He has been proud to have followed in his famous relative's footsteps but Greig Laidlaw is determined to avoid emulating uncle Roy this weekend by becoming part of a Scotland team that is coated with whitewash.
The 26-year-old half-back, has shown himself to be very much a chip off the old block in switching position from scrum-half to stand-off, just as Roy did when he allowed Gary Armstrong to come in as Jed-Forest's scrum-half 25 years ago. However, while Roy became a national hero in 1984, scoring two tries in the Triple Crown-winning match against Ireland before helping Scotland secure a first Grand Slam in 59 years against France, he was also part of the team that lost every match in 1985.
This squad has already had the same sequence of results against England, Wales, France and Ireland but they have the chance to avoid a whitewash because of Italy's introduction to the RBS 6 Nations Championship and, as Scotland set off for Rome yesterday, the younger Laidlaw expressed his determination to take that chance. "We certainly don't want to have a whitewash," he said. "I don't want to be involved in that. I will give everything to make sure we win the game."
Laidlaw continues to listen to the sage advice of the rugby dynasty's elder statesman and has drawn encouragement from what he has heard. "He always looks at the game. I had a chat with him the other day. I will listen to uncle Roy as he knows so much about rugby, knows the modern game and watches a lot of rugby," he said.
"He says we are playing the right type of game. He believes we are starting to gather a good squad. He has said it is about the small things. We are sick of it more than anybody else."
However, as they bid to avoid becoming only the second Scotland team in the last 27 years to be whitewashed, Laidlaw suggested that no great insight is required to realise what is wrong. "We can't keep doing daft things," he insisted. "We are almost committing suicide. We do well for 60 minutes or whatever then someone mucks it up and they put pressure on us and we give away cheap points. We need an 80-minute performance. It is in our hands as a group of players."
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