Scots just can’t cope in pressure situations
ONE of Scotland’s rising young stars, Robbie Nairn, surprised the SRU this week by quitting the Scottish system and signing for Harlequins. However, national coach Vern Cotter may be privately delighted.
Nairn is a big, powerful winger who has come through athletics, George Watson’s College and Currie youth to be a key member of the Scotland Under-18s side which lost to their French counterparts on Friday. He is not likely to feature for Scotland for at least another couple of years but, by following a similar route to bright spark Mark Bennett, he could be a more potent player when he does.
This article started out as a review of Scotland’s Six Nations performance but, after writing 16 of these since 2000 only to find myself back at the same points — undoubted promise, periods of good rugby and competitive and improving performances pulled into the turgid trough of defeat by elementary errors — it is necessary to take a deeper look at why Scotland again underperformed when the pressure was on.
And that is where it starts and ends for Scottish rugby — pressure. We can talk about the failures to be consistent at scrum-time, to secure restarts or nail line-outs in the scoring zone, or the inability to read team-mates’ breaks and be there on the shoulder to finish off, execute kicks precisely, commit the right number to the breakdown or banish ‘white-line fever’.
But they all come back to one basic tenet — the ability to perform under pressure. It is easy for those of us numbed to differences in each roller-coaster ride to brush criticism widely across the Scottish game.
If Cotter (below) follows up a whitewashed Six Nations with a failure to emerge from the World Cup pool — and bear in mind that South Africa and Samoa remain ranked above 10th-placed Scotland while USA and Japan will be eagerly eyeing our scalp after the past month — then prepare for critics storming BT Murrayfield demanding root and branch change.
Yet, looking closely at the players, the youngsters coming through the Scottish system are better than ever. We have had some good players emerge over the past 15 years, some world-class, yet the likes of Fraser Brown, Richie and Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Adam Ashe, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Finn Russell, Bennett, Matt Scott, Alex Dunbar and Stuart Hogg, to name 11 now capped, are stronger and more skilled, powerful and quicker than their predecessors.
That is testament to an improving system of development created by the SRU. But the difference to their peers in England, France, Ireland, Wales and the southern hemisphere lies in one critical area — the ability to hold up those skills under pressure. What pressure did the Grays seriously endure before playing for Scotland? What tough times did they face? Where did they suffer mentally and physically, be forced to dig deep to build genuine resilience and game understanding?
Teenagers in England or France, from age 16 to 19, step up on the pitch in matches with a new, more intense challenge each season. Only the best survive.
Russell played only four professional games before making his Scotland debut last summer.
He was one of many experiencing their first Six Nations, so we cannot be surprised they were guilty of costly schoolboy errors when put under previously unknown pressure, nor that Scotland players tend to develop later.
Bennett turned down Glasgow’s advances to sign for Clermont Auvergne’s academy. He did not play for the first team and spent six months of a two-year spell in rehab after suffering a serious knee injury.
Still, however, he was training with the first-team squad, defending against the likes of Wesley Fofana, Aurelien Rougerie and Napolioni Nalaga, and playing every fortnight for the academy and then Under-23s.
Would he have been one of the Six Nations stars, with the confidence to beat Fofana, Jonathan Davies, Jonathan Joseph and Robbie Henshaw, without that training and game education — had he instead remained playing for Ayr with fleeting moments in the pro arena?
Cotter learned quite a bit about the strengths and weaknesses of his squad in the Six Nations, not least the drop-off in quality when his front-line XV are not all available and the need for more pack cover.
When all fit, and ‘project players’ WP Nel and Josh Strauss are added, he will have a strong squad, possibly better than at any time in recent history. But with half taking their World Cup bow, can they hold up for 80 minutes under unique pressure?
That was the failing in the recent Six Nations, that fatal drop-off at some point in attack and defence against each team. And it is why Nairn’s move is a good one. It does risk Scotland losing a big fish in the vast pond of English rugby, but he will develop playing regularly in a more intense environment.