New Highland cathedral...
Scotland’s mission for holy grail is blessed in Gloucester
DrESSED in kilts and entering gloucester Cathedral to the rather unlikely arrival song of Whole Lotta Love by Led zeppelin, the welcome for the Scotland players was warm to say the least.
a children’s choir serenaded them and the Mayor of gloucester gave a speech as they lined up one by one f or the symbolic World Cup cap presentation.
The biggest cheers of the day came when present gloucester player greig Laidlaw and former fans’ favourite at Kingsholm, alasdair Strokosch, went up on stage to get theirs.
Strokosch, who now plays in France with Perpignan, was delighted to return to his old haunt but made it clear as he left the cathedral that Scotland shouldn’t be taken in by the splendid welcome from their host city.
When Vern Cotter’s men start their campaign with a match against Japan at Kingsholm next Wednesday, he expects many of the locals to be shouting for the Brave Blossoms.
‘Hopefully the local fans will support Scotland but I reckon they will be supporting the underdog, which will be Japan,’ said the back-row forward, who played at Kingsholm from 2007 to 2012.
‘gloucester play in cherry and white and so do Japan, so that will be good for them, as well.
‘They’ve had a lot of Scottish players at gloucester, so maybe they will get behind us and I would love to have the support of the Shed again as they bring something out of you — but it may not happen.’
Strokosch is one of only five backrow players in the Scotland squad and made the cut despite playing in the French second division. He is the only player in the 31 who plays at a lower level but he doesn’t count himself lucky to be included.
The 32- year- old also i nsists there are no bad feelings toward openside John Hardie, who was parachuted into the squad halfway through their training camp and picked ahead of other back rows such as Blair Cowan and John Barclay.
‘ That doesn’t bother me in the slightest,’ said Strokosch. ‘From my own experience, my dad isn’t Scottish, he comes from germany, but you would be hard pushed to find somebody who is any prouder of living in Scotland.
‘He would kill to have the chance to represent the country. as long as you have the desire to add something to the history, to excel and be proud of what you are representing, then that’s fine with me. ‘I’ve always been patriotic and proud of my herit age, on both sides. It’s either in your character or it’s not. ‘I would like to come back to Scotland and help t he next generation of Scottish players to be better than what we are.
‘I like the idea of going back to live in Scotland again. I’ve got three kids and none of them have ever lived there. It would be nice to give them that experience.’
Skipper Laidlaw is another who can’t wait to play at Kingsholm after signing for the club from Edinburgh rugby at the start of last season.
He will also play today in a noncontact match against gloucester, which his club team-mates have been winding him up about.
‘The gloucester boys have been getting into me already, sending me a few texts about today’s game,’ s ai d t he 29- year- old scrum-half. ‘Hopefully there will be no choke tackles flying about from the gloucester boys. I have already warned them.
‘Nick Wood is a bit of a training- ground hero, so I am obviously staying clear of him. Forwards will do a bit of scrum and line-out, and do some back stuff and I don’t think it will be full contact.
‘It will be beneficial, though, as it is good to train against different players.
‘On the day against Japan, we’re unfortunately in the away dressing room rather than the home one. I popped into the away dressing room a while ago because our kit man told me to take a little video to show him the set-up.
‘There’s a little bit of difference but, to be fair to Kingsholm, it’s one of the best away changing rooms. It’s not the biggest but it won’t concern us, I’m just happy to be there playing at such a fantastic stadium.’
Laidlaw feels that Scotland’s Six Nations whitewash is long forgotten and the length of time the squad has had together has wiped the slate clean.
‘Clearly, we want to get out of the pool and, once we do that, it is knockout rugby and we will take it from there,’ he continued.
‘The team is in a good place and we have shown that in the warm-up games.
‘We are training so much better and starting to see the benefits of that. That in itself makes me relaxed ahead of our first game.
‘ Knowing we are playing at Kingsholm has also made me relaxed as it is familiar surroundings and that makes players more comfortable, not that we will take anything for granted.
‘We will play hard, train hard and be at the top of our game for the match against Japan.’
If Scotland manage that, then perhaps it won’t matter which team the locals decide to back...