29/01/2013 Sport Nation

Hello, welcome to export nation. 2012 was a tough year for the

Scottish rugby team and the fans. Three wins in the southern

hemisphere but it was out of sight and then there were three losses at

home, the last one to Tonga and the National coach left. Where are we

on the eve of the Six Nations? Are I have been talking to the new

coach about how teams will play against us and can we beat them and

his confidence and issue? Are we cannot get much lower than we are

at the moment do we have a team that can complete Naish --

regularly? Yes we do. It all starts with the small matter of England at

Twickenham. We have come heartbreakingly close but the

reality is we have not won at Twickenham for 30 years. That was

when I was still playing. Smith gets it and he has got it on the

line and the cry is given. The bigger man, in his first cap for

Scotland, has scored the try that surely wins the Cup for the Scots.

Just how do the English play the game? How do we beat them? A key

part of England's game is their smash up pattern. I went to Fife

for a demonstration of how what is done.

If you look at this line, if England are playing that way,

because of the way the rugby ball travels it, if you pass the ball

backwards, the wide you go there further behind the gain you laugh.

What England did when Lancaster took over was keep it simple, one

pass. If we demonstrate very briefly, if we are trying to get

across the gain-line are the best try is a shot flat past. If he

slipped the ball behind his hands there we go back. One a pass/shop.

-- one pass/up. Well done. Scrum-half in. Give him

the ball. Stay up. I am an old man but the key was always how long you

could stay on your feet. If you hit an Go to deck, the poor thing

finishes. If you hit and take four strides, just watch England against

the All Blacks, they would hit and pump. Do not go down early, just

try and get up the pitch. Always make territory.

England have a very good side and the last time Scotland beat them

was 30 years ago. We are part of that team? It is a long time ago.

Rearm going to turn up, we are not going to cancel the fixture. A good

you cancel? Are I have no intention of cancelling. I am determined to

go there and make sure we represent Scotland, both from a rugby point

of view and from a community point of view, to represent something we

will be proud of which is an integral part of what we want to do.

It Scott Johnson is to win the first match in charge his team

needs a little luck, a direct approach and players at the top of

their game. Scotland will have to make something out of this

situation here. Laidlaw is going clear, can he make the line? A

brilliant try by the Scottish scrum-half. That really was one of

the great Calcutta Cup tries. you are looking for omens, Roy

Laidlaw's nephew is one of our key men. Laidlaw, wide it goes. Out to

the wing and here comes told again, does he have it this time? Great

defence. He scored this column's first try in five matches,

moonlighting at scrum-half. He plays there this Saturday. He just

sneak in their solo. Could Labour will be one of the answers to

Scotland's problems? He has become a point scoring machine. His uncle

was an electrician but Greig Laidlaw provides the spot on the

Confidence is a big part of rugby. I am a confident rugby player. I

have confidence in my ability and I believe all players Stuart. Some

players get slagged for doing this or that but don't worry about what

anybody else says but if you are happy within yourself and you are

training hard then there is no reason why you should not be out

there. Do you think it is a confident Scottish rugby team?

think there is confidence in the team, yes, definitely. We have good

players. Why do people keep saying they are not confident and they are

not scoring tries because of lack of confidence? I do not know. That

is their opinion. We go to train and we put a game plan together and

we are 100% confident we are going out there to win. Going forward, we

really need to buy into that and change some results. I feel very

privileged to play rugby as a job. It is something I love and I do not

take it for granted. I ask if it was OK to use it... You need to try

and have fun as well, that is a big part of it. Could you be pointing

at one of your forwards and sewing, I need this performance! It has to

come from in here. That is part of the job and it is about promoting

it and encouraging the next generation to come through.

interested to know how you were taught to deal with pressure and

the things that go wrong. You have a psychologist that says, what

happens is, if you miss a kick you do this in your brain and you move

on? How does it work? I do not use a psychologist. I think a lot of it,

especially goal-kicking, it is about honing your technique through

training. As long as you do it in training then it is no different.

People ask about the crowd and when they do but when the ball is on the

tee then nobody can touch it or touch you if you going to your

little place and hold your technique and concentrate then

everything should be fine. Where is your little place? I have a few

things that I say to myself in my head. What do you say? I like to

keep that to myself, I do not know why but I like to keep it to myself.

There is nothing better than running out here in front of all

these people who were cheering on Scotland, it gives you a great

feeling. Hopefully come the Six Nations we can turn a few results

around and give the fans what they want. One of the icons of the

current team is Richie Gray. As identifiable as a lighthouse in the

open sea, and nearly as tall. He now plays in England are so who

better to give us an insight into how the English play? Richie Gray

left Glasgow for Manchester. He hears, this is where he lives. Have

his life? Let us go. He is out of breath! What have you learnt about

rugby now you are in the Premiership? There is a big

emphasis in the Premiership on its set-piece. And on forward play. The

likes of scrums, line-outs, that is a big part of the game and we

believe that is how we can win games so we focus on that. In terms

of the English national team, it is similar, it is a bash up, smash up

a simple game of -- simple game. They got a cracking win against New

Zealand in the last Test. They have been playing some good rugby.

since I was a kid I looked at the Six Nations as a reason to live and

summoned to be excited about. As a young boy growing up you must have

dreamt of being part of it, do you still have that sense? Yes, it is

as big as ever. As a kid you go home on a Saturday after playing

rugby for your school or and you turn it on and watch it all day. It

was brilliant. I absolutely loved it and always dreamed about taking

part in it. As you get older the desire is still there, I cannot

wait to get up the road and see all the guys again, it is a great bunch

of guys. I want to take the stage for the Six Nations. Laidlaw again,

Richie Gray, that is better in terms of hitting the line and the

pace. He is the big second row that is a terrific individual try.

Richie Gray gets his first in to bat shall -- International Drive.

You are an iconic figure, what is it like? Not as exciting as you may

think! A quiet life. I finished training and go and have a sandwich

and play the ex-boxer and don't socialise later, it is nothing to

thrilling. Apart from being on the pitch for Scotland! That is very

exciting. Off the field, nothing special. Richie Gray might face his

toughest test in our second game of our Six Nations campaign when we

take on the might of the Italian pack. Help is on hand. In the

modern game everything is studied and calculated. It is all laptops

and line breaks. We are at the business end. When it comes to the

Italians, what do you analyse? we will do is build up a bank of

data over may be five games and we will sit and watch every single

line-out. We will mark-down all the different plays they are using and

if there is something they tend to use quite often then it is

something we will use in our training sessions. We will look to

where they make their line breaks. We obviously want to keep our bases

so we try to dominate teams in scrum and take penalties from the

scrum if we can. At the same time we cannot play just every time in

the same way, teams obviously know our strengths are forward so they

talk about us and our scrum and they talk about that we are a

physical team. People want to see our team as a team who can play

good rugby and that is what we want to do. Teams change and everything

is like the past but the idea is that we going to the game thinking

and hoping that this is exactly what they are going to do and as

the game is playing we can watch the quality of the line-out and

where there are heading off and it breaks it down into a time line for

us so after the game finishes the coaches can do this and live as

well so even after the first play all the first two minutes they can

click on any instance so they can watch the line-outs.

Scotland have had a poor 40 minutes and now they have an important 10

minutes to get things sorted. have to be clear at half-time that

players are at the heart of a battle and that they need to be

given one or two clear messages to take to the second half. We cannot

afford them withstand some loads of information at half-time because

they will not take it on. If you have to be clear about what you

give them and what you show them. Some were brought someone is

analysing Scotland. Yes, we analyse ourselves as well to look at what

the opposition might think we would do. That helps us also with our

training. There is a slight change in 30 years, I tell you that! After

Italy we take on the Irish. Grand- slam winners in 2009 but their team

is now ageing. They beat sides with their work on the ground and, as

former internationalist and coach, Peter Wright demonstrates, with

something called a joke tackle. The joke tackle, come up slightly

in front as a defender and you come in as a ball-carrier. The two

defenders will target the ball- carrier. You will try and help him.

Warren, cumin and if the player up and keep him off the ground. Don't

let him create a ruck. Let us go. Keep him high, keep him high. Don't

let him get to the ground. Good, well done. You try to make the

tackle that is the whole idea. of this means Scotland must win the

battle at the break down to beat the Irish. Is our coach divided?

heritages Irish and Scottish. I have heritage from both sides of

the family, my mum is Irish and my it did is Scottish. I got on line

and looked at the tartan for the Johnsons which was quite

interesting and it is a nice tartan so why am happy with that. I will

take some of that back when I go. For Ryan Grant is one of the

cornerstones of the Scottish pack. He is not especially did at over 6

ft tall but when it comes to The big wins worse southern-

hemisphere. Where his confidence? This is a good group of players, a

young group of players who all hungry. There are great players and

the Scotland team. Along way to go for this group of boys. We saw

glimpses of that in the southern hemisphere against Australia. It is

probably about time we got oh words When you go on the pitch, what is

in your head? I don't particularly have a set group of things I think

about. Depends on the occasion. Often, and I think about my

opposite number, and one of the first things I do is I would try to

find that the number three, size and up, see what he is like. It

depends. When we ran out against the All Blacks, it was so

overwhelming. In Glasgow, a Lion familiar with the surroundings.

you have new coaches at - new folds coach, new general coach. Yes,

Scott Johnson was with us and Australia in the world and test. I

do not have much investment with him on a rugby level. But he seems

likely really switched on Guy. He knows his rugby inside out, and has

Do you have the players? I have got the players. Good enough at that

you want to do what they want to do? Yes. They are part of the

solution. We have got a coal group Wales won a Grand Slam last year,

but since the summer, things have not been good. One of the snags

have been successful is your game is analysed and analysed, and you

But they do have a specific style of play. They keep going across the

pitch at the same way and it use its spare all that. When they get

to one touchline, they come back the other way. It is a lot of

running, hence the Welsh emphasis on fitness. But eventually, the

defence runs out of numbers, whether it is the All Blacks were

And our new interim head coach came here from a coaching job in Wales.

I have been here with Wales before. If you start at the end, you would

never get there. What we have to worry about is going up part right.

The women will come at the back-end of a result of that. If we start

worrying about the end, we will never get there. Our last game is

against France, a country with the sunshine and cafe society. I want

to catch up with one of our spies on the ground. And this is his

Karate black belt has settled here with his wife. He is a favourite

with the fans. How or Yue Lin joined France? I absolutely love it.

Beautiful country. 20 minutes from Spain. A very easy place to enjoy

living. How have you found learning the language? Language is coming on

OK. I have enough to get by. I can go to the restaurants and hold a

bit of a conversation. I understand more than I can speak. Everyone is

really welcoming. A real tight-knit group. It is the difference in

rugby here? It is a bigger deal over here than it is in the UK. In

France, football is the number one sport, but then, not by a huge

margin, rugby is a big deal. You get encouraged to play and do what

comes naturally. And that is the key to the French. Flashes of

genius but the Polish and restructured game. How have you

changed as a person and a player? have not changed too much as a

player. I used to tackle a little bit more, get my hands on the ball

a bit more. As we speak, you have a hamstring strain. Everything OK?

Fine. I came into training on Tuesday and slipped it during a

line-out. I was thinking that if you think of your story, when you

left Edinburgh, took a gamble, for old dual career might be over. And

now, you are playing for one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Yes, it

has always been... At times, I have not been selected for this, that

all the other, and when you get written off, you learn to ignore it.

Him you do it your way. Where do you think Scotland are, in terms of

confidence? To be honest, we can't get more than where we are at the

moment. We are getting better. After the autumn, and am having to

leave, it was a godsend coming back am getting away from a or.

Completely different focus. By the time the Six Nations come along,

Is that one of the beauties of playing over here - that you can

absorb the pressure up when you are here, which is different? When your

father at home, there is this whole thing, oh, we are not winning

internationals? It is brilliant. I first noticed it when I went to

England because it is a similar place to hear. As soon as you are

back, what you did in Scotland is irrelevant. Coming back is a good

way to escape from what is a bit of a goldfish bowl and Scotland.

do you think Scotland can beat a team like France? We have a lot of

good players. A lot of good coaches. It is a mental thing that has let

us down. We are not used to winning, perhaps. If I knew the answer, we

would not have lost! And therein lies the French problem ask - our

lack of confidence against and unpredictability in their play. And

a touch of class added to the brutality. It is a difficult

question to answer, but you talked about needing to sort out a couple

of things on the pitch. What are they? In the game, the most common

aspect is the contact area. It is no coincidence that the best teams

in the world a great in that area. You look at New Zealand and their

potency, the reality is, of their contact skills are the best in the

world. We are way behind that and we know that. That is where we let

ourselves down. If we had to do this right, we need to compete in

all aspects of the game, and the contact area is one of them.

contact area is one of them. have to away games and three home

matches. We have not beaten England in 30 years at Twickenham. We lost

to Italy last year. We have not beaten Ireland since 2010 in Dublin.

The Welsh have lost their Grand Slam winning coach - he is off to

coach the Lions. And our last game coach the Lions. And our last game

is against the World Cup finalists, France. But that is enough about

asked. What is a run us thinking? It is exciting right now. The Six

Nations is what everyone was always done. It is an exciting tournament,

and the coverage the media give to it, the supplier to us, France, it

is really good Hyde Park. It is a great situation to be in. I would

rather be like this. That but have added pressure is quite nice.

need to be fresh, physically, and mentally, and you need to organise

your game plan and system well. It will be a waste to be ready for the

first game. The in this Six Nations, it we will play against teams like

France and England, a step up from the team. Against the other teams,

we can play it well and getting good result. We are in a good place.

It is a tournament where you need to hit the game running from the

first game. Twickenham is massive gasp - do have a the 1,000 people

cheering us on and singing Greek National Anthem. So that is the

consensus. The Italians, set-piece team, Irish, good on the ground,

the Welsh, the same way, and the French attack from anywhere. The

truth is that nobody gives us Scots a chance. Here is a final thought.

When we played at Twickenham 30 years ago, perhaps there was only