Scotland’s theme for the 2016 RBS 6 Nations is “our time is now” which means that the championship is the aim, says Richie Gray.
“We’re certainly close, without getting too carried away,” said the big lock, who is certain to team up with younger brother Jonny in the Scottish pack’s engine room.
“We’re all looking forward to the weekend; what a challenge and what an opportunity for the team to go out against England in the opening game.
“From a team point of view I would love to do something in a Scotland jersey, I would love to go out and see us challenge for the title at the end of the championship.
“That would be brilliant and I genuinely believe we have the players and the staff who can do it.
“I believe, we believe, our time is now.”
It’s a phrase coming from the mouths of more than one Scottish player this week, a clear indication that the team are determined to move to the next level after their World Cup campaign showed that the foundations laid, even during last season’s dispiriting Six Nations whitewash, were being built upon.
Still, Scotland are not the only team looking to move on from the World Cup, as Gray pointed out.
“There will be a few teams who’ll want to put things right after the World Cup especially England,” said Gray. “I suspect they’ll want to right a few wrongs, and that makes them dangerous opposition.
“It’s going to be pretty intense. England have a new coach and a new captain and they’ll want to come up here and lay down a marker.
“At the same time, we want to lay down a marker too and put our stamp on the Championship.”
In the past England’s threats to try and beat up and bully Scotland in the forwards carried some weight, but Gray thinks that the Scots now have the forwards to stand up to it.
“England will try and rough us up in the pack, they’ve certainly said in the press that’s what they want to do,” he said.
“They’ll try and dominate that area, the first thing Eddie Jones said he wanted to do was ensure he had a strong pack and build on it.
“We could run them around but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. We will make sure we’re ready for it.”
But the Scots are confident that they can develop the style that impressed during the World Cup, added Gray.
“We came close to a semi-final but the manner in which we played throughout was pleasing,” he said. “We played the game we wanted to play, and I think that was important, high tempo, pretty ferocious stuff at times and by and large we were happy with how it went.
“But we are conscious though that we have to make improvements. We can’t get carried away with what happened in the World Cup because we have to get better and I think we can be competitive this year.
“As a group we’ve been together a while and building up to the World Cup we got to know each other better, there is a bond there now.
“It’s all about confidence. We have definitely underperformed in the Six Nations. We’ve had good autumns before and disappointed in the Six Nations, we need to build for sure this time.”