The bravehearts of stern Vern
COMMENT OPINION: Right now Steve Hansen will feel as high as a lock forward snorting coke on the streets of Paris. The lights of the All Blacks coach’s hometown have never seemed brighter. You see, there are all these brilliant Kiwis, and even the odd cunning Ocker, coaching teams in the Six Nations, and not one of them is coming out here with the Lions.
If Vern Cotter and Joe Schmidt were leading the tourists this winter then the All Blacks could have a problem. Hansen would no longer be the smartest rugby man in the room.
But instead Warren Gatland is arriving with the dirt trackers in coaching terms. Even Gatland himself may belong in that category,
Hansen and Wayne Smith and the rest of the brains trust will be delighted not to have to lock heads with Schmidt, but Cotter has proved himself to be just as formidable during this Six Nations. ‘‘Les yeux de glace,’’ they nicknamed him in France, and those eyes of ice seem to see everything.
Cotter told Tom English of the BBC: ‘‘Look, I remember the 1990s. I remember Scotland coming to New Zealand [in the summer of 1990] and they should have beaten the All Blacks. We weren’t inventing the game, Scotland were doing it. When we first came together as a squad we looked at some footage of those days. They were brave, confident warriors.
‘‘I understand New Zealanders so much more after living in Scotland because a lot of the influence comes from here. I recognise it in our rural communities. I’m not an extroverted person and I love the countryside, I love what Scotland has got to offer, whether it’s the coastline, the mountains, the rivers.’’
What Scotland had to offer Cotter when he arrived was a pretty bad rugby team, a moribund administration and a disenchanted crowd who were drifting off to other sports. And this was a man who was now used to success. His Clermont team did not lose at home for 76 matches. They won the French Championship for the first time in their history and never finished outside the top four.
Scotland were playing in a Championship of six teams and they scarcely knew what the top four looked like. Yet in his second year in charge Cotter took Scotland to the edge of a World Cup semifinal and scored more points than they conceded for the first time in the 17-year history of the Six Nations.
But don’t expect Cotter to get coach of the year at the end of this year or any other year. These baubles are usually given to blokes who already have bloody good teams and don’t exactly have to reinvent the wheel. Yet this year there is every chance, with Italy still to play at Murrayfield, that Scotland could have three home wins in the Six Nations for the first time.
They have beaten Wales for the first time in a decade and could now win the triple crown if they can go to Twickenham and beat England. That hasn’t happened since 1983 when a lot of the current team weren’t even born, but the fact that it is even a possibility says a great deal about Cotter.
The first thing he looked for when he arrived in Edinburgh was a group of decent men. I remember being in a Scottish hotel bar 15 or so years ago and standing gobsmacked as a group of blondstreaked public schoolboys, who had just taken a hell of a beating, pranced about as if they were god’s gift to rugby, women and anything else that should enter their heavyaddled heads.
It was shocking. And there was no way Cotter was going to put up with that sort of thing. Maybe his playing career in France at clubs like Dunkirk and Lourdes bred a necessary historic resilience. Maybe he already had it from his time farming the land. Maybe ‘Stern Vern’, as the Scottish players call him, summoned up the spirit of Jim Telfer, with whom he has so much in common.
Telfer himself, has recognised the change, saying: ‘‘The New Zealanders talk about producing good rugby players but also producing good men. That’s what he’s doing.’’
Five minutes from the end of the game against Wales, Ryan Wilson lay on his back, racked with exhaustion. He had just made six tackles in one sequence of play, tackles that were emphasised with line speed, and which eventually forced the turnover. A fortnight earlier he missed the game against France after contracting cellulitis in his elbow.
Cotter says: ‘‘He plays much bigger than he is.’’
All of Cotter’s team play much bigger than they are. He knows the scrum will get minced, particularly after the loss of WP Nel, but then every selection is some sort of compromise. Cotter has sacrificed grunt for attitude and line speed and skill and leadership.
He talks about ‘‘mindset and skill-set and leadership.’’ I can’t say I much care for his ‘‘word-set’’, but Cotter is more interested in character and soul than literature. And his team have added brains to that mix.
Scotland scored a hilarious try in their opening victory against Ireland. They stood their halfback, right wing and second five-eighth at the front of an attacking lineout and stacked the tail. When Ireland’s tight head prop planted his giant thighs, looked to his pod and set himself for a mighty lift, Scotland’s hooker lobbed the ball in to Alex Dunbar, the second five, who strolled over untouched. I reckon Vern chuckled about that one to Joe Schmidt over a beer afterwards.
Cotter changed tactics against Wales at halftime because Justin Tipuric and Sam Warburton were dominating the breakdown and Scotland then dominated the second half. Captain John Barclay now believes that they can beat anyone.
Wing Tim Visser says: ‘‘We want to do it especially for Vern. The fact that he is leaving has really put a date on the end of this period. We’re trying to leave him with as much as we can. He’s put a lot of hard work into getting this team going forward. We want to show him that we have improved.’’