SCOTLAND captain Greig Laidlaw enjoyed a successful return to action when he came off the bench to help Gloucester beat La Rochelle their Challenge Cup semi-final at the weekend. Now he hopes for a winning send-off from the English club in the final itself - to be played next month back at his old home ground, BT Murrayfield.

The scrum-half, who had been out of action since being injured in Scotland’s Six Nations Championship match against France in February, is leaving Gloucester after three years and moving on to France. His last appearance, presuming he is selected, will be against Stade Francais on Friday 12 May. If he stays in Edinburgh for another day he will be able to watch his new club, Clermont Auvergne, in the Champions Cup final against holders Saracens.

The priority, of course, will be claiming the Challenge Cup for the second time in three years - Laidlaw also won it in his first season with the West Country club, against his old club Edinburgh. “If we could win again it would certainly top it off,” he said. “I think it would be brilliant to finish my Gloucester career in Edinburgh on a high. It would be unique in a sense.

“Obviously I love playing at BT Murrayfield for Scotland – the recent win over Ireland was one of my most memorable games in the Scotland shirt – so it would be great to add another in Gloucester colours before I move on. It would be a nice way to finish.

“The support we get from Gloucester fans is superb. They’ve been queuing at the ticket office since we beat La Rochelle, so I expect we’ll see a few of them in Edinburgh for the final. Hopefully, with the Scottish connection to Gloucester through me and many other Scotland players before, we’ll have the backing of the Scottish support as well.”

Laidlaw will be more familiar with the national stadium than anyone else in the Challenge Cup final, having played 33 times for Scotland there as well as being based there with Edinburgh for eight seasons from 2006. The Stade Francais squad will at least have some recent experience of playing at the ground, however, as they lost to Edinburgh in the pool stages of the same competition back in December. They beat Edinburgh back at home just five days later, and qualified for the knockout stages as runners-up to the Scottish team. They then beat Harlequins in the last eight before defeating Bath in the semi-final.

Gloucester centre Matt Scott, who was also injured while playing for Scotland in the Six Nations, is now close to making a comeback and could join Laidlaw in coming into contention for a place against his former team. He has two English Premiership matches in which to stake a claim for a spot in the final squad - away to Bath on Sunday, and then at home to Exeter Chiefs on Saturday 6 May.

Laidlaw, of course, will also be targeting those two games as he bids to go from a place on the bench to one in the starting line-up. Having only made that one substitute’s appearance in the past couple of months, he knows he is some way off full match fitness, but he explained that he can feel himself getting better by the day, and paid tribute to the work done by Gloucester’s backroom staff

“The physio and strength and conditioning teams have worked really hard to get me to this place,” he added. “I felt good in the semi-final and will continue to work on getting my sharpness back. I’m feeling better every day. It’s just about fine tuning now.”

Meanwhile, a European Professional Club Rugby disciplinary hearing will take place today after La Rochelle second row Jone Qovu Nailiko was the subject of a citing complaint in his club’s defeat by Gloucester. The complaint, made by the citing commissioner, alleges that the forward struck Gloucester hooker Richard Hibbard early in the second half of his team’s 16-14 loss.

Kathrine Mackie of Scotland will chair the hearing, while Simon Thomas of Wales and Jean-Noel Couraud of France are the other members of the independent disciplinary committee. The hearing will be held in Paris.

Law 10.4 (a), which concerns striking another player with the hand, arm or fist, carries some potentially heavy sanctions if the offence is deemed heavy enough. The entry point for a low-end offence is just two weeks, for a mid-range offence four weeks, and for a top-end one a very wide-ranging eight to 52 weeks.

European Rugby finals at BT Murrayfield

Friday 12 May: Challenge Cup final: Gloucester v Stade Francais Paris (8pm).

Saturday 13 May: Continental Shield final: Enisei v Krasny Yar (back pitches, noon).

Champions Cup final: Clermont Auvergne v Saracens (5pm).