Scotland captain Chris Cusiter hopes win over Wallabies will inspire a new generation of young Scots

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 22:44

CHRIS Cusiter can remember vividly the moment his new coach Gregor Townsend flipped a pass inside to Gavin Hastings in the Parc des Princes and ignited in him a love of rugby.

It was a moment that Cusiter, now the Scotland captain, hopes might have been replicated around the country on Saturday night when the excitement that engulfed Murrayfield as Scotland hung on for a dramatic victory over Australia was beamed to a new generation of young Scots.

In 1995, when Hastings scored under the posts in Paris for a famous last-gasp win over France, following an earlier try by Townsend, Cusiter was just 12 years old.

He recalled how he was more of an Aberdeen FC supporter then, having been a mascot at Pittodrie and a devoted fan of the likes of Eoin Jess and Theo Snelders.

"But I remember watching that game in 1995 as a young guy and just loving it," he said. "I wasn't hugely interested in rugby at that time. My brother (Calum] was more interested than I was when we were young – we lived in Aberdeen and although we came down to Edinburgh we didn't go to every international.

"But I remember that game and seeing these guys, big names, Gregor Townsend, Gavin Hastings, those sort of guys, and the more I played in school the more I got into rugby. But that game was fantastic. Results like that are inspiring, especially beating teams who we not favourites against and hopefully people who were at our game on Saturday would have gone away with a great impression of Scottish rugby.

"Hopefully, kids who have seen that will want to get involved because good results have massive impacts on people wanting to get involved.

"Look at England after winning the World Cup and the impact that had in terms of playing numbers, the money it brings in. Obviously we are a long way off that, but results go some way to putting the pride in Scottish rugby again and getting people involved.

"Hopefully watching games like that on Saturday will inspire people by proving that Scotland are capable of beating the best in the world. I am sure more people will want to be involved in that, and associated with that."

The gutsy scrum-half has been given the all-clear to remain in the No9 jersey after being forced off Saturday's Test match.

He was clearly shaken after his head connected with the hip of Wallaby full-back Adam Ashley-Cooper, but after treatment continued and duly helped Rory Lamont and Moray Low hold up Stephen Moore over the Scottish line when the Australia hooker looked certain to score. But then he felt sick.

"I feel good now," he said. "I passed the tests and have seen the neurologist, and he is happy. I tried to play on on Saturday, but I felt I was more of a liability staying on.

"After getting the knock, I played the next phase, but it was a bit of a blur and I started feeling a bit sick and could not see well out of my right eye. It was a hard decision to come off and miss the rest of the game, but it was the right thing to do.

"Playing an international like that in my position with a head knock would be really tough. You have to make lots of decisions in terms of tactics in areas of the game. It is very hard to process information, so difficult to perform under the circumstances.

"Rory (Lawson] had come into the squad quite late, but he is experienced and been around a long time and if I had stayed on and made a bad decision that could have been the game.

"I wasn't that keen (to be in the team picture at the end] just because I felt having gone off early there were other guys who had done the rest of the work to get the win. I had changed out of my strip and had been inside for a while.

"It took me a while to get back to normal, but I did a speech in the function suite afterwards so I was OK by then. I still felt part of the win, just disappointed I suppose not to be on the pitch at the end."

The 27-year-old's demeanour has lifted significantly since and, back calling the shots in training, he is determined that the team can uncover a greater attacking threat and claim a long-awaited win over the Pumas at Murrayfield.

"Beating a team like Australia will give us confidence," he added. "Looking back at the video we were a little disappointed in our attack and to progress we have to put teams under a lot more pressure in attack.

"I expect Argentina are also desperate to get a win. They came fairly close to upsetting England at Twickenham, which we know is very difficult to do. They will come here with their confidence high, they have a pretty good record against Scotland and are above us in the world rankings, so there's no doubt they are looking for a win to end their tour on a high.

"But, for us, it is back to business. The Australia game was great at the time but we have to move on and do the business this weekend.

"We all feel we know what is required now and we are desperate to be involved in these games as everybody feels so motivated and there is a lot of confidence at the moment.

"And we know three wins would get people excited about the Six Nations. It would be great to get people involved in such a huge tournament and sell out the stadium because that would have a real knock-on effect down the line."