Andy Robinson and Martin Johnson: Like a Red Rose to a Bull

Published on Saturday 6 March 2010 20:07

THERE IS a story about Dee McIntosh, a Scot who headed up the RFU press operation a few years back.

• Picture: Ian Rutherford

It takes place ahead of a Calcutta Cup match when McIntosh found herself in the England team room sitting beside scrum-half Matt Dawson while the coach lambasted the Scots in a long, vitriolic and brutal tirade that would have given any race relations officer a coronary on the spot. Midway through this torrent of abuse Dawson, realising her acute discomfort, unobtrusively took hold of McIntosh's h

The England coach was, of course, Andy Robinson and all that fire and fury remains firmly in place, despite the fact that he has set up camp on the other side of Hadrian's Wall.

The Scotland coach makes no pretence of keeping his cool on the sidelines or anywhere else for that matter. When a player in blue takes a big hit Robinson flinches, when the scrum creaks the coach is physically straining every sinew. As the drama unfolded in the final minutes of the last two games it was all Robinson could do to stop himself marching onto the field, rolling up his sleeves and closing out the game himself. He eats, breathes and sleeps the sport. He is four-fifths coach, two-thirds fan and anything that's left over is, well, probably thrown into refereeing. They could do with the help.

Now Robinson is sitting in his Murrayfield office nursing a zero and three Six Nations record while contemplating a match against Scotland's oldest rivals who just happen to be his former team. Add to the mix the fact that England boss Martin Johnson joined the chorus demanding Robinson's head back in 2006 before, following the brief interregnum of Brian Ashton, replacing him on the Twickenham throne. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't begin to do justice to the psychodrama that threatens to unfold at Murrayfield on Saturday, so is Robinson really going to claim that this is "just another match"?

"It is," says the Englishman with a big grin. "I hope that people see the emotion I had before the game against Wales and before the game against Italy and the emotion I had during the games. This is just another game. I played rugby for England with Johno and he used to kick me which at least meant that we were going forward and he'd kick me in training as well, which was great. As a coach/player our relationship was really good because I was full of admiration. This guy would turn up, work hard at his game and he'd go out and play. He wasn't the best in any aspect of the game for a second row but he'd always look to improve.

"Mutual respect is what it's about, the relationship between Johno and me, we both want to win whatever it takes. But the game next Saturday is not going to be won by Andy Robinson or Martin Johnson. The game is going to be won by the players who take the field and we have to find that ruthless edge that we've been missing."

Robinson leaves little to chance. His preparation ahead of meeting the press is almost as diligent as his planning before a Test. Today's theme is lost opportunities and if the coach was handing out dollar bills every time he said the word "ruthless" he'd be broke. He says Scotland spurned seven clear-cut scoring chances against Italy while the Azzurri had just one opportunity and grabbed it. You can argue with his maths but you can't deny the point he is trying to get across.

"We have to be more ruthless in the game against England because if we give away penalties (Jonny] Wilkinson will kick them and if we're soft in the contact area, as we were last week, they'll destroy us because England are very good in the contact," says their one-time coach.

"In the heat of battle it's about getting our execution right in attack and in defence. Until we have that we are going to be in the position where we'll try very hard, put a lot of effort in and we'll come second. That's what happened against Argentina and against Wales and that's what happened against Italy last weekend. This is the step we need to make and we need to make that step quickly. We are playing better rugby than we did against Australia but we're not getting the wins."

If Scotland's overall Six Nations record is abysmal (14 victories from 53 matches) their recent record against England at Murrayfield is not half bad. Victories in 2006 and 2008 mean that the Scots are going for what would be a hat-trick of home wins over their near neighbours, a unique situation in the professional era.

There will be reams written about this being a "must-win" game for both teams but that simply isn't true. England have no Grand Slam to chase, Scotland have no relegation to avoid and both coaches are in as much danger of being toppled as the House of Windsor. Robinson will lead Scotland into next year's World Cup because he's the best man for the job and Johnson will do the same with England because if he falls he'd take too many people with him, including the RFU high performance director Rob Andrew and Martyn Thomas who chairs the RFU Management Board (aka "the old farts"). These two were jointly responsible for Johnson's promotion at the expense of Ashton, whose sole crime was getting his team to within an inch of lifting the World Cup.

Johnson was promoted to manager, not coach, without one minute's experience of managing anything other than a bank which he did in the old amateur days. He is a man moulded by the club that produced him and England now have a distinct Leicester look to them, all practicality with few thrills and no frills.

While Alex Salmond might not like to admit it, the similarities that bind us to our southern cousins are far more commonplace than the differences that divide us; especially if you look at the two teams that will do battle on Saturday. Both sides field a kicking fly-half who has trouble getting the best from his outside backs, both are finding tries hard to come by and both teams have a serious lack of leadership.

In the second half of last week's Twickenham game England stuck the ball up their jumpers and drove the Irish back with an ease that will concentrate Scottish minds wonderfully well. However Robinson expects his former team to play a bit of rugby as well. He points out that they got a lot of change out wide against Scotland at Twickenham last year and the Scots have already been caught defending too narrowly to the breakdown against France and Italy. This one issue gives some insight into the frustrations of being an international coach with a young team that insist on learning the hard way.

"This (narrow defence] was discussed before France," says Robinson, "and we discussed it after France. We discussed it for Wales and we discussed it before Italy and post Italy." Suffice to say the problem has been aired, repeatedly.

Robinson too is going through a learning process, only now is he beginning to understand the unique problems of coaching Scotland. He has found out that if your midfield isn't clicking together like Lego there are precious few alternatives to bolt on. The fly-half issue won't go away, no matter how much everyone wishes it would, and Scotland have explored brand new avenues of naivety. Perhaps worst of all, slowly but certainly, game by game, Robinson is learning how to lose.

The great Vince Lombardi famously said that "winning was a habit" but so too is losing and Scotland have now been second best in three tight Tests (Argentina, Wales and Italy) that they could so easily have won. Is the losing medicine getting just that little bit easier to swallow each time?

Robinson makes a choking, spluttering noise that could be a mirthless laugh, it may be indignation or even indigestion. He eyes me with the sort of look that John McEnroe reserved for myopic umpires. "I don't understand that at all!" he explodes. The coach can only hope that his players feel the same way.