Huw Jones insists Scotland cannot be considered Six Nations title contenders until they prove they can string big victories together.
The Scots have pulled off several notable results in recent seasons but have been unable to deliver consistently enough to get themselves into the mix for glory.
After Saturday’s rousing win away to England, centre Jones has called on his team-mates to show they are a side of genuine substance by backing it up with victory over Wales at BT Murrayfield this Saturday.
“The biggest thing for us is building momentum,” he said, when asked if Scotland can vie for the title. “We come in every year and we like to think we’ve got a chance, but we haven’t proved that, really.
“We’ve had some big wins but we’ve never strung them together consistently. For us, building momentum is the key now.
“Winning the first two games would be huge and that would give us confidence, but not too much that we will get over-confident.
“If we can win this weekend it will put us in a good place going forward and we know there is more on the line. If we do that, it wouldn’t just be a case of trying to finish as high as we can, we’d have a chance to do something special.”
In each of the past two campaigns, Scotland have beaten England in the first week and then lost to Wales in the second match. Jones explained that his team are conscious of the need to avoid the same thing happening this time round.
“It’s something we spoke about in the first week when we came in here, about how historically we’ve had some big wins but we’ve not always managed to back them up,” said Jones.
“We’ll get to the end of a championship and we’ll always be disappointed with how we’ve done, thinking we could have done a lot better with the guys we’ve got in the room.
“There was a massive emphasis from everyone saying, ‘We can’t have that again’. We know we’re good enough to beat the teams in this competition, but the main thing is stringing together good performances and being able to build some momentum.”
Jones scored a try for Scotland at Twickenham on Saturday in his first appearance for the national team in just over two years.
Having struggled with injury in recent seasons, he was delighted to mark his 32nd cap in such style.
“Since coming back from injury, things have gone well,” he said. “I’ve trained well and that usually translates on to the pitch for me. I’m just trying to keep that up.
“At the beginning of my career, international games and tries seemed to come quite easy and that obviously dropped off a bit for a while so now when I do get the chance to play, I really cherish it.
“Getting over the try-line is always special but it’s even more special when you realise how lucky you are to be in that position.”
