Chris Cusiter will lead Scotland into the Six Nations Championship for the first time on Sunday preparing to stop France's new "wrecking ball" Mathieu Bastareaud, but welcoming the fact that the hosts are clear underdogs against a French team being tipped to win their fifth title and a possible Grand Slam. He talks to David Ferguson in The Scotsman.
"The Glasgow scrum-half took over the skipper's role with Andy Robinson's first Test match as the Scotland coach, following a notable line of No 9 leaders including Gary Armstrong, Bryan Redpath and Mike Blair, and it ended in victory over Fiji. The scrum-half remained in charge in the win over Australia and defeat to Argentina in November.
"He suffered concussion in that historic victory over the Wallabies, Scotland's first in 27 years, but insisted that he remembers it vividly and believes that that battling 9-8 win has laid strong foundations for an improvement on three championships under the previous coaching regime that yielded just three victories.
"He also has a better knowledge than most of what makes French players tick and what weaknesses Sunday's team may possess, having spent two years in France with league champions Perpignan, but acknowledges that the recall of Stade Francais centre Bastareaud to the Test arena this week has not made Scotland's task any easier."
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