Greig Laidlaw inspired from reviewing Scotland’s World Cup exit

Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw risked re-living the Dark Blues’ painful World Cup exit by watching a re-run of the controversial defeat to Australia — but instead came away with a new sense of hope.

Wed, 03 Feb, 2016 - 00:00

Andy Newport

The scrum-half revealed part of his preparations for this Saturday’s opening RBS 6 Nations clash with England at Murrayfield involved reviewing the tapes of his side’s last match.

However, that put the Gloucester man in danger of suffering another wave of depression as he sat down for a replay of the 35-34 quarter-final defeat to the Wallabies at England 2015.

Vern Cotter’s men looked set to claim a place in the last four until referee Craig Joubert handed the Aussies a disputed last-gasp penalty. Bernard Foley put over the kick to snatch a famous win but Laidlaw says looking back on that match has only raised his excitement levels ahead of taking on Eddie Jones’ new-look England.

Asked if he was excited by the look of his own team, the captain — who admits he is still angered by the way Joubert handled those decisive final few minutes at Twickenham — said: “Yeah, very much so. I actually watched the Australia game last night for the first time in full. I got excited watching it.

“I was able to take the emotion away from it and crikey, we played some good rugby. It gave me a great feeling.

“That anger from how the game finished will never disappear. But we can use it in the right way. I simply watched the tape back as a game of rugby and I got a lot out of it. We played well but we could have played even better. Now it’s about building momentum.”

Meanwhile Italy’s uncapped loosehead prop Matteo Zanusso is set for a baptism of fire as he make his debut against France in Paris on Saturday.

The Treviso man is one of 10 uncapped players in the Azzurri squad named by coach Jacques Brunel. “Going from the Pro12 to the RBS 6 Nations, the level of pressure and emotion is something else. Now I am concentrating on the work I have to do get up to speed as quickly as possible.”