Thursday, January 28, 2010

Andy Robinson urges Scotland to bring chaos to Six Nations


Andy Robinson is a highly organised man – he would not otherwise have risen so far up the rugby ladder – but he wants his Scotland team to introduce a little old-fashioned chaos and confusion to the 2010 Six Nations. Wreaking havoc and making off with the spoils, now there is a game plan to gladden most Scots' hearts.

"We operate very well in chaos, in fact Scotland always thrive when there is chaos and confusion on the pitch," said Robinson, who will be masterminding his first Six Nations campaign as the Scots' coach.

"Scotland is a nation of instinctive and very passionate rugby players, and the team flourish when things happen at speed and the unexpected occurs.

"One of the reasons I put my hand up and applied for the job as national coach when Frank Hadden left was that I had been so impressed by what I had seen in Scotland."

"That came home again very forcibly to me on Monday morning when I attended Bill McLaren's funeral in Hawick and what an emotional, sad but also very inspiring day that was.

"That's an incredible store of rugby knowledge and excellence in that trio alone and later just about all the other Scottish greats were there at the funeral. Scotland have a very proud and distinctive rugby heritage, the great teams played in a certain way and we need to try to honour that."

Typically, Robinson has been hard at work on the first part of the formula. "Making that happen is down partly to a state of mind but you also need to be exceptionally fit and that is something we have been working on since the autumn.

"Luckily we have two excellent conditioning teams at the Edinburgh and Glasgow sides and Scotland have been working very closely with them. It takes a big commitment from the players but they are all prepared to put the work in.

"Fitness and staying power can help bring consistency. Scotland haven't scored back-to-back wins in the Six Nations since 2001 and even that is misleading because one of those games was the September match against Ireland after foot and mouth disrupted the tournament in the winter.

"You have to go back to Scotland's last Championship winning year in 1999 to get genuine back-to-back wins. That is the first big hurdle we need to clear," said Robinson, whose team open their Six Nations campaign by taking on France at Murrayfield on Sunday week.

"I actually thought in terms of quality of performance we did back up against the Pumas, we were creative and dangerous in attack but we didn't take our chances and eventually lost. We have to take that next step."

Scotland V France Hospitality

Wales V Scotland Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

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