ALL Roy Laidlaw can remember of the celebrations is sitting, surrounded by his victorious team-mates, in a hotel ballroom in London. They are belting out traditional, triumphal Scottish songs to the accompaniment of a mystery pianist who speaks in a suspiciously Scottish accent and has a surprisingly large number of them in his repertoire. Considering that at least 34 years would pass without another Scotland victory at Twickenham, we can take solace from the fact they marked the occasion with a right good knees up.

Laidlaw's performance that day had been a fine advertisement for coach Jim Telfer's decision to strip him of the captaincy. After narrow defeats in each of our three opening Five Nations matches - against Ireland, France then Wales - the feisty little scrum-half had lost the leadership duties to Jim Aitken, but Laidlaw found this liberating rather than demoralising.

With the inspirational John Rutherford alongside him after injury - instead of the untested Brian Gossman or Ron Wilson - he ran in a famous trademark try from the base of a scrum, then lock forward Tom Smith ran in another as the Scots roared to a 22-12 win. While England finished with the wooden spoon, 12 months later Scotland - after nine members of the squad made the Lions tour to New Zealand, and Laidlaw and John Rutherford had persuaded Telfer to stay on - had a Grand Slam to celebrate.

"In some ways I was quite happy to forego the captaincy because I didn't have to worry about making speeches and stuff like that," Laidlaw said. "I just had to concentrate on playing, rather than having to be the captain. I obviously had a decent game and scored quite a typical try for me. Ian Milne, the tight head prop, was always able to shunt the scrum up on the right side, and either I would pick and break or David Leslie would pick and feed. So it was a common sort of try for me. I did it all the time, whether for my club or Scotland. If John had been playing, we would probably have won all those games."

No wins in 34 years, of course - or make that four wins in the entire history of the fixture - is not the kind of record to make a song and dance about. As fate would have it Laidlaw, still a full-time electrician - he was memorably brought back down to earth after victory in Paris when he had to re-wire the public toilets in Jedburgh the next day - met Rutherford just the other day and the two of them mentioned that not once in their career they did they line up at the start of a match and think they were going to get beaten today. As poor as Scotland's record is at Twickenham, and as impressive as England have been under Eddie Jones, if Scotland think the same way they have half a chance. A first opening day win for 11 years against Ireland, then a first victory against Wales for 10 years suggests there might just be a different kind of belief amongst Vern Cotter's squad.

"If you look at history it is highly unlikely that we are going to win," Laidlaw said. "We have only won four times there and it is going to take a tremendous effort. But sport is a funny thing. If the players are determined enough and enthusiastic enough, there is an outside chance - but they will have to play particularly well.

"I worry about the scrum because England, like France, are big and butch, and they could give us a hard time, while Wales and Ireland are a bit closer to us. The young tight head prop [Zander] Fagerson is doing well, and he is going to be really good, but it would have been good to have [WP] Nel in the squad, even if he could only play half a game. The back row are good and determined but the English boys are bigger and they will cause us problems.

"But you never, know, Scotland are playing a type of game which could expose England. It is a wide open game, and that is how they will beat them if they can get enough ball, play rugby and move the big fellows about. It is just about getting enough quality ball to do these things. Vern Cotter has got them playing some bloody good rugby so it is not outwith the bounds of possibility but it will be a tough game."

Roy Laidlaw these days is known mostly as Uncle Roy. With his own son Clark out coaching in New Zealand, his nephew Greig has been the heartbeat of this team - at least until he sustained ankle ligament damage against France, severe enough to mean he must already be rated doubtful for the Lions tour. The scrum-half and place kicker will spend time with the squad this week, but there was much to admire about Ali Price's performance on his first start against Wales.

"I think Greig has had a big influence on the players, as well as Vern Cotter, and he will be so p***** off that he is not part of it," Roy said. "I feel sorry for him. Had Greig stayed on in Paris they might have won, the young fellow [Price] got excited, but he played really well last weekend and all credit to him, he has that ability to break and I thought he kicked immaculately.

"If Greig is going to come back and play for Scotland that [having Price for competition] will only make him even more determined. He was written on the team sheet but it is good to have as much strength and depth throughout the squad as you can. Until you get that, you will always be up against it, because England, Wales and Ireland have more players to pick from."

By way of a post-script, there was one other fringe benefit when it came to missing out on the captaincy - the fact it was Aitken who picked up the tab for the travel, tickets and accommodation as the entire squad went back to the home of the RFU for the 30-year reunion four years ago.

"I couldn't have afforded that so it was a good thing he took over as captain!" said Laidlaw. "Jim got the troops together and he paid for everything. That can't have been a cheap bar bill!"