Scottish coaches were happy to speak with Warren but none were contacted, insists Hines

THE IDEA that Scots missed out on British and Irish Lions selection because coaches declined to offer their services has been ridiculed by one of the departing Scotland coaching team. Nathan Hines knows the Lions head coach Warren Gatland pretty well, having played on the 2009 tour to South Africa where Gatland was groomed for the role as an assistant to head coach Sir Ian McGeechan.

Gatland’s talk in the media about trying to bring Scotland coaches on board for the trip to New Zealand was a poor olive branch ahead of what the Kiwi already knew would be a selection unpopular north of the Border.

When Jason O’Halloran was asked late on, it was made clear that he would have a minor role with the midweek squad, hence his preference to focus on his new loyalty to Glasgow.

This fact was underlined by Gatland’s failure to seek the views of Vern Cotter or his assistants in the final selection.

Hines (left), who will head to Montpellier with Cotter in June as his forwards coach, said: ‘We were happy to speak to him but, as far as I’m aware, no Scottish coaches were contacted.

‘The selection is tough on the guys left out and tough on our game but, ultimately, the selection was outwith our control.

‘It would be ideal to have many guys going away and learning things to bring back to Scottish rugby but, now it’s picked, we have to ask the guys that do go to share what they’ve learned as widely as possible when they come back.’

For all the anger and criticism, and Scotland’s rise to fifth in the world rankings, it is a fact that Scottish players in general still languish behind their home union rivals when it comes to top-class exposure and that figures heavily in Gatland’s mind.

Hines made his debut for Scotland against the All Blacks in 2000, the last occasion on which the Scots toured New Zealand before the SRU withdrew from major Test series in the southern hemisphere.

That decision has been reversed and Scotland will return to the Tier One tour circuit from 2020.

That could prove to be a hugely significant move in the context of the Lions as, while Scottish rugby’s

problems start with the grassroots and the relative paucity of competitive rugby for talented teenagers in this country, they have been exacerbated over the past decade by the lack of regular exposure for the top players at the highest level of the world game.

Hines agrees that Scotland have suffered in this Lions selection largely because of one game, the humbling Calcutta Cup defeat at Twickenham where Gatland, rightly or wrongly, focused on which Scots were able to perform under pressure away from home.

The big former lock is looking forward to watching his former clubs Leinster and Clermont Auvergne battle it out in the second European Champions Cup semi-final this afternoon — and cites the achievements of those clubs, with whom he contested and won European finals, as another level to which Scottish players have to keep striving.

‘What coaches want to see is players performing under pressure and if you’re playing against teams below you, are you put under the same amount of pressure as when playing against Australia or even England and New Zealand?’ asked Hines

‘It’s a different type of rugby that you don’t get exposed to all the time, so we will definitely benefit from playing different sides and bigger sides.

‘Then you find out where you’re really at. You can have signs of progress and people are saying the Scotland team has really come on, but it’s hard to know how much.

‘When you play against the All Blacks, you find out how much progress you’ve made.’