DAVID KELSO WRITES IN TODAYS HERALD

Matt Williams, the former Scotland rugby coach, has claimed that both he and Berti Vogts, one-time manager of the national football team, were driven out of the country by racism.

Almost two and a half years after he was removed as head coach at Murrayfield, the Australian has spoken out on what he claims was the prime reason for his departure.

He argues that he and Vogts were unreasonably treated because they were not pure-bred Scots.

Williams, who took up the reins from Ian McGeechan immediately after the 2003 World Cup, also admitted he had been wrong to force veteran players like Gregor Townsend and Glenn Metcalfe to retire from the Test stage, and he alleges he was frustrated by a perceived lack of ambition on the part of Scottish Rugby Union officials.

He said: "The thing I didn't know when I arrived in the job was that Berti Vogts was the German who was coaching the football team and I didn't realise the massive antipathy towards him. It was wrongly placed because it was based on racial grounds and, unfortunately, when he left, that got placed on me.

"It didn't really matter if I was any good or not; I wasn't a Scot. So that whole racial thing was pretty hard to cop . . . hard to accept. But, look, the game is becoming more of a soap opera and once you become the story, it stops you being able to coach.

"I became the story simply because I wasn't Scottish and we weren't winning. There was no public acknowledgement that there was a four-year plan and that there was a blood-letting phase."

Scotland won only one competitive match under Williams, although he pointed to the fact that 11 members of the 22-man squad that lined up in last month's World Cup quarter-final against Argentina in Paris received their first cap from him.

In a wide-ranging interview published today in the Irish magazine Emerald Rugby, he claims the Scotland international rugby set-up was "in a lot more trouble than I thought" when he succeeded McGeechan and added: "My regret is that I wasn't allowed to do what I wanted to do. I said to them the SRU that it was a four-year gig and I was going to plan for that.

"I told them the first two years would be a lot of pain but, when we got to that pain, they couldn't see it through. Unfortunately, my chairman David Mackay got sacked and my CEO Phil Anderton got sacked, so suddenly all the expectations concerning my role had changed.

"When I came in I got rid of all the older guys such as Townsend and Metcalfe; it was all to get ready for this year's World Cup.

"If they the SRU had said to me we have to win now', I would have kept these guys in the team. So if I had my time over again I would've played those guys. If I had known that, in the first two years, I had to win a certain number of games, I would have done things differently.

"But the interesting thing was that when I asked for the resources to win a quarter-final, the answer that came back was we don't believe we can do that'."

He continued: "When a coach brings in young guys and they don't perform, like I did with Scotland and Brian Ashton did with England, people say sack him."

Williams' racism claim was yesterday laughed off by a senior player in his squad who said: "He was never able to get on the same wavelength as us, either on or off the pitch. He treated a lot of us like imbeciles and children and it was inevitable that results did not go our way.

"He talked a good game and that must have been why he got the job in the first place, but he was quickly found out as a person and a coach."

Williams was sacked at the end of the 2004/05 season after the Scots were left with the Six Nations wooden spoon.

Frank Hadden took over as caretaker coach and instantly revived the side's fortunes with a first triumph against the Barbarians at Pittodrie and victory over Romania in Bucharest.

Williams, who also had a stints in charge of New South Wales and Leinster, is currently coaching the Sydney club side West Harbour.

In the interview, he refused to rule out a return to the big stage, but only with his native Australia or his beloved Ireland.

"Never say never, but I'm close to saying never," he said. "When I got offered the NSW job I was 36: very young. Before that I coached as an amateur for five years so, by the time, I'd finished with Scotland I'd been 15 years without a break.

"But I miss it. Bottom line is I've said no' to a lot of things, but I love coaching. So it's got to be something that I want to do and that fits in with my life and part of that could be an assistant coach and it'd have to be in Australia or Ireland.

"You can only say what you feel; I feel Irish, I support Ireland and my heart's in Ireland. My children are Irish kids: they are brought up there; they have Irish accents and my son's nickname back home is Irish'.

"My grandparents were born there and, if there's an Australia v Ireland match on, I'm cheering for Ireland. I've done that most of my life because of how I was brought up."

12:01am today



By DAVID KELSO

This article was posted on 2-Nov-2007, 08:25 by Hugh Barrow.