Scotland v Samoa: Ali Price says side have added to their repertoire

Ali Price made his Scotland debut against Georgia at Rugby Park in November 2016

The relationship between a scrum-half and his pack of forwards is like something you might see on One Man And His Dog when Shep the sheepdog responds dutifully to his master's whistle.

A scrum-half directs and the big men are supposed to obey, every single time.

Given the nature of rugby these days, and how massive these players have become, a scrum-half's lot might be more akin to herding cattle. That's the analogy we go for while sitting with Ali Price at Oriam. Herding cattle? "Well, yeah, have you seen the size of some of these guys?

"You have to give them a slap," Price adds. "You have to talk to Tim Swinson (his Glasgow and Scotland team-mate) about this. He loves me. I'm naturally quite a nippy bloke and Tim doesn't like me sometimes. In fairness, I think it might be the way I put it across to him"

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He laughs at the memory of some of these moments, but amid the gently mocking humour there is a serious point. At the start of the season, Price sat down with his half-back partner and big mate, Finn Russell, and they both agreed that they need to step up in the leadership function at Glasgow and Scotland. The time had come.

"I feel like I'm doing that," he says. "Me and Finn said it was something we can work on to drive the team. We're the half-backs and it's the little things that count.

"It's sitting up the front at meetings and contributing, it's being out on the pitch and putting your point across if you're behind the sticks and you've just conceded.

"It's an extra dimension you can add to your game and something that Greig (Laidlaw) is brilliant at. As a half-back, it's important to have that quality. I like to think I can contribute more now than I have done in the past. "

Laidlaw is, of course, absent for the autumn, injury having claimed the captain. That leaves Price in the same box-seat where he has been since midway through last season's Six Nations.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind for him. This time last year Price was little more than a curiosity to then-Scotland head coach Vern Cotter, a boy to hold the tackle bags while the big hitters went to work.

Heading into the autumn series in 2016, Cotter named a training squad of 31 players and Price was not among them. He was invited into the camp as an extra. Third in line behind Laidlaw and Henry Pyrgos, not even Price himself reckoned he'd make a mark, but he did.

"A crazy year" is how he describes what's happened to him. "Scotland wasn't even on my radar. I was shocked."

Price made his debut off the bench against Georgia in Kilmarnock last November and has scarcely looked back. Rugby's brutality has opened doors. Pyrgos got injured, then Laidlaw. Opportunity knocking is one thing, but taking the chance when it comes is another. Price, full of pace and attacking intent, has been excellent.

"I play every game like it could be my last," he says. "That's the way I see it. It's not my God-given right to be out there playing every week. I have to justify why I'm out there. That's my mentality.

"I'm a different kind of scrum-half to Greig, who's a brilliant game manager and has all the experience. I'm more of a running nine.

"I'm not sure what Gregor (Townsend, Scotland head coach) would have done had we both been fit, but Greig is a man I respect massively. He always has brilliant points in meetings, he always thinks of stuff you don't see.

"He's been in every situation out there on the field, similar to Mike Blair (Scotland skills coach and former Test scrum-half and captain). After every game I go through it with Mike, just learning about situations that he has been in many times and that I might have just encountered for the first time."

Saturday against Samoa will be Townsend's first Test at Murrayfield as Scotland head coach, a stadium he graced 42 times as a player. Are there differences between Townsend and his predecessor, Cotter? Yes, says Price.

Price has formed an effective half-back partnership with flatmate Finn Russell for club and country

"Gregor wants to play the fastest brand of rugby in the world," he says. "I think we have more to our repertoire than we had before. Gregor has brought in more plays. Under Vern there were five or six plays going into a series and some variations off those plays but everything was very simple. Both have big emphasis on basic skills and aggression. The main difference is that our playbook is more extensive."

The scrum-half goes into this series on the back of two wounding losses in Europe, the defeat at Exeter and the home loss to Leinster. Glasgow were out-muscled in both of those games and the pain is something that might well be driving on the Warriors contingent in the Scotland camp.

"We didn't turn up for those games, especially the Leinster game," Price says. "We wanted Scotstoun to be our fortress and in the league it still is (Warriors have won all of their games in the Pro14), but the way we rolled over to them was disappointing."

He talks about this week being a clean slate, a chance to build cohesion and confidence against Samoa and take that vibe into Australia and New Zealand. "The stadium will be very close to being full for Samoa, which is fantastic thing. We have to justify that faith in us."