The small details will have to be right if Scotland are to fulfil the “must-win” designation on Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations meeting with Italy, believes skipper Greig Laidlaw.
The Scots are decidedly irritated this is being billed as the championship’s traditional wooden spoon decider, but accept that wins rather than progress in performance is the currency they’re now dealing in.
“We’re frustrated, because we think the performances, the way we’ve attacked, shows we’re playing really well,” said Laidlaw.
“We just need to pick up on the small detail, watch the penalty count – we gave away too many in the first couple of games – and just hold the ball in certain areas of the field. If we do that, it will go a long way to tipping us on the right side of the result.”
The Scots have attempted to address their two main deficiencies from the 26-23 loss to Wales, their defence of the high ball and their ability to punch in scores when close to the opposition line.
“That’s probably the place it’s hardest to attack from, because every phase they’re blitzing off the line,” pointed out Laidlaw, referring to Scotland’s two long sieges at the end of each half against the Welsh line.
“Sometimes loose ball placement killed momentum, so it’s imperative we just hold the ball in areas. We’ve brought in a couple of new things to try and stimulate quick ball and get us over the line.
“As for high balls we’ve looked at that as a collective, and the boys in the front line need to do the job first – they can go a long way to helping the guys fielding the kicks.”
Scotland will learn tomorrow whether Finn Russell’s two-week ban for the incident involving Dan Biggar in the Welsh game has been rescinded, reduced or left unaltered, but if it’s not good news then Laidlaw seems unlikely to be moving to his old stomping ground at 10.
““I’ve played there in the past, but there are boys at the minute who play there week in, week out; so the coaches will look there before they look at me, that’s for sure,” he said.
“I’ve played a couple of games with Greig Tonks there, he’s got a good temperament, pretty level-headed, which is a good temperament to have for a 10. Got a good left foot on him, he’s a big strong boy.
“So he can fill in if need be, and Peter Horne has got pretty much the same attributes.
“Finn will be misswed, he’s a good player, plays with confidence. A lot has been said about it, but the guys that are in and around training are ready to fill in if selected, and it’s up to them if they come in to put their stamp on the game and make sure they take their chance.”
Scotland do feel they have an opportunity in the late stages of Saturday’s games with Italy falling off the pace alarmingly in both their first two matches, conceding the majority of points as they tired.
“They’re a big team, they like the set-piece side of the game,” added Laidlaw.”If we can play with speed on the game and get quick ball, move it away and lessen the number of rucks we’re having, we can try and run them out. We feel we can go hard for 80 minutes and hopefully they’ll run out of steam before we do.”
Laidlaw feels that the Scottish public are connecting with this team this should be the biggest-ever crowd for the fixture, with well over 60,000 expected but admits that the unlucky losers tag has worn thin.
“We don’t want to play well and get beat – we’d rather play badly and win,” he said. “If we’re going to be this team we’re talking about and want to be, we need to start winning games, especially at home. We should have won at the weekend, 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.”