Worst Scotland Coach Poll

I did not think anyone could be worse than Robinson but Johnson is now right up - and that tw*t Humphreys is up there with him

Add an option:

All of the above.

that gets my vote

Hadden and Johnson have at least presided over Scottish teams that finished within the top 3 in the 6N. That's not to deny the shortcomings of either, just narrows it down a bit.

I'm half-tempted to say Robbo, another assistant coach who wrongly thinks himself good enough to fit the head coach's role. His last year in charge was rather chaotic, wooden spoon and dropped a home game to Tonga... and in between victories at Australia, Samoa and Fiji. This is tricky!

End of the day though I think one of Scotland's main problems is leadership in the coaching staff. They haven't had anyone in a long time who looks particularly capable of firing up the squad or inspiring the players to defy any odds. Hopefully Cotter will bring something new in this regard as he would appear to have more of a head coach's pedigree.

Gods, this is a horrible selection!

I'm saying Robinson, mostly because I know from experience how painful watching him destroy a rugby side's progress could be

Lord- as if it wasn't bad enough now we are now opening up old wounds!
Williams - you just wanted to give him a smack
Hadden - pity is the word that comes to mind - pity he got the job.
Robinson - quite liked him (despite his mince selections) and at least did the honourable thing and left
Johnson - see Williams

Say what you like about Robinson, but could you see SJ getting back to back wins away vs Argentina, victory over SA/AUS at home and Aus away?

He wasn't great, but he fielded the killer b's and Rennie. Also he hardly/didn't had time to play Visser, Hogg, Maitland (Dunbar, Scott) etc.

I don't think Robinson was massively bad. I think he would be making this current squad more competitive but I doubt we would be getting much different results from it.

I agree with the general sentiment that we need an actual head coach doing head coach stuff and other coaches have been good at one thing in particular but definitely not firing up the boys or team selection. A forwards coach of Robinson, backs coach of ??, head coach of Cotter and SJ doing press would work wonders for example.

Could Cotter coax King to rejoin him?

It's a shame really that Johnson's name is already on the director of rugby job, in a leadership role he's found wanting in so many ways. As backs coach he brings a fairly competent cv as far as I'm aware. He definitely deserves props for Wales' backline exploits in 2005.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Could Cotter coax King to rejoin him?

I don't think so. King has a plum job for the moment. And is setting himself up nicely for a role with England after the RWC, or maybe before if their results go south between now and the RWC.

Matt williams by a country mile

The money he wasted put us in serious poopie

Matt Williams - easily. Under Hadden and Robinson we did have bright moments, and beat some good sides. Williams put us firmly in reverse gear, and fell out massively with the players.

If you can get hold of the book "Behind the Thistle" I can highly recommend it. It is completely damning about Matt Williams and his methods.

It's a sad fact that Robinson would be among the contenders for a similar poll run to determine the worst English coach of recent times. He might even win that one, seeing as under Ashton, England fluked their way to a RWC final and MJ's England somehow won a 6N title. It's sad, because Robinson's an outstanding, in some ways ground-breaking, forwards coach and is far too emotionally driven to take the 360 degree view that a head coach needs.

Remind me, but wasn't it Matt Williams who instituted the "fortress Scotland" regime? I.E. that if the best players had the temerity to play for a club outside Scotland, they wouldn't get picked? Hardly surprising that he didn't exactly have the ear of his players and he must be a terrific first option for this poll.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Matt Williams - easily. Under Hadden and Robinson we did have bright moments, and beat some good sides. Williams put us firmly in reverse gear, and fell out massively with the players

I was thinking about Hadden, Robinson, and even Johnson as having moments when a new dawn was on the horizon. So I would say Williams too.

You can put lipstick on a pig...

Ok..so the coaches have a tough time when they choose to go to Scotland.  They have to try to drag up a side that's lower down than...well, one of the higher sides, to be blunt about it.

So all of them have a tough time because they have to work twice as hard to get to the level other teams are already at.  And Vern Cotter will be no different.  He'll find the going tough enough because unlike big spending Clermont, he won't be able to just buy a player he likes to slot into the position he feels needs boosting.  
Even with Clermont, when they were good enough to win the HEC but weren't winning it, he began to moan about needing even more big name signings to get over the winning line.
He won't have that luxury in an International context.

So, coming in to a side that is struggling is a bit of a poison chalice in the first place.... but I look back on all the coaches mentioned and................... well, none of them pushed along the Scottish cause for players or fans.  I don't think isolating the 'worst' is all that easy.

Anyway, possibly Cotter will be the ingredient that finally brings sustained competitiveness to the Scots.  Bit by bit they seem to be moving upwards but the consistency lets them down... the ups and downs are too pointed.  Cotter might mellow out the highs and troughs.

I genuinly believe in my heart that in amongst this shambles is a team capable of winning the 6N.

The selection strategies and sadly some injuries render Scotland blunt in attack, weak in defence and a shambles in the set piece.

SJ could start by picking the best performing players instead of picking on reputation.

He could also help himself by picking players in their correct position.

We were in the absurd position at the end og the Ireland game of having 3 number 8s in the backrow   

That sort of clanger is just incredible at an international level. Guys like Barclay, Rennie, Brown, Strockosh are all specialists at 6 or 7, and were either subbed or in the stands.

Yet for reasons best known to himself we had 3 number 8s.


3 number 8s!

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:.


3 number 8s!

24?

Whilst not of an analytical nature I can see a pattern emerging here. Do our Australian friends not get the rugby picture in Scotland or are these particular 2 really just stupid, ignorant, useless coaches who should never have been offered a contract ?

SecretFly wrote:Ok..so the coaches have a tough time when they choose to go to Scotland.  They have to try to drag up a side that's lower down than...well, one of the higher sides, to be blunt about it.

So all of them have a tough time because they have to work twice as hard to get to the level other teams are already at.  And Vern Cotter will be no different.  He'll find the going tough enough because unlike big spending Clermont, he won't be able to just buy a player he likes to slot into the position he feels needs boosting.  
Even with Clermont, when they were good enough to win the HEC but weren't winning it, he began to moan about needing even more big name signings to get over the winning line.
He won't have that luxury in an International context.

So, coming in to a side that is struggling is a bit of a poison chalice in the first place.... but I look back on all the coaches mentioned and................... well, none of them pushed along the Scottish cause for players or fans.  I don't think isolating the 'worst' is all that easy.

Anyway, possibly Cotter will be the ingredient that finally brings sustained competitiveness to the Scots.  Bit by bit they seem to be moving upwards but the consistency lets them down... the ups and downs are too pointed.  Cotter might mellow out the highs and troughs.

Have to agree. From an outside perspective, it seems Scotland are just starting to recover from ther lack of any real growth in the sport over a long period. I hope Cotter can really build a partnership with the SRU regarding development at every level and then commit to a long term plan. Most likely that is the only way to reinvigourate Scotland Rubgy as a force.

As to the coaches no one could be successful in that environment, but Johnson and Williams stand out as very poor choices.

I still think Robinson was a decent coach let down badly by headless chicken impressions from his players. Some erratic selections sure, but not enough to justify the abuse he got   

Williams by a country mile for me

By the way, has Williams landed another job since his Scotland gig? He is off the radar, and thankfully so.

Their not all bad coaches, in truth Scotland simply havent had a good team since the early to mid 90's.

You can't turn straw into gold sadly.

Williams clearly was the worst but Robinson held us back and wasted a year by not selecting players who were ready for advancement. I will never forgive him the negative selection to face england when they were there for the taking but he made such a poor job of selecting the team they had no chance. At least Johnson has selected layers and increased our pool of capped players

As the Poll suggests, Andy Robinson is actually the best coach we've had since Jim Telfer retired in 1999/2000 - and I'm including McGeechan's tenure from 2000 in that as well.

I fully realise how depressing that is, but I do believe it to be true. Frank Hadden may argue a better WC record, but he completely lose the plot towards the end, whereas Robinson only partially did.

So there you have it, Andy Robinson, the least bad coach Scotland have had in the last 14 years.....

They all had their faults - Williams was (and I believe still is, having endured some of his recent columns in the Irish newspapers) a laughably arrogant cockchomper.


At least Andy Robinson could drill forwards to international level. The problem was that this was really all he could do.

"a laughably arrogant cockchomper"

  

Feckin hell GC, I have way too many Deuchs and now have raided the fridge and am on my best bacon and toast with Norwegian cheese special supper. Found some chestnuts (french) too so am troughing them too. Think my e number rating might be through the feckin roof . But Radio 6 Music on and fairly chilled. Tomorrow I wake in at the worst cold sweat ever. We are looking at Frak humiliation at M'field. I know we call it the Library in Glasgow but ffs its our feckin HQ ffs

Sad, sad days.