Plans with Greig
claimed Scotland had not had to contend with for two years, drawing an understandably astounded reaction from an English colleague.
Put another way, the recent much-improved home record has been founded on playing in weather they cannot rely upon on their home turf, emphasising the importance of finding a way to win, a phrase which seems so much better suited to association with the Laidlaws and Barclays of this world. Scotland did so on Saturday thanks to Laidlaw’s goal-kicking and his realisation that a shout from Stuart Hogg when the fullback spotted space down the Puma blindside as the scrum-half was preparing to fire the ball the other way, should be trusted, resulting in Sean Maitland scoring the game’s only try. While seeking to maintain the policy of always accentuating positives, Laidlaw was correct when saying it had been an autumn in which, in his absence, Scotland had been “right in the game in Wales” and “been within touching distance of the third slash fourth best team in the world in South Africa.”
He is, however, too shrewd not to be aware that South Africa are actually rightly ranked fifth in the world and that Scotland ended the campaign similarly within touching distance of the ninth-ranked team in the world in Argentina.
On the scoreboard, a crucial difference between the sides was the reliability of Laidlaw’s right boot as against that of Pumas standoff Nicolas Sanchez, but in terms of what has been learned in 2018 as a whole, what Scotland must understand is that the importance of their captain cannot now be overstated.