KYLE Steyn had two tries and a whole lot of good individual to celebrate last night, as well as a seriously impressive performance from the Scotland team as a whole. But he reserved especial praise for Finn Russell, who orchestrated the home attack and had a direct hand in four of his team’s five tries - including those two scored by Glasgow winger Steyn himself.
In common with the other members of the squad - players and coaches alike - who spoke after yesterday’s 35-7 victory over Wales at BT Murrayfield - Steyn did his best to stay level-headed. The collective message after the win over England a week earlier had been that one match does not make a championship. The message after this round-two result was remarkably similar.
But although Steyn referred to the period in the first half in which Scotland were a man down after George Turner had been sent to the sinbin and Wales were in the ascendancy, he was also happy to celebrate the pleasing aspects of the win. "Really pleased with that, especially after the first half,” the Warriors captain said.
“It was decent, but we knew we were a little bit off it discipline-wise. I'm just really proud of the boys, how we dug in and saw out those dark moments and the way we put them under the pump in the second half.
"I think it's just trust,” he continued when asked how Scotland had been able to recover so confidently from that period of pressure from Wales. “Trust in our systems, trust in ourselves and where we are at. There was confidence, moments from last week when we were able to see them out. We took confidence from that. We came out well and fought pretty hard.
"Ruthless, or relentless, was a word we used all week. We talked about that, that no matter what we keep going again. On attack, Finn [Russell] was brilliant there - he was pulling the strings tonight.
“And I thought on D [defence], whenever they were in our half the boys were superb. The work rate and hustle to get back was outstanding.”
Among the many admirable aspects of Russell’s man-of-the-match performance was a superb offload for Steyn’s first try. The stand-off looked like he was trying to get to the goal line himself, but was tackled a few metres short. As he was falling to the ground, he succeeded in getting away a backhand pass to his winger, who had a simple job to finish off.
"Amazing, eh?,” Steyn said of the pass. “You've just got to expect anything when you are with him. That's what I learned through training and playing a couple of games with him. Whenever he's there, you just try and hover in and around and tend to get something.
"You’ve just got to back him. The problem is that he plays like he's got so much time on the ball. I just want the ball now! So it's more a case of holding my feet, that I don't overrun him. Just give him time to do his thing.”
Russell certainly had time to do his thing in the build-up to Steyn’s second try, which saw the stand-off send a kick sailing to the corner. The winger caught it, and although a Welsh defender got pretty close, there was no way he was going to be stopped short of the line.
"They had a yellow card that makes defending in that area really tricky,” he added, referring to the ten-minute banishment of Wales full-back Liam Williams as referee Andrew Brace finally tired of repeated offences within their own 22 from the visitors. “Finn put it on the money.”
Clearly, Scotland are far more than a one-man team these days, and have a maturity throughout their ranks that was reflected in the calm way in which they regained control of the match after Wales’ brief period on top. But according to Steyn the presence in that team of such a world-class player as Russell gives everyone a psychological lift.
"Just being able to be that more accurate, be on the front foot, it's massive energy,” he concluded. “You don't have to expend as much of your own, that's the biggest thing. We feel like we've got really good momentum and his decision-making around that area of the pitch is world-class.”
