The 24-year-old was retained in the line-up to face Italy in the RBS 6 Nations by coach Matt Williams despite many believing he would make way for the fit-again Simon Webster.

But Williams omitted Simon Danielli instead, preferring Lamonts superior defence over the Borders flyers pace out wide for the bottom-of-the-table championship clash.

Lamont responded to this show of confidence from his coach with a fine all-round display of pace, power and hunger for the action in Scotlands 18-10 victory.

Indeed, he was only denied a third try for his country by referee Stuart Dickinson, who ruled a pass had gone forward in the move leading to the wing's 64th-minute touchdown at Murrayfield.

The former Dundee HSFP star said: I know what I can do. I just havent been able to do it in the blue jersey.

I got more ball on Saturday and enjoyed that. It wasnt because I had a licence to go looking for it, Ive had that all the time but just havent done it.

We played much better in the second half and I got a fair bit to do and all I was trying to do was avoid the tackles and stay on my feet as long as possible. In a game like that, thats what youve got to do.

Lamont admits he was devastated to see a first Murrayfield try ruled out, but did take satisfaction from the hard tackles he put in on a couple of the Italian backs.

The Perth-born wing man said: It was annoying to say the least! I thought it was a good pass from Chris (Paterson) but maybe the referee had seen something before that.

I was celebrating when I realised hed chalked it off. It would have been nice to score to round off the day.

The big hits were nice though. Jason White put in a couple against Ireland two weeks ago and I managed to get a couple in on Saturday.

As with every Scotland player, Lamont felt a huge sense of relief at the win, the first he and several of the younger members of the team have ever experienced.

He said: We needed that win. Its been a while coming but for all the work we put in its deserved.

Its not like we havent been putting the work in, its just that we havent been able to take it onto the pitch.

Hopefully we can build on it now and put some results together. We dont want one good result then one bad one.