Six Nations: I asked Dan Parks to play on, says Andy Robinson

SCOTLAND coach Andy Robinson was unstinting yesterday in his praise of Dan Parks’ contribution to Scottish rugby, and admitted that the stand-off, who announced his retirement from the Test stage on Tuesday, had forced him to rethink his plans through sheer force of character.

He also admitted that Parks had intimated a desire to retire after the World Cup, but that Robinson asked to use his experience for at least two more matches in the 2012 RBS Six Nations. When Robinson selected his first enlarged training squad on replacing Frank Hadden as Scotland coach in 2009, he tried to signal a new future by leaving Parks out. It led to many writing an international obituary for the fly-half who had been a fixture in Scotland teams since 2004. However, he forced his way back into the side in 2010 and won four ‘Man of the Match’ awards, helping record wins over Ireland and Argentina.

Robinson said: “I didn’t pick him originally. I was looking to the future, but this guy fought like anything. While it wasn’t the country of his birth, playing for Scotland meant as much to Dan as to anybody in the squad.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But I felt it [retirement] was the right thing to do for the team. While it’s not ideal, it was the right time. At the beginning of the championship we spoke about his future and obviously he was thinking about retiring. Because of the injury to Ruaridh [Jackson] and the fact that we had two young tens, I asked him to play in the first two games. I picked him for Saturday and I believe that, having looked at the possession stats and territory, the opportunities created, I was right to pick him for that game. Unfortunately, we didn’t win and through us not winning, through the way that Greig [Laidlaw] came on and played, through Duncan’s [Weir’s] performance for the ‘A’ team and the confidence he had, I made a decision on Sunday night/Monday morning [to drop Parks], and explained to Dan that it was right to move on with the side. I did it a game earlier than I thought it would be, but I just believed it was right, in the position we were in, having lost that first game.”

Pushed on why he felt it was right to drop Parks, when he had been keen to praise his performance against England, it was clear that Robinson was not entirely happy with Parks’ performance in the Calcutta Cup but was not about to criticise a player who had just retired.

He acknowledged that there was a huge amount of pressure on Scotland stand-offs, and his attack coach Gregor Townsend and kicking coach Duncan Hodge were both able to support that, having suffered at the hands of critics during their playing careers. “When you are the goal-kicker and the key decision-maker, and you’ve got the tactical kicking of the game and running of the game, you are always in the game and under the spotlight, and under pressure,” said Robinson.

‘You’ve got these sevens [openside flankers] chasing you or, as Charlie Hodgson did at the weekend, guys sprinting out of the line trying to charge you down. Every decision you make is under the spotlight and under pressure. But Dan has handled it well over the past two years.”

Asked why he felt it was right that Parks retire now, when a week ago he felt he was a crucial part of his squad, Robinson continued: “He [Parks] wanted it to be done now. I understood that.

“Jackson has been the No 10 I’m looking at developing, so Dan may have gone after the Wales game, although we would have discussed it as things went on and if we had won both games, he would probably have carried on, wouldn’t he? But that’s hindsight.

“I wanted Duncan [Weir] to play in the A game, to have that vital experience, and now he’s coming into the squad full of confidence. And I wanted to give Laidlaw the experience of coming into the game off the bench, so I used Dan as our starting 10. I still believe that was the right decision for us.”

Robinson was asked again whether the pressure should now turn to Townsend and whether he was accountable for the lack of tries. The head coach insisted he would not be changing his coaching team and stated that he felt the coaches were “all in it together”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The problem of try-scoring, Robinson acknowledged, does not stem from one coach nor one player. The Scottish attack is far better now than before Robinson and Townsend took over and the players are arguably better, but pressure is the key thing and too few players have been exposed to pressure on as regular a basis as their opponents and it continues to show.

Ross Rennie is one of the best rugby players produced by Scotland in recent years, for example, but the number of times the flanker has had to execute a scoring pass under the pressure, intensity and pace demanded on Saturday is relatively low, in Heineken Cup and a few league matches perhaps, and certainly a fraction of the times demanded in the careers of English, Welsh, Irish and French players.

Now Robinson moves on to Cardiff with a different stand-off and exciting new bench recruits, but with the same hope that the players’ undoubted abilities can come together and stick under pressure. “We go out there to score tries,” Robinson added. “You’ve got to look at every moment, every opportunity. It is about executing under pressure. A two-on-one pass to score under the posts, we’ve got to execute.

“When we get to the touchline, don’t get bundled into touch, stay infield. When we get close to the try line, we’re probably too enthusiastic, we over-run and lose our depth. These are coaching points we’re working on. And we’ll solve it under Test match pressure – that’s where it will be solved, by executing under pressure.

“The guys are executing in training, but they now need to deliver that at the Millenium Stadium in front of 80,000 people.”

Related topics: