Robinson insists his vision is still on track

ANDY Robinson will this week meet with the new SRU chief executive Mark Dodson and chairman Sir Moir Lockhead to stress upon them that his vision for improving the fortunes of the Scotland team is still on track despite Scotland failing to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since the inaugural Rugby World Cup was held in 1987.

The head coach said goodbye to half of his squad yesterday as they departed Auckland on a flight back to the UK, with more players and management scheduled to depart today and tomorrow. But while Robinson acknowledged that he had failed to achieve the target set, to take Scotland into the quarter- finals, he remained committed to leading the national side through the next few years.

He said: “I’ve got huge desire fuelled by the players and the potential that I see for Scottish rugby. Obviously, when you end a tournament as we have done and you have the disappointment of not qualifying, and not achieving what we believe we could have achieved in this tournament, there is lots of emotion.

“But the big thing for me is always being honest and upfront about the challenges that are there. I will meet with the chairman, CEO and Graham Lowe [SRU director of Performance Rugby] and I am going in there with a clear mind that I want to be the Scotland coach, but also with a mindset of how we are going to move the team forward.

“I want the team to understand that, with me being head coach, we need to come together ready to win games that we’re losing, as opposed to being the unlucky loser that supporters have felt for many years. That’s not a nice feeling. In fact, it’s a horrendous feeling to have and either we do something about it or we can’t carry on as we are.

“But this is a results business and I’m not going to hide away from that. Whilst I have got a desire, there has to be a desire from everybody that I’m the right person. It has to come right across the board and I have the belief that I have that at the moment. It [the meeting] is not for contract discussions – I have a contract to 2015 – but there are performance-related aspects to any person’s role.

“But I want to be part of this and if it works for everybody then we go forward. I have been in the sport for a long time and I love the sport, but also I understand the ways and workings of it, and I’ve got nothing to hide away from. I’m prepared to put my neck on the line and front up to anything, and I hope people see that.

“I’m enjoying the work I’ve got with the management team and the players. There is a big step for us to take. We haven’t made that step and I really expected us to make that step in this World Cup, and we have not, and that is frustrating.”

Robinson stated that there would be a full review of the World Cup, from the preparation and planning, warm-up matches and training camps, to the team selections, training between games, approaches to games and recovery. He even stated that they would be looking at whether the arrival at Eden Park on Saturday 15 minutes later than had been planned contributed to Ruaridh Jackson suffering a hamstring strain in the opening minutes.

But what the wider Scottish public will be focused on is a more simple question, even if the answer may be altogether tougher: how do Scotland score tries? In this tournament’s pool stages Scotland’s try count betters only that of Romania and Georgia.

Since Robinson took over in 2009, Scotland have dotted down just 19 tries in 23 Test matches, which is fewer than his predecessor Frank Hadden managed in his last 23 games. Robinson’s teams have finished without a try in 13 of his 23 Tests, including the last three.

Yet, he is more successful than recent Scotland coaches on a win-loss ratio, winning 11 Tests while losing 11 and drawing one. In that sense, he has moved Scotland on, slightly, continuing the progress Hadden made on the Matt Williams era.

The key, however, is how Robinson is doing that. He agrees that winning ugly is better than losing with style, but acknowledges what some critics miss, that Scotland’s game was going nowhere when Robinson took over, the attacking threat having almost vanished.

Robinson’s teams have been more threatening, the performances more exciting and the games, the All Blacks in 2010 aside, more consistently competitive. That is what fuels belief inside and outside the squad. A key statistic is that in seven of the 11 defeats Scotland have lost by seven points or less.

And that is the point. It underlines the difference a solitary try would have made in these games. One try against Argentina or one try against England over the past two weeks would probably have been enough to send Scotland into the quarter-finals.

Inevitably, the spotlight falls on his attack coach Gregor Townsend, but Robinson insisted that he retained real confidence in the former Scotland and British and Irish Lions stand-off’s ability to help him turn that improving attack into try-scoring and winning teams.

“I’m really enjoying working with Gregor and the way that he’s coaching,” he said. “He’s got a great eye for the game and is an outstanding coach. We have become a passing team and are moving the ball, but what we have to improve is our ability to play together as a side.

“Sometimes I think we can be seen as a side playing as individuals and it’s important that, as a back line in particular, we’re able to attack collectively, and that is something that we have to be able to get to, to bring out the best in each other.

“We are always assessing it, but we have a team that is opening its mind in the way it’s trying to play and that’s good. I thought some of our attack against England was very good. I watched some of the England attack against us and I didn’t understand where they were trying to attack and what shape they had, whereas we had really good shape and that is what has got us into good positions.

“Teams do give penalties away against us and we take the points, but we have a balance to our attacking game and are able to mix up what we do. We have to understand how to play through a team and that’s about developing an off-loading game, dominating collisions and moving ball into space to attack the line and get support there. That’s my mantra of how I want to play the game and I’m working with Gregor and Graham [Steadman, defence coach] on how we can achieve that. But we are going to go out and play that way.”

Pushed on the fact that shapeless England scored, and his attack guided by Townsend did not, he added: “I don’t think you should always go with stats, but we are obviously working to improve our attack as we’re working to improve our defence.

“There is a lot for us to work on and we plan to do that. This is a side that’s growing and moving forward. I’m not going to pick on one person. This is a collective.

“Yes, we have to improve our ability to score tries, but I would rather we won against Argentina with that late drop-goal and not scored a try, and I’d have preferred that the score stayed at 12-3 against England and we won the game.”

The inescapable fact is that Scotland are proving themselves far better at dominating games, but continue to leave themselves vulnerable until they master the skills necessary, mental and physical, for scoring tries.

As for other reflections on Scotland’s performances in the World Cup, Robinson said that he was happy with his team selections, despite sending out four different XVs, feeling the changes were vindicated by the fact that the teams were all in winning positions late in the games. And he insisted that dropping skipper Alastair Kellock and then his successor, Rory Lawson, for the crucial final two games, was the result purely of the competition for their places and had created no ill-feeling in the squad.

Clearly, however, there remained a frustration in Robinson that was prevalent across the squad as it came to terms with the early exit from the 2011 World Cup and which will fuel his plans to step-up demands for a greater ruthlessness in 2012.

“Every inch is key,” he added. “We played the rugby and got ourselves in a couple of cracking positions in the two tough games, against two very good sides.

“But I spoke to the players about how it’s like having your foot on somebody’s throat and you can’t let it off; you can’t relieve the pressure. Momentum changes very quickly in a game of rugby. The two restarts [that were not claimed] changed the momentum in the games, the kick-through by Simon Danielli [against England] and not scoring a try there, knocking the ball on, as much as anything releases the pressure, because that was a five or seven-pointer rather than a three-pointer.

“Those are the moments that change games.”