Laidlaw aiming for Scotland redemption against Australia

Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw has aimed to take inspiration from their painful World Cup quarter-final defeat against Australia while blocking out the emotion when they host the Wallabies on Saturday.

The 31-year-old scrumhalf has previously said he would take the pain from the closely fought 35-34 defeat “to his grave” but he will also recall the positives.

The thrilling Twickenham encounter was marred with controversy after referee Craig Joubert wrongly-awarded 79th-minute penalty which handed Australia a victory.

“It’s a motivation, of course it is. When we take the emotion away from the game, it’s a game we were in and it’s a game we very much could have won.

“If we can use that as a positive, that can help us, because we were in the game for 80 minutes. But we understand defensively we probably need to be stronger this time around as well. We gave away five tries on the day, so Australia will probably be thinking they can cause us problems.”

Australia have already opened their autumn campaign with an impressive 32-8 victory over Wales as Laidlaw knows what sort of challenge lies ahead of him and his men.

“When you play teams like Australia, they have good players and are well coached, and when you are in these games, it gives the team real confidence.

“We look back to that and take all the emotion away, we all know what happened in the game, but it wasn’t Australia’s fault. They were just there to play the game as well.

“It’s a game of rugby, it’s an important game for us as Scotland and we’re delighted to be playing at home in front of our people, and when our studs hit the ground at the weekend we are going out there to meet fire with fire.”