BY IAIN COLLIN – Capital City Press
With only the final left to play Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw is firmly in the running to finish amongst the top scorers at this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Gloucester scrum-half’s 79 points from Scotland’s five outings at the tournament earned him the number one position in the scoring charts before the weekend’s semi-finals.
However, the 30-year-old, who dived over for one crucial try against Samoa and also kicked 13 conversions and 16 penalties, was knocked off the top spot by Argentina stand-off Nicolas Sanchez, whose five penalties in the Pumas’ semi-final defeat to Australia took him up to 89 points for the competition.
With South Africa’s Handre Pollard on the same 79-point tally as Laidlaw, Australia stand-off Bernard Foley is lurking below in fourth place on 75 ahead of the Wallabies’ final clash with New Zealand.
Just five more points will nudge Foley ahead of Laidlaw, but the All Blacks’ Dan Carter, currently in fifth place on 63 points, needs 17 more to leapfrog Laidlaw and deny him a top-three finish.
@IainCollin
