My Cameron is free to choose his own path
Scots coach Redpath relaxed over son’s future
SCOTLAND stars of the future are in safe hands with Bryan Redpath. Talk to him about the potential of the Scotland Under-20 squad who play in the Junior World Cup in France this week and it is hard to shut him up.
Here is a man full of enthusiasm and up for the challenge of leading his team out of Pool B that includes Italy, Argentina and England.
His only regret is that he would have loved to have seen his 18-year-old son Cameron in the squad that has been preparing in France, but it was not to be.
Born in Narbonne in France and brought up in England, his oldest boy has thrown his hat in the ring with the red rose rather than the thistle. Deemed too good to play Under-20 rugby for England against his dad’s Scotland team, he was fast-tracked into the full Red Rose squad for their three-match summer tour to South Africa.
Rated so highly by England head coach Eddie Jones, the fly-half has already had special kicking classes from Jonny Wilkinson and is regarded one of the top young talents in world rugby.
Sadly, knee surgery has forced the Sale Sharks fly-half, who can also play centre, to pull out of the England matches against the Springboks and he faces up to a year on the sidelines recovering. Whatever happens, the teenager — who played for Scotland Under-18s before switching to the England age-grade system — is highly unlikely to swap allegiances back to Scotland despite the fact his dad would love him to do it. ‘I can’t keep playing him Flower of
Scotland when he goes to bed,’ said Redpath with a smile. ‘I can’t keep buying him tartan pyjamas. He has out-grown the last pair.
‘I’d love him to play for Scotland, I would love him to be with Gregor (Townsend). I know he is a good kid. He’d fit in exceptionally well.
‘He was born in France when I was playing there and he spent most of his childhood in England. He had trials with West Brom. The key thing is that it’s his life, not my life and nobody else’s life either.’
Redpath has adopted a hands-off policy with his two boys, Cameron and Murray, 15. As a former Scotland captain he wants them to learn from their own mistakes.
‘I don’t get involved with any of my kids when they are out there on the pitch,’ said the man who played in three World Cups for Scotland.
‘I don’t talk to the coaches. I stand on my own, don’t talk to other parents about it. I leave it. I have always instilled in them if a coach tells you to do something, you do it.
‘I support Cam and Murray and if either does something badly I tell them later. I don’t hide from it.
‘My wife does not like me being so honest but I am. Gavin Hastings will be the same with his son Adam, I’d think. I see Gav quite a bit. It is under other coaches and in different environments that they grow.
‘I want them and other young guys to play. If you look at football and your best midfielders, whether it is a Paul Scholes or a Roy Keane or a Patrick Vieira, they played lots of games and learned from it.
‘We don’t learn anything from training. The intensity of training is never the same as a game. Playing is the thing to get better.’
But what of Redpath’s own future? The former Scotland captain left his role as head coach at Yorkshire Carnegie last summer, making clear he was turning his back on rugby for good.
Yet ten months into his new career in finance he’s been tempted back to coach the Scotland Under-20 team on a short-term basis.
With a fantastic CV as a player and ex-head coach of Gloucester, Sale Sharks and Leeds Carnegie, could he be a willing helper to Townsend with the national team?
‘Is it tempting to come back full-time now? No, no. I have been there. I don’t want to be back in full-time rugby at that level again. I had 20-odd years at it. I missed a lot of time with the family.
‘I work in foreign exchange now and what I am doing is exciting and different. I am looking to open an office up in Edinburgh so will probably be working up here a bit.
‘I want to give something back to the younger guys. I had ten years coaching in the Premiership, two in the Championship, all English-based. Five years playing at that level too. You become a director of rugby or head coach and it takes your life and becomes lonely. You sometimes have to sack staff, move goods friends on. If I don’t change then the chairman changes me, so it is not necessarily the best way of keeping very good friends all the time.’
The 46-year-old former scrum-half isn’t one for over-coaching players and wants the Scotland Under-20 team to enjoy the World Cup.
‘The game’s simple but we sometimes complicate it,’ said the man who played for Scotland 60 times. ‘Sports nutrition, the medical side, sports science, mental health. It is not wrong but has put in another layer of focus that has to be done.
‘You can’t forget the fundamentals. It is a contact sport, catch, pass, one-to-one tackles. We have to make sure the rugby brains and the usual skills are there to start with.’
Under previous Under-20 head coach John Dalziel, Scotland did well in the last World Cup, finishing fifth, their highest-ever finish in the tournament’s nine-year history.
That is a hard act to follow for Redpath’s 28-man squad, which consists of 16 forwards and 12 backs — including 18 players who have progressed through the BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy.
‘Making the top eight is the target as it has been that way in the past,’ said Redpath. ‘If we do our good things well against Italy in our first game that will hold us well.’