Richie Gray enjoyed a huge match for Scotland
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Allan Massie reviews an open encounter between France and Scotland and reserves praise for the excellent Richie Gray in The Scotsman.
"Our sports editor must be prescient. The back page of Saturday's sports section had the headline: "Scotland's three stirring tries are not enough"; and lo and behold, they weren't.
"The headline of course belonged to Norman Mair's report of the France-Scotland game at the Parc des Princes in 1979, reprinted for general interest.
"The score that day was 21-17 to France. So history didn't repeat itself exactly. Still it came close to doing so, and indeed in many respects this splendid open match, played at pace, with high levels of skill and, it seemed, consistent good humour with no tiresome niggles, recalled a good many Parisian encounters between France and Scotland from, say, the early Seventies to the late Eighties - the days of Andy Irvine, Jim Renwick, John Rutherford, the Hastings brothers, and superb back rows on either side. Moreover no Scottish lock since the great Alastair McHarg can ever have got himself about the field as the marvellous young Richie Gray did on Saturday."
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