Rugby: Edinburgh coach explains starting policy

Published on Monday 24 January 2011 10:21

Edinburgh Rugby coach Rob Moffat has defended the team's increasingly controversial rotation policy with players flitting in and out of the side regardless of results and injuries.

In their last three matches, all lost, Edinburgh have introduced, respectively, six, seven and seven new faces into their starting line-ups.

Many feel that, at best, continuity is being disrupted while might an inevitable consequence be to confuse players who feel the natural reward for performing well is a retained place in the line-up?

With Edinburgh owned by the Scottish Rugby Union, who have made it clear the success of the national team they also administer is vital to providing funding, there is always going to be pressure, maybe subliminal, to think of Scotland's interests first, second and even third in any equation.

But at what price, in terms of the week in, week out, fare essential for drawing fans to the sport? And is this situation as disruptive as it might seem with dark mutterings off-field about the dead hand of Murrayfield bosses in force? In which case any judgment of the coach's abilities based on the normal criteria of results is flawed.

Moffat, long regarded as a straight-shooter with no "side" to his personality, is adamant Edinburgh and the long term interests of players come first. However, he acknowledges the needs of not only Scotland but Scotland A, who have two upcoming fixtures - one at a time when players operating outwith this country will not be released by their clubs.

"For me the secret is to leave players out when they are playing well," says Moffat.

"What most (coaches] do is to leave players out when they have had a bad game and aren't playing so well. If you can leave somebody out when they play well then you are putting emphasis on a player who comes in to know the man he is coming in for has been playing well.

"It is not as if he (the newcomer] is taking over from somebody who has had a shocker or is in a bad run of form.

"That is how we are trying to run things."

What many will struggle to understand is how three of Edinburgh's most utilised players are in the front row which is generally regarded as one of the most attritional positions.

Hooker Ross Ford and prop Geoff Cross have made 15 starts each with another prop, Allan Jacobsen, pictured below, only one behind.

Injuries play a significant part but it seems they are given similar consideration to backs such as Ben Cairns (16 appearances), Tim Visser (16) and Chris Paterson (15) making it hard to escape the conclusion that the seemingly essential rotation system applies more to fringe candidates. Moffat, though, is insistent that he must plan ahead, saying: "The hardest thing is that I know players would be better if they were getting a run. But if they get a run you disappoint somebody else.

"Maybe there is a case for following football's example of naming the team 90 minutes before kick off instead of our policy of varying announcements from early in the week to the middle; rugby players like to know early.

"Hopefully I'll be looked at as someone who is fair (but] the draining bit is telling people all the time (whether they are in or not]. Other coaches I have worked with don't tell players they are out. However, I feel you have to communicate and while the players might not like it there is a reason for them not playing."

Speaking ahead of Edinburgh's latest match, a 14-21 defeat by Cardiff, Moffat summed up his policy saying: "Tim Visser (a Dutch national still qualifying for Scotland on residency] is injured which was unfortunate because with two Scotland A internationals coming up it might have been better to rest somebody who is likely to be playing in them."

But Moffat insisted: "I don't like the word rotation because it takes the competitive element out of it. For Cardiff we are looking at areas like the back row where everyone is fit and thinking is it wise for Ross Rennie to play when he has Scotland squad training coming up? We thought David Denton deserved a run in looking at the balance of the side. You've got to see the wood from the trees."

Fans, though, want to see the best players and in numerical terms Edinburgh changes from an initial starting line-up this season which read Paterson, Jones, Cairns, Grove, Visser, Godman, M Blair, Jacobsen, Ford, Cross, Mackenzie, MacLeod, MacDonald, Talei, Grant have averaged five over 18 games, including four and 12 changes in matches played during the Autumn Test window.