From Jed to Japan via Edinburgh, Gloucester and Clermont and 76 caps for Scotland, including a record 39 appearances as captain of his country, Greig Laidlaw has enjoyed a a remarkable career full of challenges.
He had to wait until the age of 25 to win his first cap, a drubbing by the All Blacks at Murrayfield.
Laidlaw was left out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup squad by then Scotland boss Andy Robinson before establishing himself the following season, not in the number nine jersey he would go on to make his own, but as a stop-gap at fly-half after the retirement of Dan Parks and before the emergence of Finn Russell.
Having retired from Scotland duty after the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Laidlaw has spent the past five years playing and coaching in Japan.
This summer, the 38-year-old was appointed head coach of the Urayasu D-Rocks, formerly NTT, in the Japanese top flight.
Laidlaw spoke exclusively to Scotland Rugby News as he settles in to his new role.
“I’ve been happy so far with the work ethic of the group,” the former Scotland captain said.
“It’s easy at this time of year because you’ve no games, but we’re happy with where the players are at. We’re just trying to put some things in place.”
Coaching clearly runs in the Laidlaw family. While Greig is taking his first steps as a head coach with the D-Rocks, his cousin Clark is preparing for his second season leading Wellington-based Super Rugby franchise, the Hurricanes.
“It was great for me to go down to New Zealand and spend some time at the Hurricanes with my cousin [Clark]. I’m certainly not trying to go it alone.
“Clark has done a very good job. If I can run alongside him, that would be quite nice.
“Not too many people from Scotland go to New Zealand and end up coaching the Hurricanes. It’s all about timing. To go away and experience different things and to hopefully eventually bring that home can only be a positive thing.”
It made sense, then, for Greig to phone cousin Clark when he was offered the D-Rocks head coach role.
Laidlaw, who is second on Scotland’s all-time points scoring list behind former Edinburgh team-mate Chris Paterson, revealed who else he reached out to before accepting the job.
"I still talk to Vern [Cotter] – he had a big influence on me, and I spoke to Mike Blair as well.
“He’s currently in Japan and he’s pretty similar to me in that he coached for a bit and transitioned to have the experience as head coach, and my cousin as well.
“It’s good to have that advice but at some point you just have to get on and dive in amongst it."
Laidlaw is in the midst of a long pre-season with the league campaign not due to get under way until December.
Keeping players mentally and physically ready is just one of the many challenges he faces in the early days of his tenure.
Another is the delivery of his sessions to a squad made up primarily of Japanese players, but also including World Cup winning Springbok Jasper Wiese, former Wallabies Samu Kerevi and Israel Folau in his familiar Borders brogue.
“We have some excellent translators who really understand rugby, which really helps,” he said.
“They are pretty busy and we just try to make do. For me it’s important to understand the culture and know what the Japanese players think as opposed to what I think they are thinking.
“I’ve always been big on understanding people so I think if I do that with the players, the chances of the message getting through are stronger. I’ve got to keep developing that and keep working on my language skills.”
Laidlaw admitted that five years into his Japanese sojourn, he is yet to master the language.
“The language is pretty poor from my side,” Laidlaw confessed during our Zoom call.
He added: “It’s tough. My kids are showing me up big time, they speak pretty good Japanese which is crazy.
“We’re very lucky that we’re based in Tokyo Bay – we've a bit more open space and we’re very settled here.
"You get your tough days when you’ve got to do admin and you struggle with the language, and you miss family and friends at times, but that is all just part of the challenge.”
In a career full of challenges, the man from Jedburgh is now focused on pitting his wits against some of the best coaches in the world.
Former Glasgow Warriors boss Dave Rennie is at Kobe Steelers, where George Turner will play and the aforementioned Blair is an assistant coach.
Former All Blacks coaches Steve Hansen and Ian Foster are in charge at Toyota Verblitz, while ex-Edinburgh man Todd Blackadder guided Brave Lupus Tokyo to the 2024 title.
Laidlaw also name-checks former Bulls chief Frans Ludeke, Super Rugby’s most experienced coach, in charge of Kubota Spears
He insists he will not worry too much about what the other coaches are doing.
Laidlaw said: "It is about me controlling our environment and not worrying too much about other people, but it does show the calibre of coaches there are over here. They have got a lot more experience than me.
“I will be the youngest coach so I am the last out of playing, so I need to really use that to my advantage where I can because they’ll have advantages over me from their experience coaching.”
As for the long-term future, don’t rule anything out, including a return home one day.
“I’ve no plan,” Laidlaw admits.
“I’ve learned that you can’t look too far in front of yourself, but never say never in terms of maybe coming back home one day.
“My connections with Edinburgh are strong, but that is a long way off at this moment. I’ve signed for a couple of years with the D-Rocks and I’m very settled, and very passionate about doing a really good job here.
“The future will be what it will be.”
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