Greig Laidlaw is planning two visits to BT Murrayfield this weekend.

The first, on Saturday, will be to captain Scotland against Italy as they pursue their first win of this year's RBS 6 Nations campaign. The second, the following day, will be to cheer on Jed Thistle, the under 18 team where he cut his rugby teeth, as they take on Highland in the National Youth League Cup.

That lingering attachment to his sporting roots says a lot about Laidlaw's down-to-earth outlook on life, and the former joiner is just as grounded about Scotland's performances over the past few weeks. So while others have heaped praise on the boldness and alacrity Scotland have brought to their two championship outings already this month, Laidlaw's focus is on the fact that performances mean nothing if they don't produce results.

Hence his determination that the 15-8 loss to France in Paris and the 23-26 setback against Wales at Murrayfield should now be followed by a win, any old win, in Edinburgh this weekend. Yes, he is excited by the heads-up style of rugby Scotland have been playing, but this feistiest and most competitive of characters is never going to acquire a taste for finishing on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

"We don't want to play well and get beat," he said firmly. "We'd rather play badly and win. If we're going to be this team we're talking about, the team we want to be, we need to start winning games, specially at home. We should have won [against Wales]. That's cutting us up, so that energy is driving us forward.

"If we do the things we've talked about and limit the errors slightly, I truly believe that we'll win this weekend. And there's still three games to be won for Scotland in the championship. It's a tight championship, we've come up just short, we want to get the wheels rolling this weekend.

"We need to win. Of course we do. We want to finish as high up in the championship as we can, and if we get beat on Saturday we're in a bit of trouble."

They certainly will be. The must-win game is just about the oldest and weariest cliché in sport, but on this occasion it also happens to be true. A victory would fend off the dread prospect of a whitewash and make the wooden spoon far less likely, it would also add confidence and momentum to as side that Laidlaw believes is as good as any he has been part of in his five seasons as an international player.

Certainly, he thinks that the current Glasgow-dominated backline is the best he has been involved with. "We've got some good backs," the 29-year-old suggested. "Finn [Russell] is full of confidence, Mark Bennett is playing well, Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Sean Lamont are very exciting backs and there's competition for places, which is important."

The Scottish backs cut Italy to shreds the last time the two sides met in Edinburgh. In that 2013 match, which Scotland won 34-10, they scored all four of the Scotland tries, with Laidlaw converting the lot for good measure. Yet things were a lot tighter in Rome last year, when it took a last-minute dropped goal by Duncan Weir to get Scottish noses in front, so Laidlaw is well aware that nothing can be taken for granted this time.

Yet with centre Andrea Masi already ruled out and prop Martin Castrogiovanni a serious doubt, Italy have taken serious blows this week. It goes without saying that Scotland should respect opponents who put three tries past England in the last round of the championship, but they can also exploit weaknesses. Italy had some horrible defensive lapses at Twickenham, and they also appeared to run out of gas around the hour mark against both Ireland and England.

Laidlaw said: "They're a big team. They like the set-piece side of the game, the French mentality almost. If we can play with speed and get quick ball, move it away and lessen the number of rucks we're having, we feel we can go for 80 minutes and hopefully they'll run out of steam before we do.

"Italy maybe struggle at the tail end of games. England pulled away in the end in the last game down there. That's a big part of the game for us. We just need to limit the number of penalties we give away and not give them easy field position."

Laidlaw has played four times against Italy, and has lost just once - in the whitewash 2012 season that was Andy Robinson's last championship as Scotland coach. He will stand up for his town on Sunday, but on Saturday it is all about his country.

"The boys are looking forward to running out at Murrayfield again, in front of a record crowd for the Italian game," he said. "I think the Scottish public are connecting with this team. Now it's really important that we push on and make sure that we win."