Bigger role for Scott Johnson as jobs cut at Murrayfield

NEW Scotland assistant coach Scott Johnson is to take charge of the SRU’s internal coaching structure after Henry Edwards exited Murrayfield at the weekend as one of at least four redundancies.

After being replaced as assistant coach with Edinburgh, Edwards has been the SRU’s Head of Performance since 2006 and is one of several high-ranked officials to be made redundant as part of chief executive Mark Dodson’s restructuring plans.

Head of Human Resources Fiona Wilson is also leaving as is Gordon Downie, the Head of Central Services, which included responsibility for IT, procurement, commercial partnerships and broadcast rights. He had come to Murrayfield in 2005 from Semple Cochrane, along with Gordon McKie and Eamon Hegarty, the chief executive and finance director who left last year. A fourth member to be made redundant is Jo Wells, the Scottish Women’s Rugby Union’s Community Manager.

The SRU declined to comment on the redundancies, but it is understood that there will be more to follow as part of an ongoing management restructuring, with more new faces being brought in to Murrayfield. One of the most high-profile arrivals will be Johnson, who was announced in December as a new member of Andy Robinson’s coaching team. He quit the Ospreys in February and is due to join up with the Scotland squad when they tour his native Australia in June.

He is currently house-hunting in Edinburgh, however, and the former Australia under-21 stand-off and centre, and assistant coach with Wales and Australia, is now understood to be preparing to take the helm of the SRU’s coaching structure as an elite coaching director.

Although the SRU already has a Director of Performance Rugby in New Zealander Graham Lowe, the role for Johnson echoes the SFA’s hiring of Mark Wotte, the former Dutch internationalist, as their first Performance Director. Wotte managed 11 clubs, including Southampton, before joining the SFA last June and quickly identified a key weaknesses that exists in football – the lack of intense development – which is also a major issue in rugby.

It appears that the SRU are, similarly, looking far afield for ideas on how to improve Scottish rugby. Regarded as an ‘off-the-wall’ character, Johnson had a brief spell as caretaker coach of Wales and was head coach of the USA Eagles for six months before taking over as director of coaching with Welsh club Ospreys in 2009.

He was head-hunted by Scotland coach Andy Robinson after the World Cup in an effort to bring to Scottish rugby what Robinson termed “a sage-like figure who can really add to what we’re doing”.

Johnson agreed a four-year contract with the SRU on a salary believed to be around £200,000 a year, and, while initially it was stated that his role would include coaching the Scotland squad as “senior assistant coach” and improving the SRU’s scouting network, it now appears that, outside of the Test window, he will be tasked with improving the Scottish coaching system.

The SRU declined to make any comment yesterday on Edwards’ redundancy and Johnson’s remit, but SRU chief executive Mark Dodson said of Johnson at the time of his appointment: “This is a significant appointment for Scottish Rugby. In addition to working with Andy and the national management team, we are finalising an important wider role for Scott in helping us to better identify Scottish-qualified talent around the world.”

Johnson said then: “I’m excited by this challenge. Scotland has a great history in rugby and, with Andy, there’s a real focus point to get it back to where it belongs on the world stage by creating something new and brighter.”

Dodson has already embarked on a new direction in providing close to £2m in new funding for the Edinburgh and Glasgow teams for next season, which has allowed them to strengthen their squads, and is due to meet the leading club coaches in Scotland this month in an effort to ease growing tensions at the number of leading coaching posts being filled from overseas, potentially stifling local talent, and without the opportunity for ambitious Scots to apply.

A key plank of Edwards’ job remit was also coach education and it will be interesting to discover whether Johnson takes over that aspect of Scottish rugby development.