Six Nations: Developing Ross Ford is ‘ready’ to take on captaincy

SCOTLAND coach Andy Robinson has taken a common path and opted for a rugby thinker on his wavelength who is virtually guaranteed his spot to lead the country in 2012.

No-one would say Ross Ford was a garrulous individual. A major challenge he will face, starting at the RBS Six Nations launch in London today, attended by around 150 media representatives from across Europe, will be in how he presents himself publicly.

He is widely respected by his peers in the game and is as popular as any player in Scotland with fans young and old, but he has rarely taken on the captaincy role that automatically places a person above the rest as a totem figure. He was a popular head boy at Kelso High School and captained his school 1st XV a decade ago, but the next stint in charge that he can recall was with Edinburgh this season.

However, Robinson has witnessed the emergence of Ford since the British and Irish Lions tour in 2009, where he forced himself into the Test squad, and been impressed by the rugby knowledge that the Borderer possesses with now 53 caps in his locker.

“He has performed outstandingly well for Scotland and for Edinburgh over the last couple of years,” said the coach. “His leadership has developed very well in the way that he has spoken, particularly in the areas of defence and around the set-piece. This is the next challenge for him and I’m delighted he was keen to take this on.

“I discussed with Ross the game and the way that we want to play, and tactically how we want to play, and what’s important for a captain. I feel that his knowledge of the game is very good and that’s an important part to the way that we developed the squad and how Ross has developed over the last couple of years.

“But, also, one of the things I’ve seen with Ross is that it’s always been there inside him. It’s about unlocking it and the various experiences he has had over the last two or three years have been able to unlock the potential that is there and the man you see here now.

“He is very honest in the way that he talks and step-by-step I’ve seen him grow and grow in his performances on the rugby pitch and his ability to lead. I think each experience he has had had helped unlock that by giving him the confidence he needed to move on.”

Ford has followed a long line of Kelso players into the international ranks, but only one, Gary Callander, was ever named Scotland captain. He captained his country in five out of his eight Test appearances, including through the 1988 Five Nations Championship. He has faced his own battles recently with operations on his neck and knee a reminder of his rugby career, but Callander is upbeat about the choice of Ford as the new leader.

He told The Scotsman: “I’m delighted for him. I did a bit of coaching with Ross when he was a young boy still at school and he was a very amenable and obviously talented young bloke.

“He has acquired a huge number of caps, which reflects his ability and the age, and I know he will view this very similarly to what I did. It is a great honour and certainly the greatest I ever had. To captain your country is the ultimate.

“He will also have a lot of senior guys around him, boys who have captained before. When I first did it in 1988, I had already under-studied Colin Deans for a long time, both as hooker and a leader. I was told that, whenever he came off, I’d be replacing him as captain, too.

“But it was different then because you only had five minutes on the pitch at half-time to turn things around, if it wasn’t going so good, and not 15 minutes in the dressing-room with the coaches giving you their advice.

“I still had guys like Roy Laidlaw and Fin Calder to turn to for advice and Ross will have that with a lot of boys in this squad very experienced in the Six Nations, as well as some good young talent there.”

As for whether hooker is a good place to lead a side from, when one’s head tends, literally, to be in the middle of regular maelstrom, Callander added: “It comes down to the person rather than the position in my view.People used to say full-back was difficult because you were so far away from the action, but Andy Irvine and Gavin Hastings had no problem. You look at Andy Dalton and Sean Fitzpatrick at New Zealand, and John Smit at South Africa – they were good captains.

“I don’t think there is a right or wrong place to captain from. I always believed as a coach that I wanted disciples on the pitch, people who thought the same as you did as a coach, and picked the guy who understood most what you want out of the game.That is what I think is the most significant thing about being captain.”

And that succinctly underlines why Robinson has opted for Ford. It is what lies inside Ford’s head and his approach to the game, allied to the fact that he is the first name he has been putting on his team-sheet for most of his near three years in charge, that has attracted Robinson.

Another former Kelso internationalist, John Jeffrey, agreed. He said: “What I like about Fordy is that he’s not the big demonstrative type who’ll go around shouting and bawling, and I think he will bring a different approach to the captaincy.

“Andy has obviously looked at who was guaranteed in the team and I’m very confident that he will be a good captain in his own quiet way. Andy told me that he had asked Fordy to say something to the team before the World Cup and he was very impressed by how he took hold of that and spoke to the forwards.

“But you only have to look back at one of my Scotland captains – David Sole. People said he was far too quiet to be a captain, but he led from the front and Fordy will do that.

“He has been in charge of the forward packs at Edinburgh and Scotland, and I feel that the most important thing for a captain is to have the respect of your teammates. He has that in spades. He is also a thinker, and has always been a player who studies the game, which is important. And I also think that this appointment has the potential to improve his game and take it to a new level.”

Robinson sees that clear, intelligent thinker, one who understands how Scotland might win the Calcutta Cup and how they might change tack to stay on course in the game. He has accepted that he may have to step in at media conferences and help Ford out at times in providing some juicy morsels, and that the public persona of his leader may not have the public hanging on his every word, but rather that than a player who has plenty to say but little substance to back it up.

That goes to heart of the message Robinson is striving to drive through his squad and the wider public: that he wants performances and results rather than positive talk. He certainly needs it after two championships with just one win apiece, and Robinson knows the importance of starting with victory.

He added: “There has been a lot of talk before the last two championships about the potential. It’s okay having potential but we’ve come into the final game of the tournament not having won a game and that’s not acceptable. It’s about delivering results and that’s what our focus is – it’s time to deliver.”