Iain Morrison: New reality is kicking in for Hadden

Published on Saturday 20 September 2008 19:35

FRANK HADDEN posted a 50-man training squad last week, opting for quantity over quality, and the national coach can't really be blamed. With the world champions arriving at Murrayfield this November hot on the heels of the all-conquering All Blacks, the Scotland coach may well need 50 players… possibly at the same time.

It is a daunting task that Scotland face but they will take some heart from their first ever victory achieved in Argentina last summer. It was a rare win on the road even if a little of the gloss was taken off when Italy then beat the Pumas in Cordoba before the Springboks put 63 points past them in Johannesburg.

The irony of Scotland's summer win is that it was achieved playing a totally different style of rugby to that witnessed recently. Whereas Hadden had picked a big pack allied to a kicking fly-half throughout the World Cup, most of the Six Nations and for the first Test in Rosario, the tables were turned upside down by the time he sent out his starting XV in Buenos Aires.

Here he chose a running fly-half and added a genuine "fetcher" in the shape of John Barclay. Some pointed to the influence of the pro-team coaches Sean Lineen and Andy Robinson in this surprise selection but, whatever the reason, Scotland performed a dramatic handbrake-turn both in playing style and philosophy all in the course of one week.

"No doubt, the stand-offs make a massive difference to the way in which we play because their strengths are very different," said Hadden last week. The choice of playmaker affects not just the style of play but the personnel in the team too (see panel). With Dan Parks out, Phil Godman was drafted in and Scotland's game plan, pattern and structure were ripped up and redrafted.

The gamble worked and it may have prolonged Hadden's tenure at the top of Scottish rugby. The change of personnel sparked a new and entirely welcome spirit of adventure. Mike Blair was given carte blanche to tap and run penalties which puts the fear of God into any opposition, especially now that referees will yellow card any tackler who hasn't retired the full 10 metres. Godman took the ball flat to the gain line, in so doing he kept the opposition honest and bought both time and space for his outside backs. The young centre Ben Cairns, nervous and hesitant in the first Test, looked a threat every time he touched the ball in Buenos Aires.

Scotland had returned to the sort of up-and-at-'em style that had served the country well for generations, a high-tempo game that was a massive improvement on the soporific, kick/kick strategy used throughout much of the Six Nations with disappointing results.

That is the good news, now for the bad. All the signs suggest that, despite that rare win in Argentina, Hadden will revert to the kicking game come the autumn internationals, citing the new laws for the backward step. Not the ELVs (experimental law variations) themselves, rather the referees' new interpretation at the breakdown.

"The ELVs have not had as big an impact on the game as the new sealing and handling in the ruck laws," reasoned Hadden.

He was referring to the instruction to referees to allow a fair contest at the breakdown by penalising any attacking side that flops bodies onto the ball (sealing) to prevent the opposition from contesting it. The net result has been that teams are now too scared to run the ball out of defence, opting instead to belt it downfield and give the problem to their opponents. "The new handling or sealing laws have shifted the advantage more in favour of the defence, therefore making it much harder to attack," argues Hadden. "I have watched a lot of French club rugby in recent weeks and it's a complete kickfest.

"I spoke to (Newcastle Falcons coach] Steve Bates recently and he said that running the ball out of your own half is just too risky. Attacking from deep is too risky because goal kickers can ping them over from all corners and there is now an extra penalty (sealing] that you can give away at the breakdown."

"I like it," claimed Hadden in response to having two such different fly-halfs to choose from. "If you have someone who plays so very differently you can change the way you play in the course of a match… Both players (Godman and Parks] have their strengths and weaknesses and it is our job to get the best out of them."

This is stretching things. Hadden would much prefer to have one fly-half who could execute both game plans equally well and on the evidence of Edinburgh's victory over the Scarlets on Friday Godman's kicking game is a good deal better than Parks' running one. When the point was put to him the coach replied, "every team would like a Dan Carter".

Every team would, but the Kiwi is not the only fly-half equally happy with a kicking or running game, only the most accomplished one. Scotland would be happy to have half the playmakers from the Guinness Premiership and would jump at the chance of England's sixth choice No.10 (Shane Geraghty] or Wales' third (Gavin Henson].

Most teams only need a message taken on to the field by a water-carrier to change tactics or even, heaven help us, a player with the tactical acumen to make the necessary adjustments on the hoof. Having to physically swap fly-halfs in order to effect a change does rather telegraph what is coming.

In any event the best Scottish fly-half of the summer may have been Gordon Ross, who looked back to his best in the final of the Churchill Cup. Ross now plies his trade for Saracens in England, and not very often at that, which means that he, like all the other exiles, will find it increasingly difficult to get a fair hearing from Hadden.

"My philosophy of selection has been changed," said the coach. "In Argentina we didn't necessarily have the best players available but because of the two weeks of preparation we were able to perform better than we did in the Six Nations. I said to the players that there might be some fallout from this. If we can't get access to our exile players it may be that we don't select them.

"I firmly believe that if you don't get the week before the week before (ie two weeks before a Test match] it's hard to get your side playing close to their potential."

All of which rather ignores the fact that Scotland's players did a 180-degree about turn in tactics and playing style a mere six days before the second Argentina Test and still emerged victorious.

They also looked happier playing a high-tempo style of rugby that remains true to their rugby heritage and one, moreover, that both of Scotland's pro-teams do their best to execute every weekend. If Hadden adopts the sort of tactics that fail to engage his players it doesn't really matter how much time he has with the squad, the end result will be the same.

RINGING THE CHANGES

A DAN PARKS PACK:

Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Euan Murray, James Hamilton, Alastair Kellock, Jason White, Simon Taylor, John Barclay

A PHIL GODMAN PACK:

Allan Jacobsen, Dougie Hall, Euan Murray, Scott MacLeod, Simon Taylor, Alasdair Strokosch, Allister Hogg, John Barclay