How to crack the mystery of Scotland's great try drought

Published on Monday 8 February 2010 22:11

THERE is no easy solution to the try drought which Scotland are experiencing, according to the country's joint leading all-time scorer of touchdowns, Tony Stanger, who along with Ian Smith tops the list with 24, believes that even if Andy Robinson's team score several tries in Wales on Saturday the problem will not have gone away.

Now Talent Manager with the Sportscotland Institute of Sport, Stanger has an optimistic outlook, and is convinced that certain members of the Scottish team, who have now failed to score a try in three successive home Tests, do have the talent to make a difference. He believes, however, that the difference between merely creating chances and finishing them off is an extremely difficult gap to bridge.

"We can't ignore the improvements in physicality and in defence that have been made since rugby went professional," said Stanger, whose try in the 1990 Grand Slam game against England is the most celebrated individual score in the history of Scottish rugby. "It's chalk and cheese compared to my day. Organising a group of players to defend, or to work in the gym, is easier than trying to do the right thing under pressure. "We've got players who can make line breaks, like Johnnie Beattie and Sean Lamont did on Sunday. But if you don't score from the break, how do you organise from there? We have got creative players – the question is what happens next."

What happened on Sunday, when France scored two tries to none in their 18-9 victory at Murrayfield, exemplified the problem, according to Stanger. "There was one point when the French were plugging away at our line, phase after phase, and Graeme Morrison had to make a tackle close to the ruck.

"I noticed the gap that left in the centre, and I thought, 'I can't be the only one who has', then suddenly France had noticed the gap out there and Mathieu Bastareaud had scored his first try.

"You can't say that was coached. There must have been some players there who saw the situation and knew how to exploit it. A lot of tries do not come from the training ground – both French tries on Sunday, for example.

"It's a very complex question. If we score three tries against Wales on Saturday we can't just say we've cracked it.

"It's a great challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

"It's not long ago we would get blown away by a team as physical as this French one, so that shows we've improved physically and defensively.

"We're matching people physically and defensively. Now we're looking at skill."

Stanger is convinced that while coaches can and should do a lot to help their players improve, they must ensure they do not stifle their natural creativity.

Three of the backs who played against the French, he believes, – the Evans brothers and Sean Lamont – are pretty close to making the difference.

"Pace still counts, and we can use Thom's pace in a very positive attacking way, especially with the right tactical kicking. And Max offers a little something different in attack with the way he can get in behind players. Sean as well has been very impressive over the last few games, so there are players out there."

And those players, according to the former Hawick winger, should be encouraged to stay true to their instincts, when too often when the pressure is on they can retreat into a more conservative style of play.

As an example, he analysed Beattie's reaction to his own break, in which he offloaded to Chris Cusiter while being tackled to the ground.

The scrum-half failed to collect a difficult low ball and knocked on, when a clean catch would have resulted in a try.

Beattie's conclusion: "If he'd got it he was scoring, but it was a bad quality off-load and that's my error. I probably should have held on to the ball and we'd have scored a couple of phases later."

Not so, according to Stanger. Yes, if the off-load had been marginally higher it would have led to a score, but failure to execute that move does not mean it was wrong to try.

"What would have happened if Johnnie had recycled, or tried to recycle?

"The French player who was tackling him was there to defend already, others could have got back in numbers, and we might have been turned over.

"It was the right thing to do to try to offload to Chris. On another day it might have gone to hand."

Alan Tait, another former Scotland player who knew a thing or two about making breaks and about finishing them off, has a similar message. Players must keep on attempting the unpredictable.

"I've been coaching for a while, and I wouldn't say we over-coach, but we tend to go through phases," says the Newcastle assistant coach, who scored 17 tries for Scotland in 27-caps, including doubles at both Twickenham and Stade de France in the 1999 championship-winning season. "And sometimes as a player, instead of doing that, you have to trust your instincts. You have to read the play. Don't always think 'I'll be involved in the next phase' and stay close to the breakdown.

"Although you're always coached to think in phases, you need to know how to be a sniffer as well. And you have to read the players too – especially players who you know are capable of making a break out of nothing. Gregor Townsend was a perfect example of this. He was so unpredictable you couldn't really coach him. You never knew when he was going to make a break, so I always kept an eye on him.

"You've also got to have players who complement each other. For example, in our midfield of Gregor, John Leslie and me, John knew when it was not good ball and wasn't worth moving.

"If it came out slowly and there was nothing on, he'd take it right back to the forwards. And I always knew when it was good ball, and when it was I'd call it." Tait also believes that members of the current squad are developing along the right lines, and is sure that added experience of Test rugby will make them better.

"Kelly Brown and Johnnie Beattie are both great football players, and they will make the kind of break that can lead to tries.

"Max Evans is a very exciting player, but he's an individual player, a dancer. That can work at some levels, but in international rugby there is very little space.

"Max and Thom can struggle sometimes at the very top level because of their lack of experience. Thom is as quick as anybody I've seen.

"Maybe they need more time to learn the game, but it'll come."

Whether it comes quickly enough to make a difference to this season's Six Nations Championship, however, remains to be seen.

Scotland have scored only half-a-dozen tries in nine games over the past year – that's one every two hours.

0 v France, 7 Feb 2010

0 v Argentina, 28 Nov 2009

0 v Australia, 21 Nov 2009

2 v Fiji (Johnnie Beattie and Graeme Morrison), 14 Nov 2009

0 v England, 21 March 2009

0 v Ireland, 14 March 2009

2 v Italy (Simon Danielli and Scott Gray), 28 February 2009

1 v France (Thom Evans), 14 Feb 2009

1 v Wales (Max Evans), 8 Feb 2009