How Scots used the pain of Japan humiliation to transform their fortunes
Summit meeting in the aftermath of their World Cup exit led to a blueprint that has seen a major revival in fortunes
Beneath the chandeliers of the 300-capacity ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel in Yokohama might seem an unlikely venue for a blueprint for the revival of Scottish rugby to have been drawn up.
It was Oct 14, 2019. Just 24 hours earlier, Scotland had crashed out of the World Cup, eliminated at the pool stages for only the second time, following the humiliating 28-21 defeat by hosts Japan at the International Stadium Yokohama.
Two years earlier, Scotland had reached an all-time high of fifth place in the world rankings, defeated Australia in Sydney and had finished the year with a record eight-try victory over the Wallabies at Murrayfield. They were all faded memories in the draughty expanse of the function room in their Japanese hotel.
Yet it was with the pain of their exit still raw that this impromptu review would lead to key decisions being taken over the next two days to lay the foundations of a revival across the Scottish game, underscored by their victory over England at Twickenham last month, which ended their 38-year wait for a win in London.
“Sometimes you want to walk away and give yourself two weeks to think about it,” recalls Mark Dodson, chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union. “But nobody wanted to do that. It was cathartic. We wanted to get everything on the table, talk about it.
“We met in a big ballroom in the team hotel on the Monday afterwards and just sat for five hours, talking it through.
“I spent two days with all the senior players. I sat down with the likes of Fraser Brown, Greig Laidlaw, Gavin Scott, the then team manager, and Gregor [Townsend]. It was very informal. They were just conversations. What was pleasing was the openness to say, ‘Right, we go again and get better’.
“We looked at what we did. We all knew. It was not a massively difficult decision to change. Everyone put their hand up and said, ‘This is what we did wrong, we should have seen that earlier’. Gregor said, ‘I know what I want to do and I know with your help I can do it’.
“We had to change the way we defended. We couldn’t be an attractive side that beat teams five tries to four. We want to be in the contest for longer. We need to be niggly, we want to be awkward. And we also need to play to our strengths, a game based on fast possession.”
The first decision, though, was whether to stick with Townsend, who had taken charge in the summer of 2017. The review left Dodson in no doubt that he should back his man.
“When I first appointed him, what stood out was his intelligence and his ability to think out of the box and do something different with a group of players to give them belief,” Dodson says. “After the World Cup it was his ability and desire to change. He knew he had got things wrong.
“Continuing with Gregor through to the next World Cup was a big decision considering we had come off a World Cup exit, but the board backed me. We believed that if you create a plan, you have to stick with it.”
The next stage was to give Townsend the resources to bolster his coaching team, including the key appointments of Steve Tandy as defence coach and Pieter de Villiers as scrum coach.
Increasing Scotland’s depth of players was also made a priority, with greater investment in their two Pro 14 sides and an enhanced scouting programme to identify Scottishqualified talent. The appointment of Jim Mallinder as director of performance just before the World Cup has also made a significant impact.
“We had to get a stronger domestic tier and for our academies to be based on more of an English factory model rather than a pathway model,” Dodson adds.
Dodson estimates the player base capable of international rugby has grown from 32 when he was appointed in 2011 to around 53 now, and the decision by Cameron Redpath and Josh Bayliss to declare for Scotland this season was a major coup, proving how far the set-up had improved.
While Scotland have also benefited from the exposure of Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray in winning titles at Exeter and Finn Russell at Racing 92, Dodson says the SRU will now do everything in their power to keep players at Glasgow and Edinburgh if the only interest in moving is financial.
Now, despite the 25-24 defeat by Wales after playing most of the second half with 14 men following Zander Fagerson’s red card, Townsend’s side remain in contention for the Six Nations title ahead of the visit of Ireland to Murrayfield tomorrow.
Yet perhaps the ultimate key performance indicator this season is the number of players in serious contention for the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa. Up to 12 are knocking on the door for selection, with Townsend also tipped to be a key member of Warren Gatland’s coaching team.
“It has taken longer than I would have liked to lay the foundations, but I think they are in place now,” Dodson says. “If you look at the squad that went to the World Cup and the one that went to Twickenham, you can see the next generation of talent coming through and because that is deeper, it has also made us more dangerous. People can see Scottish sides are not going to lie down. We can hurt teams.”
Where tomorrow’s game will be won and lost
Ali Price v Jamison Gibson-park
The Daily Telegraph
It is a fact that will either provide some comfort or pile on the pressure. When Wales have won their first three matches in the Six Nations, there has been only one outcome – a Grand Slam triumph.
Wayne Pivac’s side will have touched down in Rome with the clear message ringing in their ears not to look any further than today’s fixture against Italy. And yet, with this youthful Italian outfit in the midst of a major rebuild and shipping an average of 46 points per game, attention is already creeping to Wales’s date in France next week.
Dan Biggar, who is set to start again in Rome after shaking off a knock, can spot the repeating patterns with Wales’s Grand Slam two years ago.
“If we’re brutally honest, we didn’t play that well in the opening two games of this campaign,” Biggar said. “We played well in the second half against Ireland, but in Scotland we had two moments of magic from Louis [Rees-zammit] and the second one made the difference.
“It was the same a couple of years ago when we didn’t play well in the opening two games, but still got the results. In both years we’ve played well against England in the middle game and that set us up to do the job in 2019.”
The change in coaching staff, moving on from Warren Gatland’s successful tenure to the Wayne Pivac era, clearly came with some growing pains last year. Yet Pivac should feel vindicated for sticking to his philosophies and opting to build depth where possible.
First caps were handed to Sam Parry, Will Rowlands, James Botham, Shane Lewis-hughes, Kieran Hardy, Callum Sheedy, Johnny Williams and Rees-zammit last year. Hardy, Sheedy and Reeszammit, who was watching as a supporter from the stands when Wales clinched the Grand Slam two years ago, were all instrumental for Wales in the recent win over England.
In terms of personnel, though, not much has changed when comparing Wales’s current starting XV to the 2019 Six Nations champions.
Ignoring Gatland’s 2019 selection against Italy, when a number of fringe players were given their chance, there are only four Wales players who started the other matches in that 2019 Six Nations who are yet to do the same in 2021 – Hadleigh Parkes, Gareth Anscombe, Ross Moriarty and Rob Evans.
Change has been minimal, highlighting Wales’s consistency in selection. By contrast, 20 players who started for Italy two years ago have not featured in this year’s Six Nations.
Even if Pivac might be new to this situation with Wales, his players certainly are not, particularly Alun Wyn Jones as captain, who is targeting a fourth Grand Slam.
The big difference, Biggar notes, is the lack of atmosphere in the stadiums. “The one thing I haven’t enjoyed is the games with no crowds,” he said. “It’s been very difficult for me. It’s such a strange atmosphere to play in. We beat England and won a Triple Crown and it was such a low-key event. After the game we had one celebratory bottle of beer together and then we all got in our cars and drove home. That’s been difficult.”
It would be remiss not to hear Biggar’s take on that first try against England, when his cross-field kick to Josh Adams caught their opponents napping and led to a row between Owen Farrell and referee Pascal Gauzere.
“It’s one of those where if you were wearing a white shirt or support them, you were probably annoyed,” he said. “If you were wearing a red shirt, you’d probably not have seen anything wrong with it. The one thing I would say on it is when you look at the overhead image, England’s left edge, on Jonny May’s side, was all in position and ready to go. If I’d kicked it to Jonny’s side, he’d have marked it and kicked it back 90 metres. Would England then be asking, ‘Oh we’re all set now, you can take the kick at goal now?’” Wales might be unbeaten and impressed with how they took England apart in that final quarter in Cardiff a fortnight ago, but they have certainly not been perfect. “Wayne said earlier this week we’re looking for an 80-minute performance, which would be really nice,” Biggar added. “We’ve probably had a little bit of luck in the first three games, but it’s one of those things where if you’re on the right side of the luck, you probably don’t care.”