Sampling the blogosphere is like taking a straw poll in a pub towards closing time. You don’t get a representative sample but it gives you some idea of where the hard edges of public opinion are.
In that regard, it does seem as if mainstream rugby opinion in Scotland has now turned against Scotland coach Andy Robinson.
To be fair, it has taken a long time and Robinson has been given a lot of leeway by the fans – first because they all knew, deep down, that he was trying a mould a group of less-than-world-class players into more than the sum of their parts, and also because there was respect for him as a coach.
The players liked him and so, as a result, did the fans: that is, until now.
Scotland’s whitewash wooden spoon which was confirmed with the 13–6 loss away to Italy on Saturday has hurt. Not only that, but it followed Scotland’s first-ever failure to progress from the group stages of the Rugby World Cup.
Most fans recognise that it was the players who didn’t deliver – but, as is the case now in sport, it is the coach who takes the blame.
The most basic criticism that has been levelled at Robinson over the years is that he is a good coach but a poor selector. It was a cheap snap to throw his way and it would have been dismissed and forgotten about had Robinson’s teams actually improved under his inspired leadership – but they haven’t, and this has caused this particular epithet to persist.
No one doubts Robinson’s ability as a coach. You just have to listen to the way the players talk about his methods, his attention to detail, the subtle changes he instils in them which make them better.
But his selections have been poor. There is no way of avoiding it.
Robinson’s biggest weakness has been his determination (foolishness would be a better word for it) in announcing his intention to stick by certain key players regardless of form.
Chris Cusiter is one of Robinson’s picks. Cusiter was his first-choice scrum-half, Robinson declared, depressing his rivals and putting Cusiter in a terrible position when he had to be dropped after a series of sub-standard performances – this year’s aberration in Cardiff being a case in point.
Likewise, Ruaridh Jackson was to be Robinson’s favoured number ten – but that didn’t work either first because Jackson was injured then because his form was poor on his return.
This didn’t just happen in the Six Nations. Al Kellock was picked as Scotland captain for the World Cup by Robinson – and then dropped for a crucial game.
The result has been uncertainty, confusion and little short of chaos. Robinson appeared so scarred by the Kellock debacle that he decided it would never happen again. The only solution, he reasoned, was to pick one player as captain who was certain of his place in the team, and that was hooker Ross Ford.
The only problem was that Ford never morphed into captain material. Not only that, but his leadership record of played five lost five has shot his confidence to pieces too.
Anyone who doubts that should just look at the way his line-out throwing has imploded towards the end of this most disastrous of seasons.
After the first three games, Ford was being talked about as the Lions hooker for 2013, the best hooker of the championship and the leading hooker in the northern hemisphere.
By the end of the Italy game, Ford’s stock had sunk so low he would be lucky to get into a list of the three best hookers in the championship.
That was a direct result of the pressure Ford has come under as captain of a failing Scotland team.
Kellock is still a better captain. Just look at the way he galvanises the team when he comes on – and Ford’s decision-making on the field is poor, too.
The only remedy is to deprive Ford of the captaincy and give it someone who can lead, Kellock maybe, Kelly Brown possibly (actually Robinson’s first choice as captain).
Then there were the selections themselves. Much has been written about the Dan Parks episode and it was appalling. Robinson didn’t appear to know who he wanted to control the play in that first game against England (when Jackson was out injured), so went for a stop-gap that went horribly wrong and set the scene for everything that followed.
On the positive side, Robinson’s packs have been fine and this championship’s scrum was no exception. The scrum creaked alarmingly against Ireland and Euan Murray is clearly not the player he once was. Allan Jacobsen could also now find his place under threat from the impressive Jon Welsh, but the scrum was not the source of Scotland’s problems.
The real issue was the backs and, specifically, the lack of a cutting edge.
This has been discussed at length before and there is no need to dwell on it, but Duncan Weir has been treated poorly. Clearly the best proper all-round fly-half in Scotland at the moment, Weir can’t even get a place on the bench under Robinson who persists in playing a converted scrum-half (Greig Laidlaw) in this key position, someone who is good at club level but is not up to the job (in defence or attack) at test level.
Scotland have the youngsters to make a difference, if they are given the chance to gel as a team.
Robinson (or, if he leaves, his successor) should make wholesale changes to the back line, bring in the youngsters and give them two seasons to come together as a team, not chop and change them if they lose.
I offer this as an example. The most remarkable Scottish result of the season came at Netherdale on the eve of the Calcutta Cup when Scotland A defeated their English counterparts by 35–0.
Those Scottish youngsters were confident, skilled, fast and committed. They blew their English opponents off the field. Scotland could have done worse than to pick that entire side as the main Scotland side for the rest of the proper Six Nations championship. Indeed, it might not be a bad idea to select that whole side for the summer tour of Australia with a few of the youngsters who have broken into the senior side and made an impression – David Denton, Ross Rennie, Richie Gray to name but three.
The other side of that is that maybe it is time to leave some of the older players behind: the Lamonts, Graeme Morrison, Jacobsen, Murray.
One more thing. The Scottish coach on that extraordinary night at Netherdale was none other than Michael Bradley, the Irishman who has taken Edinburgh to the first home quarter-final for a Scottish side in the Heineken Cup – something Robinson never managed as Edinburgh coach.
If the SRU come to the same conclusion as the bloggers that Robinson’s time is up, then the blazers have someone waiting in the wings who would be a more than adequate replacement.
Oh, and Bradley was supported that night by Craig Chalmers, the former Scotland stand-off who has done a great job at Melrose: they proved then that they are not a bad double-act.
For the record, the Scotland A team that night was: Jon Welsh, Dougie Hall, Ed Kalman, Rob Harley, Tom Ryder, Stuart McInally, Chris Fusaro, Richie Vernon, Rory Lawson, Duncan Weir, Simon Danielli, Matt Scott, Alex Grove, Tom Brown, Stuart Hogg. Subs: Ryan Grant, Ryan Wilson, Roddy Grant, Pat McArthur, Henry Pyrgos, Phil Godman and Peter Murchie.
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