Humble try scorer Bayliss believes Scotland are building to something special after Autumn Nations Series
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Scotland back rower Josh Bayliss believes Gregor Townsend’s side are building towards something special after ending their 2024 Autumn Nations Test Series with an impressive 27-13 win over Australia at Murrayfield.
The 27-year old brought his caps total to ten and his international try record to four with scores against the Wallabies and Portugal this month. With a high level of competition and plenty of strength in depth in the back row, the Bath player is knocking on the door of more regular game time in a dark blue jersey going into the 2025 Six Nations.
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Hide AdSpeaking after Sunday’s win, Bayliss was humble about his own contributions, starting with his try against the Aussies. He said: “I had a little bit of space on the outside and Darcy made a great break.
“I just tried to get up there with him and offer a bit of support and then managed to finish it in the corner. I think everyone would have been pretty upset if I'd run into touch, so I kind of had to finish it when I went on the outside."
Bayliss was described by head coach Gregor Townsend as one of the fastest players in the squad earlier in the evening but that wasn’t praise he was sure of, adding: “I don't know about that. I like to think speed is one of my strengths and try to use a little bit of footwork there and get on the outside, just give myself the ability to try and use a bit of that speed and basically put my head down and score.”
As wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe traded the all time try scoring record back and forth, Bayliss’ record of scoring in almost every other cap he has won is an impressive individual stat. “I don't normally sort of score too much,” he said. “I don't know what it is but, yeah, I think I probably got on the end of other people's hard work and just managed to finish a few.”
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Hide AdFinally, on his own chances of earning more regular game time and if he felt he’d taken his chances during this Series, he said: “It's been brilliant. It's always great to come into this environment and I've had a great last four weeks, I've absolutely loved it.
“The boys are brilliant. I think we're really building towards something and that's exactly how we wanted to finish it off out there with a win against Australia and I thought we really built that win today."
That being said, Bayliss is still aware of the task at hand to try and displace some of Scotland’s other stand out performers in the back row, adding: “There's seven, eight, nine guys who could easily start. I think, in that back row and that's just brilliant competition.
“It makes training so competitive and, yeah, just relish that competition. It's absolutely brilliant. And we all sort of obviously compete in sessions but also help each other and I think that's what's going to bring Scotland on the most."
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