Six Nations: Scots target Wales for third victory

Following a gutsy 12-8 win over Ireland the next assignment is Wales on Saturday week, also at Murrayfield. Laidlaw said: “The Irish win is now history. Fresh history, but still history.

“We move on and look forward to Wales coming here. Wales will be different but we have a couple of weeks to prepare.

“They will arrive on the back of a good win in Italy, which is a hard place to win so we have to be ready.”

Edinburgh scrum-half Laidlaw summed up the  latest success by insisting “a win’s a win”.

It was a triumph for dogged determination rather than style. However, Laidlaw, who kicked all the home points from four penalties, could see advantages in having different means of getting over the finishing line.

“It does not matter how we win. as long as we win,” he said.

“You can win in many different ways; we won differently to how we won against Italy,

“I’m not interested in how – it is the end result. It is a skill in itself to win in different ways.”

So often in the past Scotland could claim to have made all the running in matches only to miss out on the scoreboard. This time it was different in front of a near capacity crowd of 67.006.

Scotland had to defend furiously at the end but rose to the occasion magnificently.

Laidlaw said: “Again our

defence was top-drawer. We were putting bodies on the line for 80 minutes and that proved decisive.

“Defence has to be the most pleasing thing and there was character at the end to defend that (Irish) penalty and win the game.”

Scotland had also to overcome some inconsistent refereeing by English whistler Wayne Barnes which brought a harsh yellow card early on for prop Ryan Grant when he was run into by Conor Murray attempting a tap penalty.

Such decisions put Scotland on the back foot throughout the first half.

Laidlaw said: “At half time we said we just had to get hold of the ball. Don’t panic. We hadn’t had any of the ball and we were only 3-0 down. Our defence can hold them if need be, we said.

“It was a matter of trying to get hold of the ball and get some field position.”