Watch this space: Andy Robinson aims to get Scots back on attack

• Andy Robinson was unveiled as the new Scotland coach last year after an impressive two seasons in charge of Edinburgh

ANDY Robinson is rarely more relaxed than when engrossed in rugby talk.

Even socially, those close to him insist he will say he likes evenings out with rugby off the agenda, but the face, the expressions, the whole demeanour suggest hours spent with the brain switched off from the sport are more of a struggle.

Edinburgh supporters with a liking for seats at the back of the West Stand saw the 'Robbo' animation in all its glory. They watched wide-eyed as he banged on windows and doors during Magners League and Heineken Cup matches when head coach of the pro team from October 2007 to May 2009.

The infuriated walk down the stand steps as the final whistle approached, the wild gesticulating arms at another refereeing decision or the slamming doors when he discovered a back exit from the media area to the dressing room all attested to one thing – Robinson was back in rugby and he cared. His passions have only increased on taking over with Scotland, a passion for his team to re-ignite attacking play in the future, perhaps with a nod to the past.

He has come a long way since the glory of Grand Slam and World Cup success in 2003 and dark days of resignation in 2006. Despite many warning him of tough times, Robinson stepped up to the plate when Clive Woodward quit as England coach in 2004 only to discover the hurdles to progress were greater than he had imagined. England finally had the William Webb Ellis trophy and the top clubs reckoned the RFU owed them, for allowing Woodward significant player release for national squad sessions specifically, and pulled the players back to their bosom.

The RFU pulled in the other direction, even organising a fourth autumn Test match in 2006, against New Zealand, when Robinson was struggling to get a squad together for the three that existed. Something had to give. It did: performances, results and selection gambles that didn't come off. After a run of nine wins in 22 Test matches in 2005-6, and lacking support within the RFU, Robinson agreed to resign.

He is reluctant to go over old stony ground, but admits: "I would have liked to have stayed and I did feel I could improve things, but that kind of schedule and those difficulties made it harder than it should have been. I enjoyed it though; the challenge."

His response was to look deeper into his mind and soul, spending time with a business motivational company 'Footdown'. It has the catchline "inspiring leaders to be the best they can be" and grandly uses video footage of Winston Churchill, JFK and Martin Luther King on its website.

It states its raison d'etre thus: "For leaders of all types of organisations, who dream of being better leaders but who lack the time to realise this ambition, Footdown's leadership mentoring and coaching groups offer the chance to be better informed about what they do, more inspired about doing it and less isolated when things get tough."

Robinson spent almost a year with the company and admits he visited "a few dark places" as he wrestled with a very public failing in the land of his birth. He insists his passion for rugby never dwindled, nor his self-belief, but he had to assess whether he, and his wife and four children, wanted a life back in the cut-throat world of professional sport, where careers can hang on penalty decisions and player fallibility.

During that 2007 out of rugby, he mentored an old pupil, Chris Taylor, the Gloucestershire cricketer, and coached mini-rugby. What emerged from that period was a renewed desire to help rugby players improve, a realisation the game may be about players, but that players needed guidance and inspiration, and he still had the ability to provide it, somewhere.

He proved to be in the right place at the right time when the SRU wanted a fresh face for an Edinburgh team dragged back under central control after a stormy relationship with private owners.

"It took me out of my comfort zone," Robinson says. "In some ways, staying in England would have been easier because my family were based there and had commitments there, so I knew I'd have to move away from them to work, which is hard, but it was the kind of challenge I needed, getting out of the comfort zone."

So far it has worked well, reinvigorating in Robinson the belief that not only can he work with players, shape them and inspire them, he has not lost the ability to win.

A third-place finish in the Magners League in 2007-8 was followed by second last season and after he turned down an initial advance from Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, to become national coach in 2008, there was no doubting where he was headed when Frank Hadden's Scotland endured a third Six Nations with a solitary victory.

Appointed Scotland coach in May 2009, Robinson led the 'A' squad to the IRB Nations Cup in Romania. Significantly, bar some uneasiness among some former internationalists, there was precious little criticism of the first appointment of an Englishman to Scotland's top job.

He launched his new career with two wins and a defeat in the autumn, what most expected, only the victory over Australia – a first in 27 years – was not one of those anticipated and so marked him out again as something different.

"I'm English, but what really gets me passionate is winning and the challenge that that presents wherever you are," said Robinson. "I watched the 2008 Calcutta Cup match as a spectator, and I was inspired by the passion of the Scotland supporters. It was a privilege to be asked to be the Scotland coach."

His team was well-organised and difficult to beat, and rose from tenth to ninth in the world rankings, but that is not new. He is acutely aware of the next stage, of making Scotland offensively dangerous again, but bringing attacking flair back into an increasingly one-dimensional international sport is something he has now spent several years analysing.

"The game of rugby continually evolves but sometimes too fast," he says, "and it forgets about the work done before, the improvements. There are some aspects of the game that were good in the 1980s and 90s, like counter-attack for example.

"Most teams now are happy when the ball is kicked. Defensive lines want that ball to be kicked because they don't want to be making tackles; they get that line up as quick as they can so they don't have to make tackles, where if players actually took them on with ball in hand they would put that defence under real pressure.

"I can say that, we can talk about it, but the team that will succeed is the one where players recognise that, know how to get numbers back, and have the confidence and skill level to say 'yes we can run here'.

"It's also having the ability to look up and scan, to see where the space is. There is enough space, and there is time to look and read situations on a modern rugby pitch, contrary to what some think. But not enough players do it, or have the confidence to do it; the eyes are very much centred on the ball and the ruck, as opposed to looking up and seeing where the space is and attacking that space.

"Because their heads are turned in looking at where the ball is and the scrum-half they don't see the space or connect with where the mis-matches are. That has been a fundamental difference between players for years, and it's something we need to get our players more confident to do.

"Alex Grove is a very talented young player, but he missed a great chance against Argentina, Alan MacDonald another good player, and he did it against Bath. We need them to see where mismatches are and have the confidence to attack it."

There is, of course, the issue of the 'breakdown', the point at which modern players are very skilled in slowing ball and the abolishing of rucking makes it hard for referees, ensuring that attacking plans are defused and easy to defend. Robinson agrees, and insists his coaching team and those at Edinburgh and Glasgow are working flat-out on improving players' tackle and ball-stealing skills.

"The game has changed to help defences," he agrees. "Even up to 2003 if you were the fittest team you would be able to run a team off the pitch and win a game, and I always felt that when I was with the England side – we just had to lift the level of the game in the last 20 and we'd win it.

"You look at the number of Calcutta Cups we won in the 90s and early 2000s (England lost only one from 1991 to 2005] and how many were won in the last 20 minutes. In my time coaching England I remember a number where Scotland played really well, but the last 20 minutes they were blown away. The Grand Slam win (2003] against Ireland was 9-6 going into half-time and we just lifted it in the second half and kept it up in the last 20, and the great sides are able to do that. But, now, with the number of substitutions that can be made and the improved fitness of players, more and more teams can hang in there. I've noticed a real change since about 2003 onwards and it's credit to the fitness coaches."

Robinson's predecessors Matt Williams and Hadden significantly improved Scots' fitness and strength levels from 2004 to 2007, which has provided a good level of competitiveness, and there we return to that next crucial stage, of winning more games.

Robinson continues: "I would love the team just to go out there and play, and play at a real pace, with the confidence to keep the ball, and also – which is very important now – the understanding when to kick and how to kick.

"A lot of emphasis on the kicking game gets focused on one person (stand-off) and that shouldn't be the case; it's got to be a balance between two or three players taking that responsibility to integrate the kicking game into your attack, and you want to be kicking when you're going forward. But a lot of teams will only kick when the ball is slow and they run out of options. One of the strengths of that Lions team in 1989 was that it could play in different ways, the players could change things. That's about players taking control and this is where there needs to be a greater shift in the game.

"It's the same in any sport – the best players take control of what they're doing, and that should be the driving force for any young player. Rugby is not rocket science, but players must work out what the game means to them, why they're being asked to do what they are and look at their game and determine what they want to do and how they achieve it, not wait for a coach to always tell them.

"There are some great examples. Nathan Hines epitomises it. The culture he has grown up in, the Australian background, being relaxed, but switching on when you go on the field and taking control of what you're doing, is what I'm talking about. He takes control. We need a squad of 55-60 players who understand what they are doing, why, and how they change it for the benefit of the team, and then we'll see the difference."

In Part 1 yesterday, the caption beneath the main photo wrongly identified the featured match as Scotland v England in 1990. It was in fact England v Scotland in 1989. We apologise for any confusion caused.