Glen Young hopes consistent performances for Edinburgh will propel him into the Scotland reckoning and is desperate to be involved against an England team “everyone wants to beat” in the Six Nations.

The lock was one of seven members of the Scotland squad to be released for Friday’s trip to face Zebre in Parma, along with the likes of deposed national captain Jamie Ritchie and rising star Harry Paterson.

But an error-strewn Edinburgh toiled in Italy and required a final-quarter turnaround to take a scrappy 24-19 victory back to the capital.

While Young admitted it wasn’t the kind of game that will hugely boost his case for a place in Gregor Townsend’s matchday squad, he knows what he needs to do and is eager to be involved when the Auld Enemy cross the border to contest the Calcutta Cup on Saturday.   

“It’s just consistency. If I play how I know I can play, hopefully I’ll be in with a shout,” Young said.

“The other boys played really well against France so that’s up to Gregor. But play as well as I’ve played. Tonight wasn’t the best game, so we’ll wait and see next week. I would love to get a run out.

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“Being a Scottish person growing up, you can’t shy away from the fact that the English game is probably the biggest one. Everybody always wants to beat England.

“I’ve never been involved in a Six Nations when they’ve played England so this is my first time, but I can imagine the boys will be gunning for it because I know if I’m playing or even if I’m not involved, I’ll be really excited for it.”

Young wasn’t named in Townsend’s matchday squad for the opening two games, with serious traffic in front of him in the shape of Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, Scott Cummings and Sam Skinner – although Gray has since been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament. 

Scotland’s campaign kicked off with a breathtaking narrow win against Wales in Cardiff, before they were denied a momentous victory over France when Skinner was ruled not to have grounded what appeared to be a match-winning try at the death.

The decision was a gut punch for Scottish rugby, and Young said the distraction of a return to club duties was welcome.

“Obviously we were really gutted,” he said of the France loss.

“I’ve loved being back here at Edinburgh this week, getting a chance to play. It’s been really good being in Scotland camp, but you want to play, and I’ve not played these first two games. I love it when I come back and play for Edinburgh.  

“Even though tonight wasn’t the prettiest of games, it was good to take our mind off the France thing and move on.”  

Young started in Italy as an error-strewn Edinburgh managed to wrestle the momentum back in their favour in the second half, a penalty try and Dave Cherry score proving enough for the win and adding to Boan Venter’s earlier dot-down.

The result marked Edinburgh’s third league away win of the season and kept them firmly in the play-off mix in the URC table and breathing down the neck of rivals Glasgow Warriors.

While there was plenty to be desired about the performance, Young saw some positives that underline a newfound spirit in the side this season.

“It was very scrappy, but if you had asked me at 60/65 minutes if we were to leave with a win and four points, I would’ve taken it. I’m happy in the end to get the win, but we know we’re much better than that,” Young said.   

“Maybe in the past we would have lost that,” he added.

“But we’ve talked about being an 80-minute team this year. We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve been behind – Dragons in the first game of the season comes to mind – and we’ve come back away from home to win it in the last 10/15 minutes.

“It shows we’ve built a bit of resilience and we’re building to be an 80-minute team.”

Next up for Sean Everitt’s side is the visit of Ospreys to the Hive Stadium in the URC on Friday, 1 March.