Scotland in New Zealand: A look back in anger

THAT’S IT, then. All over. This morning the All Blacks – please Lord, let it be the All Blacks – will be crowned champions of the world in their own iconic home at Eden Park and the nuttiest rugby country on the planet can finally stop holding their breath after six weeks. Or should that be 24 years?

For Scotland, life moves on. The players are back at their clubs and are focusing on new horizons until the whole international shooting match starts up again in the countdown to the Six Nations, which is but a few months away.

There is no danger of Scotland forgetting what happened to them in New Zealand, but let’s see what they do about it. Will the lessons be learned? Is Andy Robinson going to plod along into the future just as his predecessor, Frank Hadden, did four years or is he going to recognise the moral of the story from New Zealand – and deal with it.

And here’s the moral, lest we forget.

• Scotland scored four tries in their four games, the second-lowest total of all the teams in the World Cup. Only Georgia and Romania scored fewer.

• Scotland became only the second side in World Cup history to go try-less in three consecutive games. The other was Spain in 1999.

• Scotland have failed to score a try in five of their last seven World Cup games going back four years.

• Scotland have failed to score a try in 13 of Robinson’s 23 Tests in charge.

• Scotland have lost 11 Tests under Robinson, seven of them by a converted try or less.

• Scotland have finished bottom or joint bottom of the Six Nations try table in 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2000.

• Scotland have not finished above second bottom of the Six Nations try table since Five Nations became six a dozen years ago.

There are two ways of looking at this. Either these players, and the ones that went before, are not good enough – but then that is not what Robinson’s been telling us – or else the coaching isn’t good enough.

Season after season we see the wearying spectacle of Scotland blowing try-scoring chances. Season after season we hear the coach saying that it’s a mindset thing, not a talent thing. Season after season, nothing changes. Robinson has two months to address the chronic failings in his attack. He either backs Gregor Townsend, his attack coach, or he replaces him. But whatever Robinson does, he should be held accountable. He’s the boss. The buck stops at his door.

There were myriad failings in Scotland’s World Cup, things that you could not legislate for, things you assumed would be done, things like restarts not being claimed and tackles not being made. But the biggest failing of all was one that everybody has known about for years – a debilitating and ruinous lack of tries.

Namibia outscored Scotland. Russia and Canada had more than double Scotland’s try-count. Are their players better than Scotland’s? Or are they just better coached in their attack? A question for Robinson. His future depends on him finding the answer.