WHEN Vern Cotter arrived at Murrayfield in the summer of 2014 he quickly set about establishing a style of play for the national team that he believed suited the Scottish identity. It was a surprise to some that he should so quickly get a grasp on the character of rugby in this country given his previous lack of involvement, but yesterday, at the launch of what will be his last Six Nations Championship as Scotland’s head coach, Cotter revealed that in a sense he had actually had quite a few years to prepare for the job.

As a coach at Clermont from 2006, Cotter soon grew accustomed to seeing Scotland regarded as the whipping boys of the tournament. With former Jed-Forest prop Neil McIlroy being one of his assistants, he developed an affinity with the team despite - or perhaps because of - the fact that they were the butt of some robust Gallic humour.

“Neil was always supporting Scotland fervently and got a bit of a hard time,” Cotter explained. “I'd watched Scotland playing, the spirit they had, the way they played the game. They were innovative.

“I always loved watching them and then when everyone was laughing at them over a sweepstake I was thinking ‘I‘d like to see those guys get a bit of pride back in their game and get a bit of a smile back on their faces again’. So when the opportunity arose I thought it was one of those things that are meant to happen.

“Every country has its own culture and history. Everybody needs to have roots. It's about who you are, what you believe in, and the people around you that support you and share the same beliefs. It's important to have that deep cultural identity. All successful teams or businesses have that.”

Although he had several years in France to grow used to the standard of play in the Six Nations, Cotter admitted that only once he had become personally involved did he realise how difficult it was to make progress in the tournament. Having said that, as he prepares for his last Championship before returning to club rugby in France, he can look back with some satisfaction on the progress Scotland have made under him.

“The first Six Nations was a revelation to me just how tough it was. But I always sit down and take positives and I got a very clear indication of what had to be done.

“There have been games that have been very disappointing to have lost and from those there have been honest reviews that have helped move us forward. If you look at the leadership group, Greig [Laidlaw] has been the obvious leader and helped guys like Finn [Russell] and Hoggy [Stuart Hogg] around him. He's been able to lean on guys like Jonny Gray, a young man who is accumulating Test caps. We’re still a long way away from reaching that famous point where the majority of your team is between 40 and 80 Test caps, but we're getting there.”

Sitting alongside Cotter at the launch, Scotland captain Laidlaw acknowledged that the opening match was going to be tough, and suggested his squad should set a target of winning more games than they did in 2016, when they won in Italy and beat France at home. “We won’t get ahead of ourselves, and Vern has spoken about how tough this Ireland game will be,” the scrum-half said. “That’s first up and you know it’s going to be tough.

“But we played extremely well against Australia in November, we won against Argentina and played well against Georgia. We won two games in the Six Nations Championship last year and we’d like to win more than that this year.”

Sooner or later, World Rugby is expected to change the international residency qualification from three years to five years. Scotland, one of the countries to have taken advantage of the situation as it stands to introduce players such as WP Nel into the national team, have so far continued to back the status quo. But Cotter believes that on balance the change could be beneficial for the game as a whole.

“I think it will probably go to five years and that probably is a good thing. I think the general consenus is that it should go to five years.

“It’s not something I’ve thought about, but making it five years is probably a good thing. It would affect some of our players but it’s the same for everybody.

“It would mean the academies and the youth programmes would need to be in order so we could bring players through. There are pros and cons, and I can understand why they’d want to move it to five years.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Grant, the former Scotland and Lions loosehead prop, has left Glasgow Warriors for Worcester Warriors. The 31-year-old, who has been capped 25 times, was with Glasgow for seven years but has failed to hold down a first-team place in the past couple of seasons.

“I’ll always have a spot for Glasgow in my heart,” Grant said yesterday. “Some of my best friends still play for this club and as far as I’m concerned when I look back at my career I’ll always be a Glasgow Warrior. A change in circumstances and a change in surroundings might be what I need to get back to my best again.”

Glasgow have also confirmed that Tongan international tighthead prop Sila Puafisi will leave at the end of the season to join French club Brive. Another tighthead prop, Jarrod Firth, has left for France - Glasgow have not specified his destination - while USA international back-row forward Langilangi Haupeakui has returned to America for what the club have called “family reasons”.