A SCOTLAND side without Greig Laidlaw would have been all but unthinkable just a short time ago. Not only was the scrum-half the captain and the goal-kicker, he was a leader without peer and a competitor par excellence: the smallest man in the team, but with the biggest heart and the best brain to boot.

Now, with the Six Nations Championship only two weeks away, the question is whether Laidlaw will be in the side at all, never mind have such a pre-eminent place in it. The 32-year-old has yet to return to action since breaking his leg in October, and although a return is imminent according to his club, it is now almost a year since he last played a Test. In that time, Scotland have made significant progress, adopting an all-action style of play under new head coach Gregor Townsend that, on the face of it at least, would be better suited to some of Laidlaw’s rivals.

There is a new captain in John Barclay. A consummate goal-kicker in Finn Russell. A young, dynamic scrum-half in Ali Price, who first took over from Henry Pyrgos as Glasgow’s first-choice No 9, and since then has become established in the same role for Scotland.

Anyone who was selected for the British & Irish Lions as recently as last summer clearly still has a lot to offer, and Laidlaw, although not the most-capped member of the squad, is surely still the wisest. Given the triple role that he can play, he also remains the most economical selection that Townsend could make: nowhere else in the squad is there anyone who could lead the side and take the kicks as well as holding down his own position with such assurance.

Nonetheless, if Scotland are wholehearted in their avowed commitment to playing the fastest-tempo rugby in the world, can they afford to pick a scrum-half who is not as quick as his three rivals for the jersey, with Edinburgh’s Nathan Fowles having been included alongside Glasgow pair Pyrgos and Price in Townsend’s 40-strong squad?

The head coach remains a great admirer of Laidlaw, and, when asked if his chosen style of play meant there was no place for his fellow-Borderer, insisted such an analysis was superficial.

“The fastest individual is different to getting the ball away quickly,” Townsend explained last week after naming a squad that is designed to provide the teams for the first two Championship fixtures at least. “Henry or Greig or Nathan, we believe they can do like Ali, which is get to that ruck and get the ball away quickly. And Greig has done that very well. He can play a very high-tempo game if that’s what the coaches want.

“It’s a position we demand the most of: they have to be the fittest in the team and accurate after multi-phase, which is very tough. But Greig then offers leadership, he offers experience of big games, he offers goal-kicking.”

Consistency and composure are other factors in Laidlaw’s favour. Certainly, if Scotland find themselves in a winning position with, say, 20 minutes to go and need to close down the game, the former skipper is your man. But what if they need to step it up instead? Again, Townsend disagrees with those detractors who see the lack of top-end speed as a major failing in Laidlaw.

“I think he played very well last year,” the coach said. “There were times when Scotland played very high tempo and there were times when they slowed it right down to play closer to the pack and he managed that. He played the most minutes; sometimes he played 80 minutes. That was his most successful period, when he was fit and playing.

“It will be a lot to do with form, and if he gets into the form that he was in before his injury then we’re in a really good place. It would have been great if Greig had played two weeks ago, but if he doesn’t play next week that’s going to be a blow for him and for us. So let’s hope he gets to play next week, but there’s a couple of things that need to fall into place for that to happen. He has to get the all clear from a specialist, then he has to get Clermont to select him.”

While playing his cards close to his chest when it came to selection, Townsend did make it clear the captaincy was no longer an option for Laidlaw even if he should be passed fit in time to play against Wales at the start of next month. The reason? Barclay’s unimpeachable performances in the role since taking over.

“Going into November, Greig had missed the summer tour because he was playing with the British & Irish Lions. Now it would have been pretty hard on him to say ‘you’re no longer captain’.

“We got a great surprise – not a great surprise, a great boost, at the way John stepped up to captaincy during the Six Nations when Greig got injured. He captained the team in the summer tour.

“I met both of them in August to really talk about we’ve got two great captains here. We’d not made any decision ahead of November, and then as we were leading into November it was going to be Greig that was going to be captain. Unfortunately he got injured two weeks before we met up.

“But since that time John has captained even better. He’s performed really well – led the team to a very good win over Australia for the second time under his captaincy. He has earned that right.”

For his part, Laidlaw has long since earned the right not to be written off. But, having seen three able deputies arise in his absence - Barclay as skipper, Price as 9 and Russell as the main kicker - he faces one of the toughest fights of his career if he is to win back what once seemed his inalienable right, a place in Scotland’s starting XV.