A year of limbo that endangers all progress

HONESTLY, we waited a year for Vern Cotter to arrive in scotland. Now we’re going to wait a year for him to leave.

A year in which his work with the national rugby team will inevitably have an odd feel to it. A year in which gregor Townsend, the anointed successor, will gradually grow weary of facing questions about ‘his’ scotland team and their progress under a lame duck caretaker.

We can all understand why they haven’t made the move — a damned good one — right away.

Unwilling to pay Clermont Auvergne compensation to get Vern when they really wanted him, back when they announced his signing in 2013, the SRU will be equally reluctant to stump up a pay-off merely to clear the decks for Townsend’s promotion.

But, seriously, there is no point in keeping Vern around for the autumn tests and the 2017 six Nations. What’s his main priority going to be? overhauling the squad and laying foundations for the next big leap forward? Making tough decisions for the long term? Prioritising short-term results to keep his own stock high? Keeping the seat warm for gregor?

Neither the departure of Cotter nor the accession of Townsend will have come as a complete surprise to anyone with even a passing knowledge of scottish rugby.

Townsend’s stellar work with glasgow Warriors, whom he led to a Pro12 title, made his credentials and suitability for the top job impossible to ignore; the SRU had to move now before he followed so many glasgow players to richer and more rewarding leagues.

Cotter? Well, the fact that there had been not even a whisper about an extension to his contract — which expires next summer — always offered more than a hint as to his intentions.

The Kiwi with the international background, easily able to emit a weary sigh in eight or nine languages, never made any promises about hanging around for the next Rugby World Cup, never looked further ahead than the next game. Maybe the next series, if he was feeling particularly relaxed.

And so the Vern Cotter era is over, effectively. He will be remembered for effecting a significant improvement in the fortunes of the national team, even if complete revival remains some way off.

His finest hour came in last year’s World Cup, when only the intervention of a fast-running, slow-thinking south African referee denied scotland a place in the semi-finals. Yes, yes, we know the wobbly lineout was equally to blame, but, come on, let’s give the guy a little credit.

A more hard-headed analysis would highlight the fact that, even in the World Cup, scotland only beat the teams they should beat — Japan, USA and, only just, samoa — while losing to the two sides never expected to be toppled, namely the springboks and the Aussies.

We beat Italy away and France at home in the last six Nations, a massive improvement on the return of one win from his opening two Championship campaigns at the helm. scotland were ranked ninth in the world when he arrived and, under his guidance, we currently sit eighth. Yet no one can deny that scotland are a better team, a better squad, than they were when he took control for a massive summer tour — effectively two tours crammed into one, with a huge double squad — in 2014. The danger now is that, without a figurehead, a gaffer as committed to the cause as they’re expected to be, players will be at a slight loss over what they need to be doing. Won’t the many glasgow players in the national squad be more concerned with impressing gregor than listening to Vern? If this is the only deal on the table, the hope must be that Cotter continues the upward trend established on his watch. And that Townsend, with all due respect to the Warriors and their brilliant fanbase, is already thinking and planning for a job that feels like his destiny. As a footnote, it’s worth mentioning that yesterday’s official statement even included a quote from director of rugby scott Johnson. still on the premises, still drawing a salary. given the SRU’s history, we should probably just be grateful that they haven’t botched together some arrangement that saw him step in on a temporary basis. Think of the carnage.