Peter Horne’s first moments in the Rugby World Cup were being involved in Scotland’s furious five-try finish against Japan, but it’s the final minutes he’ll remember best.
The former Howe of Fife centre thinks the final seconds with Fiji battering at the Scottish line were as significant as the flurry of scores that ensured the Scots got the full five points to go to the top of Pool B.
“It was great to get 10 minutes at the end to get a feel of the tournament and some experience of it,” said the 25-year-old, who starts in the centre against the USA on Sunday. “But best was to get in the situation where they were flying at our line at the end there, and we kept them out.
“In the Pool stages every single point counts so it was good to keep them down to just the one score. It showed all the fitness work all summer is paying off.”
The key to the whole tournament for Scotland will be “putting one foot in front of the other” and that starts against the US.
“We’ve got momentum from that last win so everyone’s who is coming in is just desperate to keep that going,” he said.
“We can’t go backwards, we’ve been guilty in the past of taking a step forward and then two back so we’re desperate to keep putting one foot in front of the other and maybe make that giant leap.
“Everyone coming in to the team knows that they’ve a job to do, to slot in seamlessly and continue the plan.”
The Scots scored four tries in their opening game in the 2011 tournament and no more in their remaining three games, but that’s unlikely to happen with this team.
“After we scored three tries at Gloucester there was really a buzz about us, saying `c’mon, let’s really kick on here and get the fourth, we’re feeling good and we’ve still got a lot in the legs’,” he said.
“We don’t get too caught up in chasing bonus points. But it was certainly something we were thinking about going into the last 20 minutes.
“But we’re converting inside the 22 a lot more than we used to, in the second half every time we got to their 22 we were coming away with points.”
The studies of the US started almost immediately they left Kingsholm to get the team bus direct to the new camp in Leeds.
“The USA are going to be a huge threat,” said Horne. “They’ll be right up for this game and we have to make sure that we’re ready and fly into them.
“Straight after Japan we had the laptops out in the bus coming up here and went through their last couple of games.
“They’re big physical guys and they’ll be looking to get gain line but we’ll be trying to stop them getting any momentum. There’ll be a big emphasis in getting off the line.”
Horne’s too young to remember the glory days of Scots players like Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Gordon McQueen and others at Leeds United but is looking forward to playing at Elland Road.
“I don’t know much about it but the pitch looks great and there’s a lot of history in the stadium, so we’ll be looking to make sure it’s another good evening for us and all our fans coming down,” he said.
“Sounds like it’ll be a sellout again which is great, the atmosphere at Gloucester was awesome and singing the national anthem we got real goosebumps. We just want to put on another good show for them.”