England can be 'springboard' for greater Scottish success.
REACTION: Scotland scrumhalf Ali Price has urged his side to use their Six Nations success against England as the springboard for a morale-boosting campaign amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
Price revealed Scotland’s 11-6 victory – their first at Twickenham for 38 years – was inspired by a determination to raise spirits back home as the pandemic continues to take a heavy toll.
Gregor Townsend’s squad are not resting on their laurels and, with Wales visiting Murrayfield on Saturday, Price called on them to keep the momentum going.
“First and foremost we are doing it for each other but there’s a lot of people stuck at home who can’t get out and about, go to the gym, go and meet up with their friends,” Price said.
“We are there to inspire and make people smile. We want to give someone who is on their couch on a Saturday a reason to be proud, a reason to smile, to suddenly have some positivity if they have had a week where they have not seen anybody.
“We wanted a bit of that in us when we played and I hope we replicated that, especially in defence with that dogged side a lot of Scots carry.
“We want to make people proud and hopefully Saturday was a great start in lifting the mood.
“From the final whistle we were together on the field and we spoke briefly about enjoying the night, enjoying the moment, because it’s so rare, 38 years, you have got to enjoy these moments.”
While the lockdown plight of supporters is providing motivation, the COVID protocols in their own camp are pulling Scotland together.
After a disappointing World Cup in 2019 and two narrow defeats at the start of last year’s Six Nations, Scotland have now won four consecutive games in the competition.
And Price feels the restrictions have had a silver lining.
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“We are a tight group but this forces you to be even tighter,” the 27-year-old said.
“We are definitely trying to put as positive a spin on the situation as we can.
“We don’t come in here and it’s rugby, rugby, rugby, meeting, and go back to the hotel and talk about rugby.”
According to Scottish government figures on Monday, there have been a total of 186,720 cases in Scotland since the start of the pandemic with 6,443 deaths since last March from the virus.
