THE HERALD REPORTS


Nothing to fear over future ambition
KEVIN FERRIE January 02 2008

OFF AND RUNNING: Glasgow's Andy Henderson
Nothing has been more irritating in the closing months of 2007 than the repeated lament from Scotland rugby supporters that the national team might have reached the World Cup semi-finals had they looked to play some rugby earlier in the quarter-final against Argentina.

It is a statement that implies there was a lack of ambition, or a lack of awareness, that risks would have to be taken to beat a team rated well above them in the world rankings. It would seem, superficially, to be supported by Frank Hadden's admission after the tournament that he briefly pondered whether he was the right man to take the national team forward as its head coach. Yet that is to misunderstand completely what happened that night in the Stade de France and, I suspect, Hadden's thinking thereafter.

There is no question that Scotland - they were the youngest team in the tournament, let's remember - showed some immaturity in decision-making and in the execution of even some of the better decisions made. Perhaps the best example came not during the first hour, which most people reckon cost Scotland the game, but in the way the last chance to snatch victory was lost during the period of play for which many of the critics commended them.

Dan Parks was rightly judged by his team-mates to be Scotland's best player in the tournament, yet his thinking was flawed when he opted to kick towards the right wing and Sean Lamont, who had endured a pretty miserable evening. That would have been the case even if it was a sufficiently accurate kick but, at his most confident, Sean Lamont, or for that matter Jerry Rice, the fabled San Francisco 49ers wide receiver, would have struggled to reel in that over-hit kick.


It was a sad end to a fine campaign in which, for the first time, Scotland had beaten teams ranked above them both in a World Cup warm-up match against Ireland and at the tournament itself Italy, duly finishing it secure among the world's top eight.

The notion that Scotland were not seeking to ask enough questions of Argentina, who were the team of the tournament - they twice thrashed the host nation France, themselves the conquerors of the All Blacks - was quite unfair.

Hadden has said the Pumas management subsequently told him that, such was the respect they had for Scotland, they were set on the most conservative of gameplans, seeking to subdue their opponents at every turn. Everything I recall from that game's opening hour supported that.

While, then, those aforementioned poor decisions and, more pertinently, the limitations in the players' skills, let them down, Scotland were, for the most part, working off the back foot throughout until replacement prop Craig Smith's thunderous run panicked the Pumas, putting doubt into their minds and changing the game's course for the final quarter.

That Scotland came so close to beating what was, man for man, a superior and more battle-hardened team - many of whom were at their third or fourth World Cup - was remarkable.

Post-match analysis has apparently shown both teams did an excellent defensive job in that first hour, effectively meaning whichever team had the ball was bullied and so, effectively, was trying to play off the back foot. As Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors have also been proving, defence is becoming a great strength of Scottish rugby.

How much better the team might have performed had Jason White, the captain, and Mike Blair been able to get a bit more game-time under their belts before the tournament began, can be no more than a matter for conjecture.

However, after some soul-searching Hadden, a passionate Scotland supporter, has clearly concluded that the team he has put together remains a work in progress. Furthermore, Blair - challenged as he is being by Rory Lamont and British & Irish Lion Chris Cusiter - is currently in the form of his life, which is saying something, while White is almost under pressure for his place, such is the quality of back-row play at Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors right now. Scotland also go into the Six Nations Championship with the most stable set-up of any of the competing teams.

Parks, who seems to have grown in authority, looks very much the on-field leader for the Warriors that a Test stand-off should be, and the team should gain enormously from the World Cup experience.

While the season-ending injury suffered by Sean Lamont, Scotland's player of the season in 2006/07, is a blow, it may solve difficult problems in accommodating the best back three player, his younger brother Rory, the most reliable last line of defence, Hugo Southwell, the most elusive runner Simon Webster and international rugby's leading goal-kicker Chris Paterson.

Euan Murray's emergence alongside the powerful Ross Ford, has also done much to solidify the set-piece scrum, while Nathan Hines and Jim Hamilton have formed a rumbustious second row partnership, the only real area of concern is midfield.

The principal question is probably how best to utilise Andy Henderson and who best to partner him with. The emergence of Nick De Luca as a creative force has been encouraging. While there is a real danger of expecting too much of a 23-year-old - he still makes the sort of errors that epitomise what Hadden talks about when he says Scottish players take longer than others to reach competitive maturity - he seems to raise his game according to the opposition.

If, then, 2007 was a year of disappointment on the international front, with a third Six Nations wooden spoon in four years followed by getting so close to making a major breakthrough at the World Cup, closer analysis should provide greater cause for encouragement about Scotland's Test prospects than at any time in this decade

This article was originally posted on 2-Jan-2008, 08:58 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 2-Jan-2008, 08:58.