Many of Scotland’s callow side have not been in this position too often: victorious in a Six Nations match. Indeed, it was the first for their gnarled, grizzled coach, Vern Cotter, after last season’s whitewash and two defeats to open this season. Nine losses have passed since Duncan Weir’s last-minute drop-goal at this ground two years ago, but Greig Laidlaw (pictured) said he was confident that awful run was about to end.
“I knew today, when we took that field, that we were going to win,” said the captain. “I could see it in the boys’ eyes. I could see it in the way we had trained all week under the tutelage of Vern and the other coaches. That for me is very pleasing.”
There were many elements to Scotland’s impressive performance. They thoroughly beat Italy up at the scrum, forcing penalty after penalty, and defended gallantly in the second half, despite twice being reduced to 14 men, often holding off waves of Italian attack.
“As much as we talk about the scrum, which was absolutely outstanding, Hoggy’s [Stuart Hogg] touch of class at the end for Tommy Seymour’s try was fantastic,” said Laidlaw. “Sometimes the character shown defending the line at the end can be forgotten. There were 14, sometimes 15 of us digging in, filling in and that’s what helped us win.”
It is a quirk of a game that despite two Scots being sent to the sin-bin – Finn Russell for going off his feet and WP Nel for an intentional knock-on – that, of the two captains, it was Laidlaw who seemed content with Jaco Peyper’s performance. Italy’s captain, having put in another gargantuan shift of his own, was critical of the officials. “The scrum is the same old story, it’s bit of a lottery,” said Sergio Parisse. “It’s down to interpretation of the referee. Refs must be better at managing that part of the game and I think Peyper was pretty poor there. Refs must understand and focus more on scrums.
“We don’t want to ever blame the referee. We make mistakes and so do they. It’s not about blaming them, it’s about being humble and admitting your mistakes.”
Laidlaw, despite believing himself the victim of a tip-tackle in the build-up to Russell’s yellow card, was more satisfied. “The breakdown is tough to referee, and we were happy with how Jaco refereed today, he’s a good referee,” he said. “There were some tough calls that maybe went against us. Some you get, some you don’t and unfortunately it happens when you are under a bit of pressure. The perception is that you try to slow the ball down, and that was what he thought. We were just delighted with the reaction we got [after the sin-bins].”
