He has single handedly taken Scotland from 9th in IRB rankings to 12th in just 3 short years. Above them reside such notable teams as Italy, Tonga, Samoa and Argentina.
Lets take a quick peek at these powerhouses of rugby which are deemed superior to Scotland.
Now some of you will argue that Italy are good. And yes, they are not bad. They are all pros, albeit playing in Celtic Rabo 12 league. And the teams they play for, have consistently come bottom. So, yes Italy are progressing. They are progressing just as fast as Scotland is declining.
Italian Rugby only really came to prominence in 2000 when it was added to the Five Nations, creating the Six Nations.
Initially on the end of some heavy defeats, the side has grown in competitiveness, recording a fourth place finish in 2007, and even in defeat, lop-sided losses are less frequent. The Azzurri have shown respectable results when playing at home in recent years. During the 2011 Six Nations, the side played three home games which resulted in a 22–21 victory over France, and were only 12 points in combined deficit to securing victories over Ireland and Wales, lost 11–13 and 16–24 respectively. In 2012 Scotland replaced the Italians as wooden spoon winner.
The point is that Italy has benefited from having players mix with professionals on a regular basis in Rabo cup and have shown remarkable improvement over the last 5 years whereas Scotland has gone backwards. Its not as if the Scottish clubs are equally as rubbish...they are not. They consistently beat the Italian clubs.
It has been bad coaching. The style and tactics are dictated by director which has been Andy Robinson.
One only had to watch the Scots at 2011 World Cup where they struggled to beat amateur sides such as Georgia and Romania.
One could see the players wanting to play the modern game by trying to keep the ball alive, but it was also quite apparent that their instructions were to go down and take the ruck. It was embarrassing.
Andy Robinson failed at England coach prior to Scottish job. We English thought we'd play a joke on the Scots by pretending Andy left on good terms blah blah blah. You know how it goes..."We'd like to thank Andy for doing such a great job under trying circumstances etc bla blah"
So Scots got him and it never ceased to amaze me that every time they lost, Andy blamed the players for the performance and yet the players and management always spoke highly of him.
Go figure.
I can't ever remember the Scots giving an Englishman such an easy time.
He abused them and they loved him.
Going back to the other teams above Scotland in IRB Rankings for just a moment.
Tonga has very few players with pro contacts around the world so it was a massive shock that Scots should get beaten by them just recently. I think I had Scots to win by 30 in Superbru.
Samoa is a little different. They do not have that many pros to pick from. But the players they can pick, practically all played Southern hemisphere. Not all are Super 15 level. Some only play at provincial level in ITM Cup, which is a mixture of pros and semi pros.
Of course a good number were picked from those playing top class rugby in Northern hemisphere for the Autumn Internationals this year. Samoa doesn't have the resources to fly everyone from New Zealand. I've always said that the top teams in ITM Cup would give practically all teams in Celtic league, and the bottom 5 in Aviva and French Top 14, a run for their money.
It is great to see Argentina do so well. They had their first season in ex Tri Nations competition this year.
They had similar results to when Italy first started in 6 nations. They did manage to draw one game but had 166 pts scored against them in 6 games. But Argies are another example of not having many professionals to pick from.
In every game this year they have had to field between 3 and 6 amateurs in the starting line up.
There should never be any competition between amateurs and pros.
The amateur has to work at another job and rarely gets to play amongst pros and the higher pace etc, and the other gets to train 40 hrs a week and is constantly getting better by playing with, and against, pros.
So, it has been a revelation to see how far the Argies have come in just the last 14 months.
There is no doubting the courage and tenacity of Argie forwards. You're never going to overpower them by trying to run over their forwards. South Africa tried and only managed a lucky draw.
Anyway I digress. So, Andy Robinson finally won first place in the alternative rugby awards this year, as the worst coach of the year.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/11/30/the-alternative-international-rugby-awards/
Sadly there may be worse to come for Scotland, and this was one of the main reasons for this diatribe.
They have just promoted Scott Johnson as director of rugby.
He has been attack coach for last 6 months.
And I won't criticize him for Scotland's complete lack of attacking ability which amounted to kick and chase, because the director sets the style and strategy.... and that was Andy Robinson.
Every time Scott has been in charge of the direction of a team he has failed miserably. Another man who seems to have the Gods on his side. Why do we constantly recycle these failed coaches? We should be giving ex pro players the job as head coaches. Which effectively means they are still young as professionalism didn't start until 1995 and they understand the modern game. A few exceptions to this rule would be ex Wallaby David Campese and ex All Black John Kirwan. Both are still involved in the game. Kirwan actually did a brilliant job with Italy and then Japan. Personally I thought he should have got the England job, and certainly the Scottish one. But neither saw his potential, so he will coach the Blues in Super15 next year. Should be interesting.
Once again I digress.
In the modern era Scott Johnson has been a miserable failure as a director of rugby/head coach.
His last 2 gigs were;
2008 -2009 with USA. A complete failure. Sure USA was tough in those days, but Scott lacked any vision and could not recognize talent. He soon realized he was out of his league and packed that in to join Ospreys. A team on the rise at the time.
At Ospreys from 2009-2012, half his team were not just ordinary Internationals but the so-called "best of the best" and were British and Irish Lions players. And practically all the rest were internationals including ex All Blacks captain and monster Jerry Collins.
Yet the best I think he ever did was win the Celtic league once., The league, quite frankly, is lame. Remember 2 of the clubs are Italian....barely pros.
So many times I have watched them and seen them play such a terrible style of rugby. It was so frustrating.
Scott Johnson, and Andy Robinson are the guys we have all met at one time or another.
Average at the best of times yet always managing to come up smelling of roses, and getting all the best jobs.
If that is what selling your soul to the devil looks like. Sign me up.
I suspect the Scottish Rugby Union head honchos are English saboteurs. They look and speak like Scots in public but are being paid either by the English or the Scottish Football Association. After all, it makes sense.....for Scottish football to get better, they need the rugby fans coming through the turnstiles.
One could just imagine these Scottish rugby union bosses going home at night and revert back to speaking Queens English to the missus.
"Righty-ho old dear, time for a little rogering eh?"That reminds of the great monologue in Trainspotting.
You have to watch this. It was brilliant.
I digress
Johnson's in the right place at the right time again, because it is absolutely impossible for Scotland to sink any lower in IRB rankings.
Heck, even IRB says so. They are a full 5 points ahead of the next challengers, namely Fiji, Canada and Japan. If you put all those 3 teams together you couldn't field 15 pros.
And partly because of Scott Johnson's tenure at USA, they are next on the list.... a full 2 pts below Japan for chrissakes.
And USA can now field a full 15 pros or ex pros.
Anyway, as soon as Johnson left, Ospreys started winning again. His dire and unattractive brand of rugby has contributed as much to Wales' current woes, as anything else.
Here you had the top Welsh side barely winning, and playing such unattractive rugby, that only the real die-hard supporters would dare venture out on a cold, wet and windy evening.
Gate money stayed roughly the same in this period yet expenses doubled. Particularly top professional wages. And here they have to compete with the French and their huge bank balances and treasury.
Is it any wonder that the best want to play abroad?
Anyway, good luck to Scots.
We need a strong Scottish National side that starts winning again.
I believe the players are there already...they just need a more adventurous style.
A winning national side will invigorate the game from grass roots level up.
Lets be fair....you've got to be out of your mind to want to go practice and play in Scotland.
And, as a former back, it is no fun when the team plays 10 man rugby and by the time you get your first pass, your fingers have frozen to the inside of the pockets on your shorts.
You've gotta love the Scots.
As the old Scottish saying goes, "there's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes!"
No comments:
Post a Comment