JOHN BEATTIE REPORTS IN THE SCOTSMAN

Tried and tested Hadden deserves his chance

JOHN BEATTIE

THE hounding from his job of Matt Williams reflected a visible and unsavoury aspect of Scottish culture in recent weeks. And no sooner is he removed from his post than we have veiled criticism of the "coaching by committee" set up in his place and suggestions that Frank Hadden, the interim head coach, is in post by default.

The disdain shown to Williams, I fear, was multiplied in the safe knowledge that we could all lambast the Australian with little fear of having to meet him again once he had vacated his post. I don’t know where Matt will go now, but I doubt very much that he is contemplating an end terrace in Morningside for example. So, friends and fellow Scots, we now have a Scottish management team in place. The excuses have gone out the window as rapidly as the Australian and his back room staff. As a country we are now accountable for the results of our national side.

So who will be in charge? Well, we have newspaper column inches devoted to long lists of former players as possible candidates to head up new coaching "dream teams", and the only surprise is that Andy Irvine isn’t being touted as president, backs coach, manager and, very possibly, for a return to full back. Can we just hang on for a minute? The last thing the Scottish game needs is former players who haven’t been involved in top-level coaching to be put in charge of coaching professional rugby teams. It’s ridiculous. A professional player can smell an imposter at more than 50 paces.

The next thing that has to be said is that coaching a professional rugby team is a complex exercise and we need experienced men at the helm. The last thing Peter Wright and Iain Paxton need, or indeed this country needs, is for blokes like that who haven’t proved themselves in top-level coaching to be thrust forward when they aren’t ready.

Wright took a Glasgow Hawks squad bursting with talent, including a few training full-time with Glasgow, to the league and cup double, but also took an Under-19 squad to South Africa a month ago and ended up a disappointing tenth. Iain Paxton has been in full time coaching for less than a year.

Much as it might reduce my popularity stakes, I repeat: Wright and Paxton have yet to prove themselves in coaching and aren’t ready. Yet.

And I will also repeat: coaching top-level rugby is incredibly complicated. How the hell, for instance, do you think of different drills after a while? To think otherwise is to imagine that I could challenge Fred Goodwin at the Royal Bank because I too have an overdraft.

Which brings me to Frank Hadden. What I like most about him is that he isn’t a former player of great repute, so it has been doubly hard. If you believe, as I do, that all players at some stage begin to think that their coach is useless, then it is incredible that Hadden has survived despite a coach-led whispering campaign against him that has been relentless and misguided at the same time.

As I have said before, I believe we need a manager above Hadden - I still think it should be someone like John Jeffrey - and a coaching team with Hadden. The coaches must be experienced at professional level.

Hadden has my backing, as he deserves the job. But he is about to find out three things. The first is that results matter. The second is that international rugby can make or break coaching reputations. And the third is that you are only as good as your players. Which, very probably, has been the problem all along.

CAN I take this chance to thank the cup final teams for their brilliant rugby on Saturday. Am I alone in thinking that Boroughmuir are at least as good now as they were under Sean Lineen and Paxton? Or that club rugby is arguably better to watch than professional rugby?

This article was posted on 2-May-2005, 08:20 by Hugh Barrow.