MAKING a spectacular blunder that helps cost your side a key game in front of 67,000 fans can make or break a player. Peter Horne, the Scotland back, is adamant he has emerged stronger from his bitter experience in last year's match against Italy, when he missed touch with a penalty two minutes from the whistle.
"That night I just wanted to dig a hole, dive in it and never come out ever again, but the sun came up the next day; you have to face up and get on with it," he said. "In the end, it changed me. Off the back of that, I had some of my best form. It made me more determined to come back, be better and make sure I did learn from it.
"There is no point in running away from mistakes like that. It happened, it is never going to go away. I remember speaking about it before the World Cup – I used to take it all so seriously. Before that Italy game, I could have told you every single stat for six weeks leading up to that game. I did so much analysis, recovery, everything, I would do it all. I was desperate to make something happen and leave nothing to chance.
"Then freak things like that happen and you are more 'yeah things like that happen sometimes'. You have to relax and take it on the chin, get on with it. You made a terrible mistake but what is the point in beating yourself up about it for weeks? Luckily the week after, I had a game for Glasgow – two weeks later we played Leinster over there. A week is a long time, but you just have to suck it up and get on with it.
"I could have easily let that bother me and never come back from it but I love playing rugby. I have been miserable for the last eight weeks because I have been injured and not able to play. The weekend gone [when he played for Glasgow Warriors] was the most fun I have had in months."
In reality, the way Horne was singled out in some quarters was a bit unfair anyway. If his teammates had backed their defence, they would have expected to stop Italy scoring from an attack launched from inside their own half. It was the players who gave away a series of penalties and allowed the opposition to manoeuvre play to within five yards of the Scots line – where they won a penalty try for collapsing a maul – who really handed the result to the Azzurri.
For all that, a year later the result is still playing its part in helping to heap external pressure onto the Scotland side. It meant a game they were winning until the final second had been lost, the RBS Six Nations Championship whitewash followed and the losing run has since run into record territory, the last Six Nations win coming two years ago in Rome when Duncan Weir snatched the result with a late 40-metre drop goal.
Horne was not involved in that game – he had torn a knee ligament – so he is another of the current squad who has yet to win a Six Nations match, though in his case it is not that remarkable a statistic since only two of his 15 caps have come in the competition. That remains his only start and it came only because Finn Russell had been suspended for a dangerous challenge against Wales.
"It has been a while since we won and nobody is hurting more than the players," said Horne. "We are all desperate to set the record straight and to get that win we are all desperate for. We are all gutted at how things have gone. We are remaining positive. We did not play well against England but we did against Wales.
"We are still going in the right direction. It is easy to be negative and down about it all. That will not get us anywhere. We are remaining positive to get that first win. There are three games left in the Six Nations. It is not like it is the be-all and end-all this weekend. If we get a good result we can go on a roll."
For all that, he did get a good look at Italy in the World Cup warm-up match in Turin in August last year, and knows from first-hand experience how tough they will be. "Everyone thinks Italy are a weaker side but look what they have done so far," he pointed out. "They should have beaten France in France. If the 10 had dropped into the pocket [for a drop goal] they may have won. I watched their game against England and they were right in it until the interception try knocked the wind out of their sails. The scoreline did not reflect the game. we need to be at our best."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here