Scotland prop Allan Dell desperate for more international appearances

Scotland prop Allan Dell said he is keen to get more opportunities at the international level after impressive performances in the autumn internationals.

Injury to his Edinburgh team-mate Alasdair Dickinson presented Dell with his first opportunity for Scotland in the game against Australia at Murrayfield on 12th November and since then has played three matches overall featuring in the Tests against Argentina and Georgia as well.

Dickinson is likely to recover from his hamstring injury and is likely to make a return for Scotland in the Six Nations tournament next year but Dell does not want to give up his place without a fight.

"I really enjoyed my first three caps. The international game is a lot quicker, a lot more physical than the club game.

"I remember saying after the Australia game that I found the pace not only quicker physically, but also in the head as well.

"But all in all it was a great experience over the three games. That was my little learning block and after this I need to take it forward and start doing something bigger with it.

"Now I've had a taste of what international rugby is about, I don't want to give it up.

"Alasdair and guys like WP Nel are phenomenal rugby players, especially in the set-piece. They are old dogs with experience but all you can do as a prop is learn in the trenches.

"I'm fortunate to be at the same club as those guys and I just learn as much as I can from them. I'm grateful for that but at the same time I don't want to give up that jersey."

Dell, born in South Africa, also played for the South Africa Under-20 team in 2012, later shifted to Edinburgh for the 2014/15 season and qualified to play for Scotland through his grandmother, Joan Carmichael, who was born in Paisley and brought up in Edinburgh.

Even though Scotland head coach Vern Cotter called the 24-year-old first for the 2014 autumn Test series but he had to wait for two years to make his first international appearance. Dell defended Cotter's move as he needed time to get himself prepared for the rigours of international games.

"I was involved with the national team back in 2014 but personally I felt I wasn't ready at that point," he said. "But coming into these three games I had no doubts I could handle it.

"Obviously you get nervous and little things come into your head but at no point did I doubt myself."

Apart from Dell, prop Zander Fagerson and back-rowers Magnus Bradbury and Hamish Watson impressed for Scotland in the November Tests and the Edinburgh prop is confident that Cotter is building the team for future with proper blend of youth and experience.

He said: " The fantastic thing about this team is that a lot of the guys in key positions are quite young but they are gaining experience.

"If you can get a core of your team aged 24, 25 or 26 with a lot of caps, that just bodes well for the coming years because you will only get better from that point.

"You can see it with Finn Russell. When he first came on the scene he was exciting and you never knew what he was going to do. But now he's built up some experience he is learning fast. He has added some really strong tactical kicking to his game.

"You can only learn by being in these type of pressure situations. You don't do that by holding tackle bags.

"We had a tough lesson when we lost narrowly against Australia but we showed against Argentina we had learned from it and came back to get a good win."