The Sunday Herald reports


‘I don’t feel threatened. My job is permanently on the line, dependent on results’
Alasdair Reid meets Scotland coach Frank Hadden
Comment
AFTER A dreadful start to the Six Nations and two woeful performances against France and Wales, coach Frank Hadden has been blamed in some quarters for everything from team selection to his players' lack of basic skills. Chief rugby writer Alasdair Reid asked him the questions ahead of Saturday's match against Ireland at Croke Park.

When are we going to see a try from Scotland? Very soon. That's something that has caused us a few sleepless nights. I knew before I came into the job that this was something I wanted to address because this has not been an area of strength for Scotland over the years. We are not the only team that finds it difficult to score tries nowadays and we could use some luck, some magic. We need more rhythm in our attacks to create more opportunities and better support play when we make our line breaks.

Are Scotland too predictable? Do they pose too few problems for other sides? At the moment, definitely yes. We were disappointed with the quality of our attack against Wales. The signals were there against France, where we had problems at the set-piece; last weekend we moved the problem one phase out. On Monday, I made it clear to the players what we need to do to make it harder for teams to defend against us.


Why have Scotland's players been making so many basic errors? A very good question. The pressure of the occasion is probably the most obvious answer but it was not something I was worried about until three games ago. We seem to have carried the pressure of the World Cup into the Six Nations. We need to work even harder before the match and be as error free as possible in our preparation going into the game, but once the game starts we need to try and relax a bit more in attack. We need to look forward to and not fear the opportunity to carry ball.

Scotland have taken nothing from the opposition lineout. Why? Our World Cup lineout statistics were 87% won by us and 76% won by the opposition. Currently we are at 81% for and 85% against. Although there is work to be done in this area, you have to prioritise the limited preparation time available. As most teams win most of their line-outs, we have tried to link our line-out defence to part of the wider defensive strategy. But we constantly review the best way to get the best outcomes with the time available.

What has happened to Scotland's traditional forward dynamism? My recollection is that, apart from one or two spells over the years, we have been bullied up front on a regular basis. We are working hard at the moment on speed work and speed of reaction and more movement of the ball, in an attempt to give more dynamic performances in the next three games.

Have Scotland neglected skills in favour of physical conditioning? Skill development is a long, slow process, and not something you can do much about in the time the national team has to prepare. In our World Cup preparation I allocated five weeks out of the five months from June to October, for physical conditioning, but during that five week block, there were still individual skill programmes for the players as well.

Is Dan Parks too limited a player to control the side properly? People expect the stand-off to be Superman, and able to do everything. It's frustrating that so many people are more interested in what you can't do than what you can do. At international level it is not enough to be quite good at everything, you need tools that can hurt the opposition. For Dan, that is his kicking game, and his organisational skills. He can control an attack better than people give him credit for and he has worked very hard on his defence. Last week he made 16 tackles out of 16 and his percentage of completed tackles during the World Cup was 90%.

Jason White has not been the force he was two years ago. Why? After such a long period out injured, it was always going to take Jason time to regain full match fitness. I believe that after the France game Jason wanted to prove a point last weekend and was really fired up going into the game. Getting a bang on the head after just nine minutes was very frustrating. It's not ideal to lose any player so early in the game, but it's especially frustrating to lose your captain.

Having highlighted the inexperience of some players, do you now regret leaving Scott Murray out of the squad? Leaving Scott Murray out was a tough decision, one of many you have to make in my position. But I don't spend too much time looking backwards, and tend to look at what we need to do to play better than last week.

Do you regret singling out John Barclay for criticism after the match? In my opinion, John played really well, but the point I was trying to make, in a very ham-fisted way, was that Martyn Williams, his opposite number, was outstanding. I have no doubt that John can be as good as him one day.

Are you worried by Nick de Luca's shaky start to his Test career? Obviously, everyone would have loved Nick to have shown some of his recent form for his club in the opening two games but people forget how different and how difficult Test match rugby is. It is a very unforgiving place. Like John, I have no doubt that Nick will learn from this experience and come back stronger.

With only two pro teams now, can Scotland still develop enough Test players, particularly for the specialist positions? There is no doubt that players develop more quickly in a winning environment. At this point in time, with so many players playing outside Scotland, we do not have enough good players to create three successful teams. In my opinion, in the current situation, I would like to see two back-up teams playing on a regular basis so we have four sets of half-backs, instead of two or even three getting the opportunity to develop.

There are performance targets in your employment contract. Are you feeling nervous at the moment? When I took the job I knew how tough it was going to be. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to coach the national side and I am desperate to give the fans one of these rare periods of over-achievement. Don't forget that my personal target is to win every game, and that is much tougher than the target set in the Strategic Plan, which makes a retrospective evaluation at the end of 5 years. Feeling nervous is not always a bad thing.

How unsettling is the talk of Andy Robinson as your successor. Do the pair of you talk often? We communicate regularly. We talked for a few hours just last night. I was very keen to get Andy here. I thought he would be very good for Edinburgh Rugby and therefore for Scotland as well. I don't feel threatened by his presence. My job is permanently on the line, entirely dependent on results, and I see Andy as a positive addition to the core of experienced professional coaches we have here.

In your third season as coach do you still feel fresh? Can you still bring original ideas to the table? It is the challenge that keeps you fresh. Because of the way we have performed over the last couple of weeks we have a real challenge on our hands right now. There are aspects of the job that have the capacity to wear you down, but I have much more support as national coach than I did as a club coach and the season is not so long.

This article was posted on 17-Feb-2008, 08:53 by Hugh Barrow.