Scotland used the pain of past heartbreaks to conjure up a winning display against Ireland, according to lock Jonny Gray.
The Dark Blues kicked off an Six Nations campaign with a win for the first time in 11 years as they shot down Joe Schmidt’s men at Murrayfield.
But they had to show nerves of steel to clinch their 27-22 victory.
Stuart Hogg’s first-half double was followed up by a try to Alex Dunbar before the break to give Vern Cotter’s side a commanding 21-8 lead.
However, when Ireland roared back after the break, leading 22-21 with 18 minutes left, it looked as though the Scots were in for more disappointment.
In the last two years, Scotland have surrendered winning positions in the final throws three times – the first against Italy at Murrayfield during the 2015 Six Nations then twice to Australia in the World Cup quarter-finals before their recent autumn Test defeat in Edinburgh.
This time, though, they refused to buckle and fought back with two late Greig Laidlaw penalties.
It is a win which justifies the wave of optimism that has been circling round the Scotland camp all week and Gray says it took those late setbacks for Scotland to learn how to grind out victory.
“The experiences we’ve had before, there’s been a lot of pain in the Scotland shirt before,” the second-rower said. “It’s how you learn from that. We’ve still got a lot to grow.
“Ultimately it comes down to times like that at the end. It was hard, the boys were tired and sore. It was tough out there. There could have been a moment when we put our heads down but we knew we had to grind and luckily we get the win in the end and we’re absolutely delighted.
“Personally I’ve got a lot of improvements to make but it’s great to have guys like my brother [Richie] alongside me, sharing his experience, talking to Greig and seeing how he would deal with things, while there are other guys stepping up too.
“To stick together, have the belief, have Greig kicking over the points and then the game management from Finn Russell and other guys stepping up to see out the win, it was a special day to get a win over a tough Ireland side.
“We talk a lot about not making the same mistakes. In life and in rugby when you make mistakes it’s important to learn from them. Personally and as a team we’ve got a lot of improvements to make. We’re happy, it’s a good start but it’s going to be tough going forward.”