Greig Laidlaw “managed” Scotland on the field to the crucial victory over France to rescue their NatWest 6 Nations campaign according to head coach Gregor Townsend.
The former skipper kicked six second half penalties to lift the Scots from behind at half-time, but it was the way he took control of the Scots on his return to the team that was most significant, thought the head coach.
“I think you probably don’t pick up a lot of what Greig does outside of his passing and kicking,” said Townsend. “That’s managing the team, like coming in vocally at points when we’ve conceded tries to help John (Barclay).
“You could tell that both Greig and Ryan Wilson had a bigger influence from how the team responded to errors.
“He made some really good decisions.”
Laidlaw went to stand-off – he hasn’t started there for Scotland since the loss to Tonga at Pittodrie in 2012 that led to Andy Robinson being sacked – when an off-colour Finn Russell was replaced for the final quarter, having “jogged through a few plays in the car park this morning as preparation,” joked Townsend.
“We didn’t want to take him off because his goal kicking was outstanding,” he said.
“He’s a very good ten. We needed to keep going at the French but wanted to keep Greig on the field, keep leading and kicking well.”
Laidlaw said that Townsend had said he might be needed at some point at 10 “only this morning”.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” he admitted. “Thankfully the forwards were on top by then, our fitness was coming into play, and we played really well in the last 20 minutes.
“We learned from the Welsh game. Sometimes you have to take your medicine, you don’t want to kick the ball away but do we need to do it to put pressure on them? Yes we do.”
He added that the Scots needed more improvements for England in two weeks.
“We need to take it up another notch,” he said. “We were caught out a couple of times again today.
“England are a great side, but as a Scotsman there’s no better team to play against. Here in front of our own people as well and we’re putting together a good record here.
“Do we need to improve, I think so. It’ll be an extremely tough match, but the score’s 0-0 at the minute.”
Townsend pinpointed a subtle tactical change at half-time that turned the crucial breakdown battle in Scotland’s favour.
“We got more reward from being direct,” he said. “The French defensive line was dented a little bit.
“Our immediate support was lacking at times (in the first half).
‘Sometimes the ball carrier winning the collision helps, and that changed in the second half. So when France tried to compete, they weren’t in a legal area, and the penalties came.”
Townsend warned while the win was an obvious improvement from the demoralising loss in Cardiff, more would be needed in the Calcutta Cup in two weeks, especially from Finn Russell, who had a difficult game at stand-off.
“We are playing arguably the best team in the world over the last two years, given the number of games they’ve won,” he said.
“Finn made a few errors and I’m sure he’ll be working hard to make sure he does things better under pressure. He will be under even more pressure against England, who have a very good defence.
“He did some very good things today in attack, but we know he can play much better.”
Skipper Jon Barclay said the feeling was mostly “a fair bit of relief”.
“You’d think we’d be bouncing but the hangover from last week, everyone is just relieved to get a victory against a really good French side,” he said.
“We haven’t become a dreadful team just because of the Wales game. That’s why we’re relieved.
“We’re also delighted for the fans who put all that faith in us. That win’s for them.”