Ambitious Scotland lock know what's required as he details work-ons from coaches

It has taken Williamson nine caps to cross the whitewash. Nearly two metres tall, he needed every inch of his frame to wriggle away from two Tongan tackles and just get the ball on the whitewash during the first half at Murrayfield.

"I was just glad I got it on the line to be honest,” recalled Williamson. “I knew I'd gotten it down, but I was a bit worried I might be short, but thankfully it wasn't. It was an amazing feeling.”

Williamson caught the eye against Tonga in other ways too. He and fellow lock Alex Samuel were competitive at the lineout and dominant at the breakdown. They weren’t overawed by the visitors’ sheer physicality. They are the latest second row to emerge and are competing alongside Scott Cummings, Grant Gilchrist, Marshall Sykes and Gregor Brown for places in the Scotland pack.

“It's been an excellent sort of learning experience,” said Williamson of the November Tests. “I felt like going in over the last few weeks, it's been a great chance to learn off some of the older guys and things and build each week and then get that opportunity to play in the last game, get a full sort of stint was really good too.

“It is really competitive, there's a lot of good locks in Scotland at the minute, but I think that's really good for us, all able to learn off each other and keeping it really competitive.”

Williamson now has to keep performing at club level with Warriors ahead of the Six Nations. He is not short of big matches to get his teeth into, with 1872 Cup clashes with Edinburgh and Champions Cup assignments against the likes of Toulouse.

When asked what he wants to work on, Williamson added: “Continuing to develop my ball carrying. We're working a lot with John Dalziel [Scotland forwards coach] on that, and then just that physicality all around the game is really important for me, so keep driving that too.”