Those of you who have no interest in rugby/ are huge Frank Hadden fans may wish to look away.
I'm pretty glad the SRU and Hadden decided to part ways.
Here is Hadden's record in charge of Scotland:
Played: 41 (plus match against Barbarians)
Wins: 16
Losses: 25
of those, 20 were Six Nations matches, with a win loss record of 6-14. We're now ranked lower (10th) in the IRB World Rankings than we were under Hadden's predecessor, Matt Williams (he won only 3 matches out of 17). But stats only take you so far. If I list our results under Hadden, you'll see why the 16 wins are even less impressive (wins in bold):
2005 Summer Tests
Scotland 38-7 Barbarians
Romania 19-39 Scotland
2005 Autumn Tests
Scotland 19-23 Argentina
Scotland 18-11 Samoa
Scotland 10-29 New Zealand
2006 Six Nations
Scotland 20-16 France
Wales 28-18 Scotland
Scotland 18-12 England
Ireland 15-9 Scotland
Italy 10-13 Scotland
2006 Summer Tour
South Africa 36-16 Scotland
South Africa 29-15 Scotland
2006 Autumn Tests
Scotland 48-6 Romania
Scotland 34-22 Pacific Islanders
Scotland 15-44 Australia
2007 Six Nations
England 42-20Scotland
Scotland 21-9 Wales
Scotland 17-37 Italy
Scotland 18-19 Ireland
France 46-19 Scotland
2007 RWC Warm-ups
Scotland 31-21 Ireland
Scotland 3-27 South Africa
2007 Rugby World Cup
Scotland 56-10 Portugal
Scotland 42-0 Romania
Scotland 0-40 New Zealand
Scotland 18-16 Italy
Scotland 13-19 Argentina
2008 Six Nations
Scotland 6-27 France
Wales 30-15 Scotland
Ireland 34-13 Scotland
Scotland 13-9 England
Italy 23-20 Scotland
2008 Summer Tour
Argentina 21-15 Scotland
Argentina 14-26 Scotland
2008 Autumn Tests
Scotland 6-32 New Zealand
Scotland 10-14 South Africa
Scotland 41-0 Canada
2009 Six Nations
Scotland 13-26 Wales
France 22-13 Scotland
Scotland 26-6 Italy
Scotland 15-22 Ireland
England 26-12 Scotland
Only 6 of those wins came in the Six Nations (England twice, Italy twice, Wales and France once each) while the "mighty" Canada, Portugal, Romania (3), Pacific Islanders, Italy (RWC) and Samoa make up half of the winning statistics. A good win in Argentina (apparently orchestrated by Sean Lineen and Andy Robinson) and a pre-World Cup win against an experimenting Irish side is hardly a record to write home about.
Yes, there have been near misses. A 10-0 half-time lead against South Africa squandered last year. Marginal defeats in Six Nations matches where, with a better bounce of the ball, we may have won. And he said the right things too.
After four years in charge though, more was rightfully expected from Hadden and Scotland, and he failed to deliver. The SRU got it right - it is time to allow someone else to have a go at making our - undoubtedly talented - side into winners.
The question is - who?
4 comments:
From looking at that list, it seems that you won the vast majority of the games you 'ought' to have won, with a few bonus wins as well. Maybe the talent pool just isn't there?
That's a glass half-full reading. Mine's half empty.
From looking at that list, we won the majority (excluding Italy) of matches against wee teams that my school XV should beat.
There's a next level for Scotland and we need someone to be able to take us there. Hadden wasn't that guy.
It's time for a bit of a sea change at the SRU. There is talk of Hadden moving up stairs at the SRU (he apparently has it built into his contract that he can get a management role), that would be terrible! I don't think Robinson or Lineen would be right either as they are too close to the SRU.
It's time to gamble on a southern hemisphere coach, it didn't work with Williams but it needs to this time.
If only we could get Geech back with Jim Telfer as the forwards coach.....
I heard somewhere that perhaps the Auld Alliance may be involved in the next selection. Mon Deu!
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