DOUGIE HALL hopes the new faces in the camp can kick-start Scotland's fortunes and shake off his guilt over Andy Robinson's departure.
The Warriors hooker admits he found it difficult to deal with Robinson's resignation in the wake of the 21-15 defeat to Tonga at Pittodrie in November.
But he knows he and his international team-mates have to move on and he feels positive vibes have already been felt under Scott Johnson, Scotland's interim coach, whose training camp in Glasgow this week involved 10 uncapped players.
Hall said of the change of head coach: "It certainly gives you a bit of a kick up the backside. Everything starts from a new viewpoint. You are impressing a new man up top. But it's great to have the young guys in because they always bring in a bit of a bounce and they are really excited to be here. They remind you of how much of a privilege it is to be at a Scotland training camp."
On Robinson's departure, the 32-year-old added: "It hit home pretty hard at the time. We played Tonga and were obviously very down about the result, and Robbo announced straight after it that he was leaving. It was quite sudden and it was quite apparent we had effectively lost him his job.
"For me personally, I can say it was a difficult thing to deal with. Now we have to focus on moving forward. We have to go strive to get better because we weren't good enough in the autumn and that is effectively what cost Robbo his job. We prepared well for every game and went out to win but it just wasn't happening. We have to reload and go again and get it right this time."
Hall, who is aiming to win his 40th cap when Scotland open their RBS 6 Nations campaign against England at Twickenham a week on Saturday, has been impressed with Johnson.
The Glasgow forward said: "He's a great character and very good communicator and we are really looking forward to seeing how he is going to implement all of his thoughts on the game.
"It's still very new and I think it will take a while to get to understand what he and Dean Ryan want us to do as a group, but that is exciting as well. It freshens it up and we'll see how that takes us forward."
The Australian coach is a plain-speaking character and Hall believes that is exactly what Scotland need as they look to improve on last season's Six Nations whitewash.
"He won't miss the wall if he is trying to hit it, that's for sure," Hall said. "That's what you need, though. You have to be very honest in this job, with yourself and with each other. If you're not, you won't make any progress."
Johnnie Beattie and David Denton had some involvement training yesterday but were still hampered by injury. Beattie showed up with a wrist problem following Montpellier's Heineken Cup win over Toulon last Saturday while Denton failed a fitness test on his knee ahead of Edinburgh's European match against Saracens.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article