Cotter teary as Murrayfield bids farewell

Scotland ensure head coach signs off on winning note

His jaw is sore from smiling after a joyful week, but Stuart Hogg has had the best fun all the way through Vern Cotter’s time in charge of Scotland.

The full-back finished a busy few days, which also saw the arrival of new baby daughter Olivia, with another startling performance for his country against Italy in his 53rd cap – breaking the record for a Hawick player he shared with Greens legends Jim Renwick, Colin Deans and Tony Stanger.

Hogg had a 50-metre penalty, three try assists and two try-saving tackles as Scotland defeated Italy 29-0 for their best ever Six Nations performance, and three wins for only the second time, but there was a final admission at last that the squad wanted the big win for their outgoing head coach. “Absolutely we did,” he said. “Vern always says he doesn’t want it to be about him, but for me, he has worked wonders for myself and for Scottish rugby and we thank him for absolutely everything he has done. He will be missed. Montpellier are very lucky to have him and I wish him all the best.”

Hogg was in crisis himself when Cotter arrived, having been sent off against Wales for a petulant late tackle and in dispute at Glasgow, but the Kiwi put a smile back on the face of Scotland’s premier attacking weapon.

“Vern is a very passionate guy and he has put everything into Scotland,” he continued.

“He has done a phenomenal job and you can see how much it means to him.

“He just instils confidence in each and every one of us, he wants us to go there and have some fun and you can see that on the boys’ faces. We are scoring tries and winning games and that’s what it’s all about.

“We don’t look back at where we were, we concentrate on staying in the moment. We didn’t really talk about Twickenham last week; it was all about the game in hand.

“We had a challenging week, didn’t train the way we wanted to because we were uptight and nervous about what was coming. But we expressed ourselves and you can see by the end that we