Peter Horne: Scotland World Cup call down to 'dirty work in trenches'
- Published
A couple of intercepted Peter Horne passes were highlighted in the media
Scotland's Peter Horne says his World Cup selection is down to his ability to do "dirty work in the trenches".
Horne, 29, was chosen as one of the four centres in the 31-man group for the tournament in Japan, with Rory Hutchinson and Huw Jones missing out.
There was some surprise at the omission of the in-form Hutchinson, but Horne says his less glamorous role can lead to his own skill-set being underrated.
"I think I bring out the best in a lot of our other players," he said.
"I'm quite happy to be in the trenches, hitting that extra ruck, or using that bit more energy, if it means that Stuart Hogg or whoever is a little bit fresher," Horne said.
Horne, whose younger brother, George, is also in the squad, threw the intercepted pass that led to Damian Penaud crossing in the opening minutes for France at Murrayfield 11 days ago, while he was involved in a similar incident against Ireland in the 2018 Six Nations.
But the Glasgow Warriors centre believes he has been unfairly criticised for those moments, while his contributions are overlooked.
"Everyone's giving me a hard time about interceptions, but I've only thrown two in my 42 caps," Horne stressed.
"You throw the odd interception because I'm putting balls over the top to wingers all the time and the amount of tries we've scored from pinging a ball over too."
Horne believes his abilities bring Finn Russell or whoever else is playing fly-half into the game.
"There's times when I'm sitting watching games and, as a fan, you tend to remember people scoring great tries and things," he added.
"I've maybe not scored many of them for Scotland in the past, but I still think I bring a lot to the squad.
"I like to think I'm a great communicator as well, so Finn and the 10s, I'm pretty sure they like playing with me because I organise a lot for them."