Six Nations: Scotland’s Kyle Steyn praises ‘unbelievable’ Ali Price

Scotland’s Kyle Steyn heaped praise on scrumhalf Ali Price after the Scot was named man-of-the match in his 50th appearance for his country against Italy in Rome.

Price had a hand in all four of Scotland’s tries en route to a 33-22 win against Italy to claim the inaugural Cuttitta Cup.

Steyn was thrilled for his teammate showing his class on the day of his personal milestone.

“Ali’s unbelievable,” said Steyn. “It was great to see, especially on his 50th cap. He’s someone who wears his heart on his sleeve.

“We all know how much playing for Scotland means to him. It was great to see him at his best – attacking, running the ball, making line-breaks and creating tries.”

Several of Scotland’s flair players came to the fore on a day when they scored five eye-catching tries, and wing Steyn believes it bodes well for next weekend’s campaign-concluding trip to Ireland.

“The strength of our attack was a massive positive,” said Steyn. “A lot of it came from turnover and our ability to quickly transition, which we’re really chuffed with.

“We just want to take that forward to Dublin, where we know that game management and playing rugby in the right areas of the park is going to be crucial early on.

“We’ll back ourselves to take chances when they arise, but the biggest thing is we need to be ready to go there and front up.”

While Scotland generally attacked impressively in Rome, they were undermined by some slack defending which resulted in them conceding three tries, including two in the closing quarter.

Reflecting on the Italy match overall, Steyn said: “I think first up, five points away from home in the Six Nations, you’re going to take that any day of the week.

“We knew especially on defence we weren’t as consistent as we wanted