Geoff Cross’ last start as a Scotland player ended ignominiously with him out cold on a stretcher and being shown the yellow card, but the Edinburgh prop has had an attack of realism to play only to his acknowledged strengths against Italy in the Six Nations wooden-spoon decider at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The 28-year-old is the only addition to the starting line-up to the team that went down 22-16 to England on Sunday, replacing Moray Low at tight-head after impressing head coach Andy Robinson as a replacement at Twickenham, and so becomes the third starting tight-head Scotland have employed in their scrum struggles in this championship.
Cross famously lasted just short of 20 minutes of his debut against Wales two years ago until, chasing a high kick, he ran into an airborne Lee Byrne’s left knee and was knocked out, getting a yellow card from referee Alain Rolland as he was stretchered from the pitch.
He hasn’t started again for Scotland since, and learned his limitations in pretty stark fashion that day.
“What I took from that experience is that there are jobs that you do well as a rugby player and strengths you can play to, and it’s important to identify those, hone them in practice and deploy them in a game, and that’s your job,” he said, conceding he had been too emotional at his first appearance for his country.
“It’s not useful or constructive, however well-intentioned, to be all-singing and all-dancing and doing everything, and that’s what I wanted to do playing my first cap.”
He added, “Taking high balls off guys in the air is not one of my strengths and you could see that from the injury and yellow card.
“Lee had the protection of the law, the understanding, he had the skill and he deployed that better to reap the rewards, and I’ve learned from that.
“So anybody jumping into the air can expect to meet me on the ground in future where I’ll knock them into next week.”‘Working hard’The experience might have terminally affected Cross’ international chances, but he knew if he worked hard enough that there would be a way back.
“I’m pleased to be back in, it’s a place that I want to be,” he said.
“I’ve been working hard to get back in and now that I am in, it’s important that I kick on and put in a performance that challenges to stay in the number three jersey.
“I believed that if I trained and practised what I was good at and worked on my strengths, and put those out in places like the Magners League, then that would be recognised and provide me with an opportunity to deploy those strengths at an international level.”
Now he faces the task of being the solution to Scotland’s scrummaging problems during this Six Nations, against an Italian unit that thrives on the set-piece.
Cross said, “The Italian front row are a big bunch of physical guys and they know what they’re doing, are experienced, and I’m looking forward to meeting that challenge.
“They are very passionate and committed to playing for their country, and are proud about that.
“You can see that in the physical game that they play. I am very impressed this year in how their defence has improved particularly.”
He added, “If we play as we have trained and execute our drills properly I believe that we can take the Italians on and impose our game on them.
“If we don’t execute our drills correctly they will dominate us, but I believe that we can and will dominate them.”‘Severely punished’ for penaltiesThe only other change in the squad is the return of Euan Murray to the bench after two games missed due to his sabbath observance, but the surprise is that Kelly Brown, knocked out on Sunday, is in the team with apparently no caveats.
The one change comes because of Cross’s half-hour stemming the scrummage tide on Sunday, Robinson saying the player “deserved to start this game” as a result.
“We were then looking at what was right for us as a replacement, and Euan has gone well for Newcastle in the last couple of games, and so wanted to give him, as our most experienced tight-head, the opportunity to come off the bench.
“We are playing against a very experienced Italian front row, and having Euan’s experience to come off the bench was important.”
It means Low is the fall guy for the scrummaging difficulties in the last two games, but Robinson said that was not all that convinced him to make the change.
“Moray has had two games starting, and he’s done some good things and there are areas where we want him to improve,” he said.
“We have been severely punished for the scrummaging penalties given away six points were conceded against England when we were putting the ball in, which is really disappointing.
“That happened against Ireland and we have got to get that right this weekend, but Moray is not losing his position just because of the scrummage.”
He added, “Fitness is one of the areas I’ve asked him to go away and improve it’s not just because of the scrummage that this change has been made.”
Ross Ford, under pressure from Scott Lawson at hooker, won a reprieve for his defensive performance, with Robinson saying the hooker was not entirely to blame for the line-out malfunctions on Sunday.
He said, “We were disappointed with the line-out because we knew we were under pressure, but the lifts weren’t good enough.
“We missed the first throw when unmarked and that set the tone for the match.
“It has to be better this weekend.”