After a whole year of doing the honourable thing, Greig Laidlaw can finally admit that he’s a scrum-half.
The Edinburgh captain is cut from the same cloth as a number of Scots before him, for example Chris Paterson, who were happy to play for Scotland wherever they were told. For 10 successive games last year ‘Greeg’ played at fly-half rather than wearing the nine jersey he grew up in.
Scott Johnson’s first move as interim head coach appears to have been to end that experiment Laidlaw started his first match for a year as a nine the same week the Australian’s appointment was confirmed and now makes his first start for Scotland there against England at Twickenham on Saturday.
“The fact I played three consecutive games for Edinburgh at scrum-half wasn’t a coincidence,” he said.
“I did enjoy playing at 10 and it improved me even as a scrum-half I think, in my understanding of what takes pressure off a 10 more.
“But I’m happiest at scrum-half there’s no getting away from that and I’m looking forward to playing there.
“Jonno came to me and so it was an easy decision. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck between two positions and not be selected, so I can focus my attention now.”
Laidlaw conceded that his smaller stature had made him a target for big runners at his adopted position.
“I’ve played most of my rugby at nine and am genuinely most comfortable there. Plus I’m not the biggest guy in the world so I won’t be getting bowled over every couple of minutes.
“I might be out the firing line just slightly and it will hopefully free me up a little and I’ll enjoy that.”
Johnson has marked Laidlaw out as a favourite and believes he’s a player in the French style where the scrum-half is playcaller, field general and goalkicker, but Greig is from a very different tradition.
“It’s just my natural game, the way I like to play, and if I’m compared to the quality French scrum-halves that’s great,” he said.
“But I’m from Jedburgh and we’ve had a couple of crackers at scrum-half in the past.”
One is of course Greig’s uncle Roy, the 1994 Grand Slam legend and scorer of the first try the last time Scotland won at Twickenham 30 years ago.
“I spoke to him and had a good chat about that day,” he continued.
“That’s their piece of history and it was a fantastic team back in those days. I believe most of the ’83 team are going down this weekend for a reunion so hopefully we can make their weekend that little bit better.
“The game has changed and my uncle Roy understands that, but he probably doesn’t know the influence he can still have on myself by speaking about times gone by, in an emotional way.
“He says he struggles to remember the game now but the main point I took away from him is how they went down there and believed in themselves and that’s exactly what we have to do.”
Laidlaw is full of praise for the way that Johnson has taken on the coaching job and his personal input into the scrum-half.
“He puts you at ease and he gives you a lot of confidence, and I know the other players feel the same,” he said.