SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Is Campbell on his way out?

IAIN MORRISON


PROFESSIONAL rugby is supposed to be a glamorous occupation, but you'd have been forgiven for thinking otherwise last Thursday afternoon at Glasgow's training ground on the south side of the city. In the middle of a miserable Scottish winter, the entire clubhouse seemed in danger of being blown off its foundations and the players kept moving about the water-logged pitch as much motivated to keep warm as they were by any enthusiasm for the task at hand.

The team were preparing for this afternoon's European encounter that represents their last chance of adding to the solitary Heineken Cup point that they have garnered so far in this year's competition. The "Warriors" fighting spirit has been in short supply this season with the team winning just three matches in 15 starts, not one of them in European competition.


Certainly the team could do with a win this afternoon because, at a time when Scottish rugby is already at a low ebb, their pool results only confirm many people's prejudices regarding the game here. One London-based journalist last week lumped Glasgow in with the Italian sides as Heineken Cup "punch-bags".

He has a point. The side are without a win of any sort since December 4 when Edinburgh got the fright of their lives, going down 46-6 in an embarrassingly one-sided encounter. Since then the only red faces around have belonged to Glasgow's players and coaches as the team has lost the last five matches on the bounce. Glasgow haven't won a Heineken Cup match since December 13 2002 when they bested Bourgoin by a solitary point, the same team visit this afternoon so perhaps the omens are good.

Although they currently occupy a respectable seventh place in the Celtic League it flatters to deceive. Glasgow are trailing the other Scottish teams whereas last year they finished top of the domestic pile. Moreover, they have already had both their bye weekends when the team are guaranteed winner's points; everyone else except the Borders has had just one. And finally, the three Welsh teams immediately below them all have games in hand which, were they to win them, would put Glasgow down into tenth place, with just Connacht below them.

Bizarrely, Glasgow have taken points off the top two teams in the Celtic League, beating both Edinburgh and Munster and grabbing a four-try bonus into the bargain on both occasions. The 32-10 win at home against Munster was very possibly the best Glasgow result, and almost certainly the best performance, since the dawn of professionalism, and the routing of Edinburgh not far behind it. Skipper Jon Petrie called it "classic Glasgow".

"We play like legends one week and sit back the next week thinking it's going to happen," he said. "I have no doubt that we are good enough to do it (win) so it must be a mental thing."

A psychiatrist would surely diagnose schizophrenia, such is the Jekyll and Hyde character of Glasgow. For every glorious victory, they suffer one unlucky loss and two humiliating defeats. The Warriors showed their fighting spirit against Ulster where only an injury time penalty thwarted a rare win at Ravenshill, but only after showing all the fighting spirit of road kill against the Reivers the week before. And they tested Bath to the full at The Rec only to lose badly at Firhill.

The opening match of the Heineken Cup against Leinster should have been won and probably would have been, had the normally reliable Dan Parks not missed a total of six kicks at goal. That loss at home on the opening weekend of this year's competition effectively ended Glasgow's interest in the tournament after just 80 minutes of action, a point raised by coach Hugh Campbell last week when he contemplated the 46-22 drubbing in the Dublin re-match.

While the Irish side could still qualify for the quarter-finals, Campbell pointed out: "Our game against Leinster would have been much more competitive if there had been something to play for. We've got nothing to play for in the European Cup except for pride". The performance in Dublin only suggests that commodity is in pretty short supply.

Campbell is a decent man and he has a host of explanations on hand for what has gone wrong. There was an air of regret rather than recrimination last week as journalists took the Glasgow coach to task over his side's dismal record, with neither questioners nor quizzed able to summon much in the way of anger.

Certainly there was none of the blood lust that hastened Matt Williams out the door, although the same endgame cannot now be ruled out for Campbell. There ensued an unenthusiastic run around the houses with the phrases "lack of focus", "player development", "inconsistency", "performance" and, most worrying of all, "structures" coming from the Glasgow coach. "Structures" were what Williams referred to endlessly when the talk was moving towards results and the Australian was always keen to head any conversation off at the pass before it arrived at that thorny subject.

But many of the coach's points were well made. His threadbare squad of just 30 professionals lacks the depth of Edinburgh's but, as Murphy's Law inevitably dictates, they have suffered far more, and far more serious, injuries than their East Coast rivals. Edinburgh lose Fergus Pringle and he is replaced immediately. Glasgow lock Tim Barker's knee is currently held together with Wrigley's Spearmint gum but Campbell has to hope the joint might make it through to May.

On top of the obvious absentees like Calvin Howarth, Scott Barrow, Mike Roberts, Andy Craig and Euan Murray, the Warriors lost an entire international back row. Jon Petrie was hurt in the opening game of the season and is only just back, Donnie Macfadyen is keeping the fans waiting longer than Godot for his return and Andy Wilson is still a month or more away from match fitness.

This has meant throwing in youngsters and, well though Stevie Swindall, John Barclay and Johnny Beattie have performed, they cannot be expected to replace a test trio at this early stage of their development. At one time almost one-third of the squad were unavailable because of injury, and this afternoon every fit man with the correct European qualification is involved, with the sole exception of Graydon Staniforth. Campbell is not so much selecting a team as making a head count.

His team still lead the league - as they did last year - in losing bonus points, which suggests that they are not too far away from being a successful side. But whether Campbell is the man to drag them the last few difficult steps up the ladder is now in some doubt.

The players have shown themselves capable of much better form than their recent run of results suggest and for that reason alone the attention naturally turns to the coaching staff, to whom Petrie was happy to offer this muted endorsement when he was asked if the players were happy: "Yes, I think so. Everyone has confidence in the way we're trying to play and what we are trying to do as a side. We're happy enough with that for the rest of the season and whatever goes on in the close season we have to deal with that. But we're going along just now as though we're sticking with the coaching team as is, and the players are more than happy with that."

The former Scotland captain then went on to set out the reality of Glasgow's situation far better than his coach had managed to do.

"We (the players) are wary that it's a result-driven business. This is the thing that Gordon McKie has brought to the whole business, that if people don't perform they'll be away. That counts for players, it counts for coaches and everyone is aware of that."

Winning, not just this afternoon but in the more meaningful Celtic League clashes ahead, is hugely important for Scottish pro-teams that have yet to win the battle for hearts and minds of the Scottish public.

Without a winning team Glasgow will struggle to persuade many more fans through the Firhill (or is it Old Anniesland this week?) turnstiles, which is a piece of cake compared to what they really need to do - persuade the likes of Jason White and Tom Smith back to Glasgow.

The Union's new boss has overhauled the suits in Murrayfield such that there are new heads of department occupying just about every office going, from marketing to media via finance. If McKie shows the same ruthlessness with the rugby division then Campbell, a former teacher, will find himself back in front of a blackboard come the autumn.

There has always been a suspicion stretching back to his Scotland days that Campbell has lacked the authority of a true leader.

He has just a few months to find it because only a marked improvement from his side in the second half of the season can protect their coach from the bitter wind of reality that is sending a chill through Scottish professional rugby.

This article was posted on 22-Jan-2006, 09:32 by Hugh Barrow.