Greig Laidlaw: Time for Scotland to step up and win away from home

Captain Greig Laidlaw says it’s time to stop talking and to go out and achieve the long-awaited big away victory that will propel Scotland back into the running for this year’s Guinness Six Nations Championship when they face a fragile France side in Paris today.

Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw trains at the Stade de France ahead of the Six Nations match against France in Paris. Picture: David Gibson/Fotosport/REX/Shutterstock

The Scots’ away form in the tournament has been notoriously poor and only three victories have been achieved in the French capital in the past 50 years. Laidlaw insists it is time to put that right.

“I feel we’re playing good enough rugby to win, yes I do, and I’ve pushed that point home this week,” said the 
skipper after yesterday’s team run at a sun-drenched Stade de France.

“We’re sick of talking about having opportunities to win and being confident before games. It’s up to us now, as a group, as a collective, to take the step and win away from home. That’s it.”

Scotland are looking to get their campaign on track after losing their proud home unbeaten run with defeat by Ireland a fortnight ago, while the French are hurting from a home loss to Wales and a ruthless dismantling by England at Twickenham.

“If we’ve got aspirations to go on and win [the championship] this is a very important game, clearly,” added Laidlaw. “We spoke a bit about that and we understand the magnitude of the game. I think that’s good for us to play in games like that as well and I’m really excited to play away from home tomorrow and see what we’re all about.

“We’ve spoken about the likes of Wales coming away winning here and teams like that. They can produce it on the day, so it’s important for ourselves as a group to make sure we can deliver a winning performance away from home. That’s what we’ve talked about all week. We were disappointed to lose at home last time out. I think it is important how we bounce back from that. The proof is in the pudding so we will find out tomorrow afternoon, but that’s what we’re all focused on.”

With big figures like Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell absent with injury, Laidlaw accepted that he was carrying an even bigger weight of responsibility and the scrum-half, who plays his rugby in France with Clermont Auvergne, agreed that leading the side to a first win in Paris for 20 years would be a career highlight.

“Yeah it would, no doubt about it,” he said emphatically.

With the other away fixture this year coming at Twickenham, where Scotland haven’t won since 1983, Laidlaw was asked if today represented the best chance to get that away monkey off their backs. “It’s the opportunity that comes first,” he said. “We’ve not talked about England at all yet. They’re obviously playing extremely well in the comp so far, but this is the next opportunity and that’s all we concentrate on.”