Proud as he should be of his record number of appearances as Scotland captain, the down-side is that Greig Laidlaw has had to try to explain his team’s away day failings more often than any other individual and he has told his team-mates he is fed up of it.
The scrum-half has led the national team on 36 occasions, 11 more than previous record holder David Sole, but post-match celebrations away from Edinburgh have been all too rare during that time, particularly in the Six Nations Championships in which just seven away wins have been registered in 48 attempts, six of those in Rome.
With a World Cup looming, there has been much talk about Scotland’s capacity to compete, just as there was four years ago, but when removed from home comforts, they failed against the leading nations then and have, a solitary success against a struggling Australian side apart, continued to do so in the interim.
“I feel we’re playing good enough rugby to win… and I’ve pushed that point home this week,” said the 33-year-old.
“We’re sick of talking about having opportunities to win and being confident before games. It’s up to us now, as a group, as a collective, to take the step and win away from home. That’s it.”
In terms of using the Six Nations Championship as preparation for World Cups, the cycle works particularly badly for Scotland because those global jamborees always take place in the years that they visit the cities in which they have traditionally enjoyed least success.
Two wins in the past half century in Paris and just 11 in all since France joined the tournament in 2010 actually represents a decent return when set against the record at Twickenham which opened that same year and where Scotland have registered just four wins in all, the last of those before any member of the current Scotland squad was born, albeit the current captain’s family name was prominent with Laidlaw’s uncle Roy scoring a try that day.
In stressing the need for actions to out-weigh words, then, Laidlaw seemed to accept that today’s match represents by far the better of this year’s opportunities, given the way the respective teams have begun this tournament.
“We do (need a big result), absolutely, there’s no getting away from that. We’ve spoken about the likes of Wales coming away winning here and teams like that. They can produce it on the day, so it’s important for ourselves as a group to make sure we can deliver a winning performance away from home,” he said.
“This is the opportunity that comes first. We’ve not talked about England at all yet. They’re obviously playing extremely well in the comp so far, but this is the next opportunity and that’s all we concentrate on.”
With the meeting of Wales and England, the two unbeaten sides taking place immediately after events in Paris and with Scotland still to meet both of them, this match is pivotal in terms of the campaign, as the captain acknowledged.
“If we’ve got aspirations to go on and win it this is a very important game, clearly,” said Laidlaw.
“We spoke a bit about that and we understand the magnitude of the game. I think that’s good for us to play in games like that as well and I’m really excited to play away from home tomorrow and see what we’re all about.”
Whether or not Scotland could then go on and challenge to win the tournament, he is aware too, that the rarity of victories in Paris makes this a one off opportunity in its own right for these players to claim a place in Scottish rugby lore.
Relatively few of his team-mates are old enough to remember as much about Scotland’s only victory at this venue in 1999 as Laidlaw, who had just entered his teens at the time.
“My mum and dad were out here watching the game. I was back home because I would just get in the way, so I watched it at my granny and papa’s,” he laughed.
“I remember us winning the game obviously, which was tremendous and the celebrations after the game. That was a tremendous time for that team and it’s something we want to have within our team is a big away win.”
As for the match which made the name of the current Scotland coach, when his ‘Toony flip’ sent Laidlaw’s fellow squad member Adam Hastings’ father clear to score the late try that secured victory, half a dozen members of this squad – young Hastings included – had not even been born at the time.
“Obviously that was a big game for Gregor (Townsend) back then, in the Parc des Princes was it? I’m pretty sure they were playing with the brown ball back in those days as well, showing Gregor’s age,” Laidlaw quipped.
“But Scotland teams that have come away here and won have performed extremely well on the day and we’re going to need to do that tomorrow to win the game. France have got a lot of excellent players and if they get it right they’re dangerous, so we want to make it as difficult for them tomorrow as we can to make sure we get it right and not them.”
Scotland’s Six Nations away day wins:
2002 – Italy 12 Scotland 29
2002 – Wales 22 Scotland 27
2006 – Italy 10 Scotland 13
2010 – Ireland 20 Scotland 23
2014 – Italy 20 Scotland 21
2016 – Italy 20 Scotland 36
2018 – Italy 27 Scotland 29
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