Horne is tipped as top-10 hit for Scots
GREIG LAIDLAW has backed Pete Horne to shine as Finn Russell’s understudy in Paris.
Horne was given the nod ahead of Adam Hastings after Racing 92 star stand-off Russell was ruled out with a head knock.
Replacing Russell may be a hard act to follow but skipper Laidlaw has no worries about his new partner’s ability to cover at 10 in the Stade de France.
The Clermont Auvergne scrum-half said: “Pete has been in the squad the whole time. He’s played at 10 for a long time at Glasgow, he’s played 12 for us.
“He’s ready to go and has a lot of confidence after playing really well for Glasgow last week.
“It’s important that Sam Johnson and Nick Grigg are outside him too, having played with them at Glasgow.
“We’ll have to change our approach from how we play with Finn slightly to suit Pete’s strengths. Pete brings some different attributes to Finn. But
Vhe also brings a lot of the same ones Finn provides and we won’t be deviating too much from our game plan and we’ll play like we want to play.”
France have added a youthful streak to their line-up as they look to bounce back from two awful results against Wales and England.
Youngsters Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack will recreate their Toulouse halfback partnership for the national team and Laidlaw expects both to prove they are ready for the step up.
He said: “France are a very dangerous team. They will probably be hurting from some of the things going around the media so we’re expecting them to come out all guns blazing.
“Dupont and Ntamack are both excellent young rugby players. They are dangerous so we will need to defend very smartly.”