The 24-year-old had the worst match of his career against Italy in Scotlands last outing, when his two intercepted passes gifted the Azzurri 14 of the 21 points they scored inside the opening seven minutes on the way to a shock Murrayfield win.

However, Cusiter believes now is the time to move on - and he is delighted that Scotland head coach Frank Hadden has handed him an opportunity to get straight back on the horse against Ireland this weekend.

It was a fairly bad week last week, but I generally feel quite good now, said Cusiter.

Its good that Frank Hadden and the coaches understand what its like for players to be in a situation like that.

They looked at the rest of the game and felt that I responded well, so Im pleased to be given another shot and I know I need a big performance.

Im quite excited about this now. Ive enjoyed training this week and getting back into it.

Cusiter openly admits it took a significant amount of soul-searching before he felt he was ready to lay to rest the demons of his Italian nightmare - and he found the support of friends, family and team-mates important over the last week and a half.

He said: I think such a low comes with the territory and although Ive been around a few years Im not massively experienced, certainly compared to someone like Scott Murray who will be winning his 83rd cap on Saturday.

So I suppose you have to go through things like this to know what its like, and hopefully come back stronger.

Its happened and its up to me to come back from it. I had a word with Gregor Townsend yesterday and he remembers throwing an interception pass against France which lost them the game a few years ago.

In fact, Ive spoken to a few people who understand the situation and who know what Ive been going through, and theyve been invaluable to me.

Looking ahead to Saturdays match against Ireland, Cusiter agreed that the Scots face a massive challenge.

But he insisted they could upset the odds by securing a famous win.

We need a big performance because of what happened two weeks ago and we need a big performance because its Ireland - so those two things should hopefully combine for us to win, he said.