‘Vern just wants to win’ – Laidlaw

Editor

Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw says the players want to give coach Vern Cotter a good send-off as they prepare for the final eight Tests of his tenure.

Cotter will join French outfit Montpellier after next year's Six Nations, replacing incumbent Jake White, while Gregor Townsend will take over the reins as Scotland coach.

Laidlaw himself will join Clermont from Gloucester next season and admitted he talked to Cotter about the move.

"I talked to Vern," Laidlaw told scotsman.com.

"I don’t think it is any secret that I am a big admirer of him in terms of how he’s helped me with my game and how he’s helped the team, so, yeah, I got his opinion on a few things. He’s obviously spent a lot of time in that part of the world so he was helpful for me in that sense."

Laidlaw insisted that there was no chance of any end-of-an era malaise.

"Credit to the man Vern is, he’s extremely focused on all things rugby and he’s not mentioned anything else," Laidlaw said.

"All Vern wants to do is win games of rugby. As a player group we understand that’s the way of the world, things happen which are out of our control, so we’re very focused on giving Vern a good last eight Tests.

"We want to do well, we always want to do well and always want to win. When the time comes, the boys will definitely thank Vern for what he’s done for us as a group and as individuals. Things happen within the game and Scottish Rugby made it clear they want a Scottish coach in there and they’ve done that, and Gregor’s had success in the recent past with Glasgow and he’s done a good job there. They feel that the time is right and it’s the decision they made so we’ll go with that."