Heineken Cup: Captain fantastic Laidlaw inspires stunning triumph

The Toulouse players targeted him relentlessly in the Edinburgh defensive line, at one point Florian Fritz ran right over the top of him, but still it was Greig Laidlaw who sported the widest grin in the stadium at the final whistle.

As he succinctly put it after the match: “We’re in the semi-finals and Toulouse are away home”.

The little half-back is a gutsy, intelligent player. His clever variation of play and especially the tactic of putting up Garryowens threw Toulouse off their stride. But above all else Laidlaw is a competitor and anyone who witnessed his antics on 72 minutes should have had no doubt that it would be Edinburgh’s day.

With eight minutes left on the clock and with his side throwing everything they had left in the tank at the French team, Laidlaw put in a little cross-field kick for his winger Lee Jones to chase. As usual he had played the percentages. If Jones got there first it could be try time, if he didn’t the ball would run into touch and leave Toulouse a nervy lineout five metres from their own try line.

The latter happened and with the ball safely out of play the little stand-off turned on his team-mates and screamed his encouragement, not just once but again and again until the message finally penetrated the fug of oxygen-starved brains. What was he saying?

“Just that we were on the front foot and that forwards really appreciate being on the front foot.

“I just wanted to hammer home the message to Toulouse that, if they were going to score, they were going to have to do so from 95 metres.

“We had targeted the high ball during the week because the winger (Timoci) Matanavou is a fantastic runner when he gets the ball but he’s suspect under high balls and we targeted him. We went there once and it worked so we went back there again.

“The mood in the dressing room was as good as I’ve experienced. That was one of the best wins of my career to date.

“To take Edinburgh this far in the Heineken Cup is a fantastic achievement and we don’t want to stop here.

“The crowd today was absolutely fantastic and we’d like to thank everyone for coming along. It just shows that if Edinburgh are playing these big games there is support there for us, people will come out to watch these big games.”

Despite conceding tries in the RaboDirect league like they were going out of fashion, Laidlaw insisted that it was Edinburgh’s defence that had won it for his club yesterday.

The team were only trailing by 14-10 at the break despite playing eight minutes with just 13 men on the field and they kept Toulouse pointless throughout the second 40.

Laidlaw’s own drop goal just before half time was crucial in keeping Edinburgh in touch but you could say the same about his three second-half penalties that won the match and, indeed, just about everything else the little Borderer does for the club he skippers.