THE HERALAD REPORTS

Gunners ‘should grow Scottish coaches’

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer September 12 2006

Frank Hadden, having revived Scotland's international rugby fortunes over the past year, has called on the Edinburgh Gunners' new owners to play their part in producing homegrown coaches who can help him continue the process.
The first Scottish-born coach in seven years to take charge of the national team after they suffered a spell of sustained failure under Ian McGeechan and Matt Williams, Hadden marked the anniversary of his permanent appointment yesterday by presenting awards to youngsters who have completed Scottish Vocational Qualifications in rugby.
Community coach apprentices from all over Scotland were honoured at the ceremony at Rosehall High School in Coatbridge, which is far from a traditional rugby nursery yet produced three of those presented with their graduation scrolls by Hadden.
He congratulated them on their work in spreading the gospel. At a time when none of the head coaches of Scotland's three professional teams is originally from this country, though, he knows aspiring young coaches need to be given opportunities to progress.
Hadden was himself a victim of what looked like Murrayfield's inferiority complex when overlooked for the Scotland job in 2003 in favour of Australian Matt Williams.
The Dundonian took Edinburgh to the quarter-finals of the European Cup the following season while Williams guided Scotland to a Six Nations Championship whitewash for the first time in two decades.
Yet Hadden reckons he and the current professional coaches are a dying breed, as the last of the amateurs.
"Maybe we [in Scotland] don't have enough self-belief and self-confidence to think we are capable of standing on our own feet, but I think there is a pathway to becoming a professional coach that isn't all that clear yet because the professional game is so relatively new," he suggested.
"I don't expect there will be anyone else coming through that isn't a professional player. It would be nice to think some of the Scottish players who have had a taste of the professional game will be the next professional coaches and, therefore, the next international coaches as well."
That is for the longer-term, though, and, meantime, he offered support for the new owners of his former team, Edinburgh Gunners, over their appointment of Lynn Howells, a vastly experienced Welshman, before he added that the likes of Rob Moffat and Iain Paxton, currently there as assistant coaches, and Peter Wright, the former Scotland Under-19 coach, must gain experience of the pro game.
"What's important for us is that we say to Alex Carruthers 'You are buying this business, we trust you,' " said Hadden. "Alex is saying Scottish rugby is really important to him and the future of the national side is really important to him and he has the best interests of the country at heart. We've got to believe that so we have to let them do their own thing.
"So I hope they stick to their word of trying to grow Scottish coaches to be the next professional head coaches because there's absolutely no doubt that you have to be coaching at professional level in order to be a head coach at professional level."

This article was posted on 12-Sep-2006, 07:13 by Hugh Barrow.