In Praise of Andy Robinson

There is only so much football you can watch. Much as I have enjoyed most of the matches in the ongoing World Cup, I felt it would be narrow-minded to ignore the other sporting offerings over the past few days. Whilst it's been nice to watch England beat the Aussies at cricket and a never-ending tennis match at Wimbledon, my personal highlight came on Saturday night, where Denmark vs Cameroon was forsaken to make way for the second test between Argentina and Scotland in Mar del Plata in the pouring rain. This is rugby union by the way, for those who aren't following me!

Having watched the last 20 minutes and subsequent highlights of the first test in Tucaman, there was much reason for optimism. The pack had solidified and Dan Parks had continued his wonderful resurgence into international rugby. The way that he controlled the play and marshalled the line was outstanding, as was the way he was seemingly always able to find the most precise of touches. Oh, and he scored all our points with the boot, after Argentina had gone into an early lead. The way that they were forced into indiscipline by a rampaging front row meant that we were able to chip away through Parks' penalties to win deservedly.

And so to Saturday night. To say conditions were tricky would be a massive understatement. The rain was incessant and yet 16000 fans still came out to cheer the Pumas on. They were silenced after two minutes when Big Jim Hamilton rumbled over the line for an early try, a word not used enough in the lexicon of a Scottish rugby fan. Scotland never surrendered this lead, despite heavy Argentinian pressure and territory in the second half, something you couldn't envisage twelve months ago. Generally, when a game got tight, Scotland would be put under overwhelming pressure and crumble, defensively not good enough. Now, we have seen two outstanding defensive performance to win games we had no right to, the 13-9 victory here to go with the amazing night and Murrayfield in November, where Matt Giteau's misfiring boot handed us a 9-8 victory. In both games there is a constant - togetherness in the forward line. We'll never be a major attacking threat, our backs aren't quick and/or big enough, but we seem to have identified our strengths and played to them.

For this, we must be thankful to coach Andy Robinson and his staff. When you consider the limited resources at grassroots level (Borders aside, but they're all a bit strange) in Scotland, you have to commend a record of 6-4-1. We could and perhaps should have won in 3 of those 4 defeats (Argentina in the Autumn Tests, Wales and Italy in the Six Nations). 9-1-1 would have been unprecedented success but this is Scotland after all, so let's be happy with what we've got. Bar the Japan friendly last month, all of the victories came against teams ranked higher than us in the world (although we have since leapfrogged Fiji). But numbers really tell less than half the story. It is the improvement in performance since the dark final days of Frank Hadden and Matt Williams that has been particularly heartening, especially in the forwards as I've already mentioned. Under Hadden, we simply could not cope without Euan Murray in the side at tighthead, because of his abilities in the scrum. So we panicked when he got constantly injured or unavailable for religious reasons (Thou shalt go to hell if thou dares play rugby on the Sabbath you heathen). His replacement, Moray Low, only makes pilgrimages to Burger King, which is my kind of religion. He has proven himself to be Murray's equal and the rise in form of Alan Jacobsen and Ross Ford has led to a front row which has dominated any pack it's come up against. Except the French one. There is also strength in depth here, with Al Dickinson, a conscious Geoff Cross and Scott Lawson, who bounced back well from his errors in the Six Nations to make an impact as a sub against the Pumas, finding lovely little lines to run late on.

The Killer Bs of Glasgow have been a revelation, both as ball carriers (Beattie in particular) and as defense. John Barclay is the real star of this trio, the man who put his body on the line on both occasions mentioned where Scotland's defense won them the match. And Al Kellock is the man every Scotsman wants to be - big, dominating, brave and committed to his country. Such a lad. Let's not forget the backs either. As we have already discussed, Parks has been the catalyst for our transformation with his confident control and has been supported by Chris Cusiter and Rory Lawson at 9. The latter really has looked the part since his sub role against the Aussies and Cus is just a hero, purely for banging Ruaridh Jackson's sister. The Lamonts, Max Evans and Graeme Morrison are all solid, unspectacular backs who can do a job, which is all we really need for now, given our strengths.

The difference?

The personnel has not changed much under Robinson, but he has instilled a new belief and passion into the side, typified by his outrage at a dodgy decision against his former employers in the Calcutta Cup draw. Gregor Townsend is a similar character, so the two bounce off each other well. Obviously having an in-form 10 has helped shape the side and go in the direction that suits Parks i.e. an aerial style built on tight defence and scrummaging. Quite simply, the players want to play for Robinson and want to play in this current system, a respect Robinson failed to achieve in his two-year stint at Twickenham. It is becoming increasingly clear that this was little fault on Robbo's part and simply was the case of an ageing World Cup-winning side believing they knew better. They didn't.

Let's not get carried away. Had we not crashed the party at Croke Park, we would have had the wooden spoon in the Six Nations. We are not consistently good enough to mount a serious challenge in next year's World Cup. We need to close out games we should win more regularly and need to find a way to score more tries. But, thanks to the belief instilled by Robinson et al, we are finally capable of being a match for most teams in the world on our day.

For Scotland, that'll be good enough for now
RM