The Scotland coach has made his mark but as he bids to bow out on a high, competition is more fierce than ever, reports Kevin Ferrie

Lunderstanding between them and maybe he wants some change in his career, but Scotland are a team that have been progressing constantly and we saw it at the World Cup against Australia.

“They have been a dense team, very solid, very efficient and of course Vern has something to do with that. He has given this team the confidence they lacked a few years ago and that is why I’m saying that every match is going to be difficult because last year we lost against Scotland.”

The likeliest to offer insight, but also to seek to ensure that the departing man’s dignity was preserved, was Joe Schmidt, coach of an Ireland team that are – remarkably, given that last year’s Grand Slam champions England have extended their winning run to 14 matches – being widely tipped to take the title on the back of their first win over the to make the case for his friend. “They All Blacks in the autumn. were one-score differentials [that

“I think part of it was Vern’s Scotland lost by] very often,” Schmidt decision anyway and I think the reiterated. “To build from there to progress is pretty evident,” said here … the World Cup for Scotland, Cotter’s fellow Kiwi and his No 2 everyone said the Northern Hemifor several seasons at Clermont. “I sphere teams weren’t good enough, remember the first year it was very well they actually beat Australia but tough for Vern. They didn’t quite for a decision at the end of the game. beat Italy, they were very close in a So that progress can be pretty clearly few. I think their differentialplotted.”infour games they’d lost was something like 16 points.”

Schmidt acknowledged that the final game of Cotter’s “whitewash” debut campaign brought a very different outcome as Scotland were ripped to shreds by his Ireland team as they successfully pursued a winning margin that would earn them the title. However, he was determined

Jones, Schmidt credits Cotter with having strategically set about strengthening the depth of the national squad and believes he should be seen as having done his job in leaving it in a better place than he found it.

However, that also has to be seen His fellow coaches believe Vern Cotter has done a great job with the Scotland squad but he will soon be off to France in the context of Schmidt’s overall assessment of the competition when he was discussing the prospects of his own side, which he has rapidly rebuilt after it looked as if Irish rugby might be set to slide into a downward cycle following last year’s World Cup.

Instead, after what was a disappointing 2015 for their provinces as well as their national side, resulting in a first failure to produce a quarter-finalist in last year’s European Champions Cup, they have already reached new heights with that first victory over Schmidt’s native country, while Leinster and Munster both not only reached European quarter-finals, but earned home draws.

“I think that as the experience