THE HERALD REPORTS TODAY

Celtic neighbours miles apart when winning matters most
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer March 28 2009
Scotland's rivalry with Ireland has been close throughout the 132 years since the Celtic neighbours first met on the international rugby field. Playing resources have been such that the upper hand in their meetings and the overall condition of the sport in the respective countries, have both been cyclical.

That can be seen even in the past quarter of a century or so. Irish triple crowns sandwiched Scotland's grand slam in 1984, but Scotland emerged the stronger in the mid-eighties and through the nineties.

Having covered my first rugby international late in 1988, I covered 12 Scotland-Ireland matches before witnessing the Irish claim a victory. Even in Ireland's time of relative superiority over the past decade, Scotland have claimed two wins, albeit both in rather odd circumstances, the postponed Foot and Mouth Test of 2001 and the World Cup warm-up match in 2007.



Even so, rather than dismiss this as merely having been Ireland's turn to be on an upward cycle, there has to be deep concern in Scotland that the separation between the two countries at Test level is set to become permanent.

Part of that has unquestionably been luck. Ireland's upward cycle coincided with the game going open and so the potential to offer rewards being far greater.

Rugby previously had to compete for the youngsters with the skill sets best suited to the sport with Gaelic football and hurliing which, in the Republic, had substantially more in the way of political support.

In terms of attention, meanwhile, the national rugby union team played second fiddle to Jack Charlton's football team that some have even credited for launching the fabled Celtic Tiger economy, such was its impact on the collective psyche.

All that has changed with first Munster and now Ireland becoming the main focus for the nation's sporting youth.

Key factors in that include:

 Coaching Hierarchy
There are apparent similarities.
Frank Hadden and Declan Kidney are both homegrown former school-masters who have appointed overseas forwards coaches as back-up in the New Zealander Mike Brewer and South African Gert Smal respectively, with ex-rugby league men in Graham Steadman and Les Kiss as defence coaches.

Ireland's coaching team is made up of well-rewarded, highly-successful individuals. Scotland's largely comprises coaches who have yet to make their names at elite level.

 Home and Away
Of Ireland's current squad, only Geordan Murphy, now a relatively peripheral figure, and Tommy Bowe, also a back-three player, are based outwith the country. Bowe is at the Ospreys, playing in the Magners League, therefore his schedule means he is available to prepare with the rest of the squad.
For the last of their Six Nations matches, three quarters of Scotland's pack has been made up of exiles. Hadden has repeatedly claimed that close calls would result in home-based players being preferred.

Failure to adhere to that principle, allied to the SRU's inability, or unwillingness, to compete for their top players' signatures in the transfer market, means there is little incentive for players to stay in Scotland and so be available to prepare in the way Ireland's are.

Coach Development
It is hard to imagine Ireland having to resort to a hunch, like Hadden's when he appointed a completely untried coach in Gregor Townsend to run his attack. There has been much talk of a development programme for Scottish coaches down the years but little evidence of it proving successful.
There have only been three, sometimes four, pro teams in Scotland in the past decade, yet among the many coaches who have been head coaches with Scotland and its pro teams in that time are the New Zealanders Tony Gilbert and Kiwi Searancke, the Australian Matt Williams, Englishmen Steve Bates and Andy Robinson and the Welshman Lynn Howells.

Their assistants have included moreantipodeans in Steve Anderson, Mike Brewer, Gary Mercer, Mick Byrne, Marty Hume, as well as Englishman Graham Steadman and Irishman Willie Anderson.

Youth Development
As Peter Wright, Scotland's under-20s forwards coach, noted following their win over a grand slam-chasing Ireland side at Perth this season, there is nothing special going on with their elite age group work.
He noted that while the Scots had been together for days, the Irish had been together solidly for several weeks, yet looked technically deficient by comparison.

The Irish have, though, massive advantages in terms of playing numbers according to the International Rugby Board's official statistics.

Where traditionally those were similar between the two countries, Ireland now has 101,428 registered male players to Scotland's 31,514. At senior level it is 25,171 to 10,556 but, perhaps most disturbingly for the longer term, they have a huge advantage at the junior end.

While the SRU boasts about the work being done by its 60-strong army of development officers, there are 7556 pre-teens playing in Scotland compared with 38,642 in Ireland.

 Provincial Structure
The Irish have a huge advantage in the natural four province set-up that was long in existence. Yet Scottish rugby, while more artificially constructed, also traditionally had a four district set-up.
Until the sport went open, for all that the likes of Munster and South of Scotland had enjoyed famous wins over touring sides, these teams were not well supported in either country. That changed a decade ago with a couple of successes.

Ulster's victory in the 1999 Heineken Cup final brought previously unimagined scenes as Red Hand-waving supporters paraded unaccosted through the streets of Dublin.

The following year came the turning point in Munster's history when they won a Heineken Cup semi-final in France against the mighty Toulouse. Although they lost in the final, a season that also produced Ireland's first win over Scotland in 12 years marked the beginning of the march of the Munster men.

n National Identity Ireland may be split both politically and in other sports but, when it comes to rugby, the benefit of being an independent nation has led to fascinating academic comparison with Scotland such as in Carol Craig's excellent work, Scotland's Crisis of Confidence.

The impact of that innate confidence within the Republic at a time when, for all that the economics may not ultimately have stacked up, has surely worked to the benefit of their sportsmen.

This article was posted on 28-Mar-2009, 08:22 by Hugh Barrow.