Brierley knows Scots must be sharper

Scotland halfback Ryan Brierley is proud of the try he scored on his international debut against Australia on Friday evening, but would prefer to be celebrating team success.

The Scots were beaten 54-12 by the Kangaroos, but showed some flashes of quality and spirit, which included Brierley’s well-taken try, with the halfback touching down after a clever Danny Brough grubber kick.

“It’s always nice to score tries, but I am a part of a team and I always look at the full time score rather than what I did,” said Brierley.

“But scoring on the international stage is something I’ve always dreamed of, and that dream came true.”

Despite the large scoreline, Brierley felt that the Bravehearts, coached by Steve McCormack, showed real spirit.

That is something that they will really need next week when they face England at Coventry.

“One thing you can’t question is our character,” he said.

“After the game we knew we had left everything on the field, we didn’t have anything left to give.

“I’m really proud of our boys for the way they stuck in. No one can question our effort, we just need to be a bit sharper and hopefully we will learn some good lessons from this game and take it into next week against England.

“In the changing room after the game Steve said we got a lot from that and we have a week of training now to build on it and prepare for the next game.

“Hopefully we can kick on and push England.

“For your first international cap you are not going to get much tougher than that.

“We knew we could expect some tough times, although we probably didn’t expect it to be as tough as that.

“To go up against someone like Cooper Cronk is a shot I thought I would never get. About three years ago I remember asking him for his autograph as a fan!”