It’s not often that the tight head prop, the guy who is the least visible in the scrum, gets the Man of the Match award. But Moray Low, who was not even Scotland’s first choice prop a year ago, fully deserved his award for his performance against Fiji.
Low was clearly delighted with his performance and his award afterwards and flattered by the praise from Mike Brewer, the former Scotland forward coach, now technical adviser for Fiji. “That’s always nice to hear from a former coach” he said.
“But it was a full 8 man job” he went on. “I could feel the weight behind me, lifting me off my feet sometimes. That’s what you like to feel, that consistency.”
Scotland had clearly planned to dominate the Fijians up front and control the game from there. It was a tactic that paid off. Scotland dominated in the set pieces, line out as well as scrum. And the dazzling backs that Fiji can call on rarely got a sight of the ball when they were not already on the back foot.
It was Brewer who offered the shrewdest analysis. “They [Scotland] played a pretty structured game. They did exactly what we expected of them. They weren’t ever going to throw the ball around. We fell down in the set-piece and compounded that by giving away 15 penalties and two free kicks. But they’ll have to improve a bit if they want to beat the big boys.”
But he was full of praise for Low in particular. "He's come on immensely. He's more of a rugby player than Geoff [Cross, whom Low replaced]. When you bring [injured players] Euan Murray and Jim Hamilton there'll be some real competition.
Low and all the Scotland players had clearly been briefed that “improvement was needed” was the thing to say and duly said it. But he could hardly keep the smile off his face at for once being in the limelight.
“At least I’ll get some video on the Australian guy I‘m up against next week” he joked. The Fijian opposition had been an unknown quantity.
