Chris Cusiter reveals pain of Rome inquest

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 22:35

CHRIS Cusiter can still recall vividly the emotions and atmosphere around Murrayfield the last time he was part of a Calcutta Cup victory, but by last night his head was throbbing instead with the memories of the Stadio Flaminio and Scotland's defeat to Italy.

• Chris Cusiter feels he did not impose himself enough against a physical Italian side in Rome. Picture: Getty

The Scotland captain had endured a "very honest" debrief with the Scotland squad that had run much longer than planned, as players and coaches ensured no-one was spared in their appraisal of a demoralising 16-12 defeat in Rome on Saturday. The players eventually emerged for a squad session striving to use the painful images to begin the process of planning for England's visit a week on Saturday and the attempt to salvage something from the 2010 RBS Six Nations.

"I would like to say things have improved with time," said Cusiter, a popular captain within the squad, "but, in truth, nothing has improved in the mind after looking at it all again on the video. That was a very tough debrief, but a very necessary one for everyone.

"Everybody was very open and honest, words were spoken shall we say, but it was needed. Things needed to be said. Ultimately, it's about us needing to get better, recognising where we're going wrong and what we need to improve, and how to do that as quickly as we can.

"We had a good look at the video and it's fair to say we all felt we could have done things differently.

There are standards we set ourselves and we didn't achieve them in Rome; simple. Our general urgency was poor, particularly in the first ten or 15 minutes, where we lost contact and let Italy get a foothold in the game and get 6-0 up. That is particularly disappointing because we spoke last week about how mentally this was a huge challenge; that we had to play better than we did in Cardiff or we'd be in trouble, and we actually played worse."

While keen to talk about the team lessons, the scrum-half admitted he was unhappy with aspects of his performance as well.

"There is the collective responsibility but also an individual responsibility and everyone has a responsibility to do their own job to the standards we demand. I try to do that in every game I play, but although I had a relatively mistake-free game, I didn't impose myself as much as I would have liked. I didn't break as much as I want to, and though I can look at it and say there weren't opportunities, sometimes at this level you have to make it happen; create opportunities. That's a key responsibility.

"But, to be fair to this squad, they are very professional and are being very honest with each other, and what is important now is that we use the lessons, the frustrations, whatever, to our benefit. That performance has gone and we have to pick up our levels for next weekend. Now it's about the next game and how we respond to what we did, and the way we let ourselves and the supporters down, and how we go forward."

If ever there was a game that Scotland supporters would like to unearth the winning feeling in it is the Calcutta Cup, but England head north with no hint of the complacency that has tripped them up in Edinburgh before, instead reeling from their own shellacking from Martin Johnson and supporters after letting victory slip against Ireland.

Cusiter's Calcutta Cup experiences are finishing on the wrong end of defeats in 2004 and 2007 and coming off the bench to savour the last quarter of the 2006 win. He has spoken this week with former Scotland full-back Rowen Shepherd, now his agent, for advice on bouncing back from the pain of defeat, Shepherd having also lost to Italy and never beaten England. Cusiter is understandably wary, therefore, of expectations that this might be when Andy Robinson's first season begins to take off.

"I understand the supporters' expectations. They want us to do well and give us great support – it was fantastic on Saturday – which is why we feel we badly let them down. As long as I've been involved with Scotland it has been difficult and we've gone through a lot of tough times, but, now, more than ever I feel we're playing better rugby and have a talented squad capable of playing better than we have done in the past.

"Now, I know, that's easy to say. We believe we should have had two wins from three this year so far, but are sitting on zero so what we believe doesn't count for much until we prove it.

"There is something special about England and we've had a couple of good wins in 2006 and 2008.

But we have to make it happen for us. We can't take any of that special Calcutta Cup 'lift' for granted; the feeling that suddenly it can go right because it's the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield and our crowd are brilliant. England are very tough, have a very big pool of players to choose from and if we don't seriously lift our levels from the Italy game, and play well, we won't win."

Chris Paterson might be injured , and though obviously disappointed not to be involved in the Calcutta Cup and the remainder of the RBS Six Nations Championship he is at least pleased to be back on the road to recovery.

"I'm on the mend," he said. "It will be a slow process and it's going to take a while, but I'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone for the messages of support that I've received. It does make a huge difference to getting on with the recovery process."

&#149 Chris Cusiter was speaking during a Scotland team appearance for Land Rover, Official Supporter of Scottish Rugby. www.landrover.co.uk/rugby