It's game over for Hadden

Published on Saturday 21 March 2009 19:02

AND NOW, THE end is near…" It's a line that Frank Sinatra made his own and another Frank is also looking at the final curtain falling on his rather less illustrious career. Yesterday's loss against England meant that Scotland coach Frank Hadden has won just one championship match in each of the last three years and just six out of 20 since he took over from Matt Williams in 2005.

While his overall international record is not bad (16 wins in 41 tests for a 39% success rate) Hadden's statistics in the Six Nations are poor and the jewel in European rugby's crown also bankrolls the sport in the northern half of the globe.

His reign started out so well with three victories in his opening year but the next three championship wins took another three years to arrive. Hadden initially benefited hugely from the fact that he was "not Matt Williams", a priceless asset at a time when everyone in Scottish rugby was heartily sick of the endless excuses emanating from the Australian. Now many of those same excuses are emerging from the mouth of his successor.

If Hadden is to ride into the sunset for the final time he will take plenty of good memories to keep him company. He coached Scotland's first ever victory over the Barbarians, and long overdue it was too. He beat England twice and bested Argentina in South America. He was undoubtedly more successful with Scotland than he ever was with Edinburgh who, despite having a long list of superstar players, finished 10th and seventh in the Celtic league in Hadden's final two years with the club. One former player recently pored over an old programme and marvelled that such a talented bunch of players won absolutely nothing.

Promoted beyond his competence, the coach made numerous tactical howlers at international level – no one who was there will ever forget the shambles against Italy in 2007 – however Hadden's biggest blunders in recent years have been on selection.

He picked Dan Parks and ignored John Barclay for the first Test in Argentina; the flanker then made a man-of-the-match appearance in the second Test when Phil Godman's selection at 10 finally sparked a backline into action. More recently Hadden ignored the claims of Thom Evans and Simon Danielli against Wales, Scotland's two best backs, he played Ally Dickinson on the wrong side of the scrum in Paris where he also sat two specialist flankers on the substitutes' bench with no lock and not a hint of a mea culpa when Jim Hamilton retired hurt 17 minutes into the match.

Instead the coach insisted that "we got away with it", which, even if true, ignores the fact that the coach's job is to avoid the most obvious tank traps rather than march his troops right up to the edge of the abyss where the slightest ill wind will propel them over the side.

The idiocy continued against Ireland where, immediately after the match, Hadden bewailed the four lost lineouts and the same number of re-starts that his side had failed to collect without also bewailing his own decision to leave Al Kellock, his best man in the air, at home throwing empty beer cans at the television in frustration like several hundred thousand others.

But Hadden could be forgiven all of these many faults if he didn't have one overriding weakness. He whines. He moans. He whinges. He complains. It is his stock in trade, his modus operandi, it comes as naturally to him as breathing. His overriding self pity is a phenomenon, a gargantuan, self-perpetuating monster than knows no bounds.

The coach moans about preparation time and he whines about playing numbers. He bitches about access to his top players and he whinges about the inexperience of his young squad. Hadden's constant complaints, quite apart from being more irritating that itching powder, have an entirely unintended consequence. Every time the coach moans about the opposition's many and various advantages he gives his own players a subliminal excuse to lose and after four years of negativity being dripped into the players' ears it is little wonder that the message is getting through.

Hadden points out that England and France have more numbers, Ireland boast more experience and Wales have (almost) all their players at home. He wants the public's pity for the difficult job he does and all the while his own players are given yet another reason to lose.

He was at it again last week when he mentioned England's "eight weeks' uninterrupted preparation time". The only thing a Scotland coach needs to say in public before a Calcutta Cup match is that both teams field the same numbers (England are obviously exempt from this law but only in World Cup matches) and when 15 Scots face 15 Englishmen on a rugby pitch then the men in blue should have nothing to fear. End of story.

Hadden asks for our respect instead of earning it in the more traditional manner. Concentrate, meditate, hallucinate if you must, and while your mind has slipped its earthly bonds try and imagine Jim Telfer asking for respect…or Jock Stein…or Sir Alex Ferguson.

No, neither can I. In a child this sort of neediness can be forgiven; in a national coach it is faintly embarrassing.

Gordon McKie stated that it was premature to assume that yesterday's was Hadden's last match as Scotland coach. The SRU chief executive can say what he likes but Hadden lost his authority some time ago and a swift coup de grace would be a welcome relief for all concerned.

What McKie has to do now is regain the trust and support of the fans who are desperate to see their team fulfil its undoubted potential or at least come close. The SRU boss has two options. First off he could break the bank and spent 300,000 for a world class coach with a long pedigree (Wayne Smith, Sean Edwards, Jake White, Eddie Jones) if he can find one that will take what is seen as a lowly post.

If the world class coach came with any sort of guarantee then that route would be a no-brainer but, sadly, that just doesn't happen and Murrayfield certainly can't afford that sort of salary in return for more excuses. Warren Gatland has proved his worth in Wales but even he is not immune to mistakes as last weekend in Rome proved.

Hadden is at the bottom end of the Six Nations pay league, drawing an annual salary thought to be around 125,000. If McKie wants to save some bawbees and look internally for someone who understands the peculiar dynamics of the game in Scotland, Andy Robinson, Sean Lineen, Rob Moffat and Steve Bates spring to mind. All have their merits but Robinson is the clear favourite given his experience as a Heineken Cup winner with Bath, a Lions coach (on two occasions), a World Cup winner with England and a head coach with the same team albeit with rather less success.

Leicester are courting the former England coach and, with his contract up for negotiation at the end of next season, offering him the national post may be the only way of keeping Robinson's expertise in Scotland long term. The million dollar question is whether Scottish fans would accept this diehard English patriot as coach and the answer, as always, lies in the results he achieves. At least Robinson would have the players' respect from day one... without having to ask.

With the Lions hogging the summer headlines Scotland have no senior tour and McKie has time on his side. He needs it, for the appointment of the next national coach will be the most important decision of his Murrayfield career to date. If he gets this call wrong the SRU boss will find plenty of people ready to question his own place at Murrayfield.