Scottish Rugby

This past weekend I was in Dublin to watch Scotland take on Ireland at Croke Park. For the first time, I think I have lost faith in the Scottish Rugby set up. I attended all Scotlands games in the Rugby World Cup, with the excpetion of the Tuesday night match in Edinburgh. I thought that we played reasonably well in the RWC. Having watched Scotland regularly home and away for eight years now, I was impressed with the direction we were going in. Caught up in the excitement of the RWC, I booked myself up to attend all the matches of the 2008 Six Nations Championship.

Three matches in, I’m wishing that I had not. The performances have been getting worse, and the one against the Irish was the worst one I’ve seen recently. The side seem to hold onto poseession well enough, but they are completely devoid of ideas. They seem quite adept at going across the pitch from one side to the other, without the ability to make progress and make strides in a forward direction. Eventually, someone will get bored with this sideways routine, and either drop the ball, or kick posession away. And we are on the defensive again

The defense, something that had been very resolute, has went from creaking in the French game, to being completely broken against the Irish. Time and time again, they got through our line. Every time the broke, you thought they would score. I think inexperience on the behalf of some of their players meant that a couple of try scoring opportunities were missed

Scotland finally scored a try in the second half, their only try now in six halves of rugby this season. Sadly, no more came. Then the moment of the reason for my despair happened. Loosing badly, with no way seemingly back into the game, Frank Hadden, the coach, replaced Hugo Southwell with Dan Parks. Chris Paterson moved to full back, with Parks taking over at ten. What flair that Paterson brings was gone. Parks, whilst a solid player, is not going to inspire a side back to victory. For me, this was a damage limitation replacement. Try not to let the Irish score any more Dan, kick the ball away

This was the moment I lost faith in Frank Hadden. I think he is devoid of ideas, and has no idea of his best team anymore, or how to win matches. I believe that he should step aside after the current Six Nations tournament. We need new ideas at the top. Jake White, I saw you say you were looking for a challenge. Well, welcome to Scotland Mr White, we have one for you

As for me, two games to go. Rome will be nice. I was there in 2006, and had a great weekend. Looking forward to going back there again. As for Edinburgh, and the England game, if we loose by less than 20 points we will be doing well.

I’m off shopping for wooden spoons