Cusiter won't contemplate Wooden Spoon

Chris Cusiter today insisted the thought of captaining Scotland to the RBS 6 Nations wooden spoon had not even entered his mind ahead of tomorrow’s final match of the campaign in Ireland.

Glasgow scrum-half Cusiter, named joint skipper with Mike Blair following Andy Robinson’s appointment as head coach, has been unable to lead his side to victory in any of his Six Nations matches since being handed the armband.

Defeat at Croke Park tomorrow would make him the third man to captain Scotland to Test rugby’s most notorious booby prize since the Six Nations began.

But the 27-year-old insists his only focus is helping his country claim the elusive win that would end their championship on a high.

Ask if the prospect of the wooden spoon had given him any sleepless nights, Cusiter said: “That’s something for the media to talk about.

“We’re here to perform for Scotland and win for Scotland.

“It’s been a frustrating championship. The fact we feel we could’ve had a number of wins and haven’t got them has been frustrating.

“That’s why we are where we are in the table.”

Scotland have earned plenty of plaudits for their performances throughout the championship but Cusiter believes the Six Nations table does not lie.

“It obviously tells the truth in terms of results, and that’s all that really matters,” he said.

“As a squad, we’re pleased with a lot of the aspects of our performance. We have been playing really good rugby.

“Not quite winning has been an issue because we haven’t scored a lot of tries and haven’t managed to get ourselves away from teams.

“We’ll learn a lot of lessons but winning is what counts.

“Once we get that win, we can kick on an improve as a team.”

Had Scotland converted their dominance of games into points, they could easily be sitting on two or three wins out of four, rather than one draw and three defeats.

“It’s a horrible feeling to lose when you know you could’ve won,” Cusiter said.

“We’ll take confidence from the fact that we’ve not been far away in a lot of games so far.

“France have gone on to dominate pretty much every team they’ve played. Two defensive lapses cost us against them; otherwise, it was very tight.

“Wales, Italy and England were all very, very tight games so we’ll take confidence from that.

“But we know we’re going to have to win these games.”

A first victory in Ireland for 12 years would go some way to making amends for the previous four games, especially as a match against Declan Kidney’s Triple Crown chasers is arguably the toughest challenge Robinson’s men have faced to date.

“We need our best performance of the championship to win here,” Cusiter said.

“Ireland are certainly up there with the best teams in the world at the moment and for us to win here in Ireland would be a huge achievement.

“With that comes huge effort and sacrifice.

“I’ve been happy with my performance throughout the championship; I had a good game last week.

“I’ll keep trying to raise the bar in terms of my performance.”

Cusiter and Dan Parks’ half-back battle with Tomas O’Leary and Johnny Sexton could prove crucial.

The Scotland duo boast more than five times the number of caps between them than their Irish counterparts and Cusiter said: “Dan and I have been controlling the games pretty well, putting the team in the right positions and picking the right options.

“That’s something we’re going to have to produce again.

“Tomas O’Leary’s been playing really good rugby. He’s probably playing better this year than he did even last year.

“Even though he’s slightly more inexperienced, he knows what he’s doing.

“Sexton’s pushed Ronan O’Gara – who’s got a world of experience – onto the bench.

“I’m not sure that caps in comparison makes a huge difference.”