Gray’s form over the past two years may be primarily down to a combination of his own diligent hard work and his natural talent, but this season the man himself also credits Warriors coach Franco Smith with encouraging him to do more away from the set-piece.

“Franco came in and from early on he was all about his forwards playing rugby, instead of just being a line-out forward. He wants all his guys, front five especially, to be able to carry ball as well.”

That ability to contribute in the loose as well as in the set-piece has also impressed John Dalziel, Scotland’s forwards coach. “I think we’re seeing the best ever of Richie Gray and that’s not an exaggeration,” he said this week. “In the last two seasons, he has been exceptional. He’s been a different animal since the tail-end of last year.

“We always look at Richie and think ‘he’s a line-out forward, he’ll assist the line-out’. That’s a given. But it’s outside of the set-piece where he’s really excelling, like in the collision area. For someone that tall to be able to do some of the things, he’s doing at the moment, like using his body in a way he’d never really used it before, is exceptional. It’s a credit to him and the work he’s done, and the resilience he’s shown as well.

“He probably got the nod for selection in the autumn for the work he was doing outside the set-piece, which is great. He’s really, adding to the depth in what is one of our strongest areas and it’s fantastic to see him playing so well.”