Allan Dell doesn’t agree with the common cliché that your first cap flies past in a blur and you don’t remember a thing.
“Ross (Ford) told me not to worry that although it’s a step up at international level and the pace is greater there would be time to take a breath,” he said after Saturday’s test against Australia. “It did happen and I looked up at the game clock and thought, it’s not moving nearly as fast as I thought it would!
“It was just fantastic to be part of this game,” he said. “I’m happy with my debut but of course hugely disappointed with the loss, to be beaten by just a point is frustrating.
Certainly with two international novices at prop in Dell and tight head Zander Fagerson, the scrums went as well as Scotland could have coped although the debutant was more self-critical.
“The scrums went pretty well to start with but we started to lose our form and shape a bit,” he said. “There is a fine line, you don’t want to be too critical or you don’t move forward, dwell on negatives and you’ll be going backwards.
“I think we all saw that we had Australia in that game, and they’re a very good team. We’ll reinforce the positives and look to the Argentina game to correct the negatives.”
The Edinburgh prop leaned heavily on his clubmate Ross Ford making his 100th appearance for his country, the first Scottish forward to reach the century mark.
“You’d not be a very smart man if you didn’t use Ross’ experience, and also Al Dickinson,” he continued. “They’ve been through it all, and having Ross there on his 100th cap was massive for Zander and I, we’re only disappointed we couldn’t win the game for him.
“I don’t think Zander or I felt the pressure, it actually helps with the focus if you know that the opposition are going to target you. It’s something we’ve had to deal with in our careers.
“Ross calmed everything down for us, kept us on the right track. Having him and Al with us, going through and analysing our scrum sessions in the hotel at the end of each day, has been absolutely invaluable.”
Dell’s roommate for the week Huw Jones had a dream start to his first game on Scottish soil since he was in his junior school Under-11s team.
“’It was great on my starting debut to get over the line twice, so I am happy with that. But, at the end of the day, it is still a loss,” he said.
“At the end we just got a little tight on defence and Kuridrani was able to slip off a couple of tackles. We still felt we had a bit of time left but it was not to be.
“We’ll now look at the Argentina game, we played well but we can be better and we will be.”