THE HERALD REPORTS

Nervous times as we wait to find out if Hadden has frozen
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer March 06 2008
There can be a thin line between holding your nerve and freezing. Right now it feels as if the Scotland rugby team's management is straddling it.

As we wait to see whether the fight or flight mechanism will prove the stronger in the face of what has, in the space of five weeks, become a crisis, the next nine days will almost certainly be decisive.

Two defeats, a RBS 6 Nations whitewash and a second successive wooden spoon would make it extremely difficult to see Frank Hadden, the head coach, remaining in his job. It was hard to envisage that being on the cards when, back in December, the Scottish Rugby Union unveiled its five-year plan. Many thought then that a targeted success rate of 40% - two wins in five matches - for the national team lacked ambition. The reality of how difficult it is to win at this level has now been underlined.

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Even as one who was in no doubt about how challenging those targets were for the national team - I was taking into account the disadvantages in terms of manpower and facilities - my expectation was that this season would set standards which would be difficult to maintain.

That was down to the impression that we were moving into a rare period in which there was genuine strength in depth in most positions, something Scotland's coaches seemed to believe. In the face of one humbling defeat after another, they have made fewer changes, apart from those which have been enforced, than any of the other five teams in the course of the campaign.

That may indeed be down to a steely conviction regarding the methods they are now employing: that they have identified the personnel best placed to pursue them and think that with just a few minor tweaks they will get the improved execution necessary to turn things around.

In the face of one humbling defeat after another, Scotland have made fewer enforced changes than any of the other five teams


The other, much less palatable option for Scotland supporters, is that, confronted by so many setbacks, they have simply run out of ideas and are unsure where to turn.

With that in mind, what has given me greatest cause for concern is the apparent preparedness to accede to the notion that it is in Scotland's interests to play "a more attractive" game. There even seems to be consensus that "playing better" for periods in a match where five tries were conceded in Dublin represented genuine progress.

In professional sport, the only meaningful measure is winning and losing. Scotland have not won in their past four matches and, in terms of results, it has been getting worse rather than better. The largely mindless criticism of the way the team played against Argentina when they pushed the world's third-best side all the way in a World Cup quarter-final - they failed partly because of the individual errors that are still blighting performances - seems to have been a bigger factor than some of us realised.

Hadden has admitted that, following that loss, he briefly engaged in a period of soul-searching over whether he had the capacity to take the team forward. Personally I believe that to be an ongoing process and, if Hadden believes he cannot do that, he will jump before he is pushed. The team's failure to respond effectively to his attempts to produce a more expansive playing style must mean we may be within sight of that point, but the breaks have not been with him.

For example, Nick De Luca's selection looked utterly obvious at the start of this campaign and, had he played as he has for Edinburgh, this agonising would not now be taking place. But he did not.

Instead of accepting that increased focus on tried and tested methods was required, however, the response has been to keep looking for other ways to become creative, thereby further testing the skills of players whose confidence is low.

So Chris Paterson, with minimal gametime at stand-off at Gloucester, has been asked to play there at Test level and Simon Webster, with minimal gametime at outside-centre for Edinburgh, holds down that position for his country.

Now we have Graeme Morrison, who rarely gets a game for Glasgow Warriors at inside-centre because Andy Henderson plays there, is preferred to his clubmate in that position on the basis that he has played well in what he has himself described as an almost pressure-free environment in the A team.

On Saturday, we will see whether Morrison, a player blessed with power, a turn of pace and surprisingly deft footwork for such a big man can, unlike De Luca so far, relax and flourish in the Test arena.

More generally, though, over the next two weekends we will find out whether, facing the full glare, Hadden and his team are gimlet-eyed, staring down what confronts them, or are merely behaving like rabbits in the headlights.

This article was posted on 6-Mar-2008, 07:55 by Hugh Barrow.