SATURDAYS like the one just past come all too rarely to Scottish rugby. Glasgow won in Paris, Edinburgh won at home against Stade Francais, and even the national sevens squad won all three of their games on day one of the Cape Town tournament before finishing fourth overall.
Needless to say, it was not all smooth sailing. The Warriors had to weather an early storm against Racing 92 before winning 23-14, and Edinburgh - down to 14 men after the dismissal of Phil Burleigh for a pretty polite push which perplexingly poleaxed Pascal Pape - needed to fight back from a 20-3 deficit at half-time. While Glasgow remained composed in the face of that initial onslaught and were ahead by half-time in their Champions Cup pool match, by all accounts Edinburgh were anything but composed and in control in their first half, looking all but down and out before somehow summoning up the courage and character to fight back.
French teams often fail to take the Challenge Cup seriously, but it was obvious from the starting 15 that Stade Francais had put out - including Wallabies captain Will Genia at scrum-half and Springbok Morne Steyn outside him at 10 - that they had every intention of flying home with four or five points safely stowed away in the hold. Which made Edinburgh’s recovery all the more impressive, and understandably left their acting head coach, Duncan Hodge, wondering out loud why they could not have done what would appear to be the easier thing and play at the top of their game from kick-off.
“The first half just wasn’t us,” Hodge said. “Not even close. I can handle mistakes, but not the way we performed. It was just nowhere near good enough.”
The fightback, he added, was “something the players should be proud of, but it also proves the point. This was a little synopsis of where we’re at - how can we be that bad and then that good? That’s the frustrating thing and I’m still really angry about it.”
Coaches and fans the world over feel the same way when faced with the maddening inconsistency of their teams, and all but the most complacent or deluded of players must share their frustrations, because ideally everyone wants to play at their best all the time. But how realistic is it to expect any team to do so?
As Hodge implied, his side’s performance summed up their good and bad side in one handy package, but it is not the only occasion this season when they have been either woeful or excellent - the only difference is that they usually do it a match at a time. Against Zebre, for example, they were simply dismal, looking like a bedraggled bunch bereft of purpose. Against far tougher opponents in Harlequins, by contrast, they excelled.
Any coach who successfully addresses such problems deserves heaps of praise, and if Hodge is able to coax consistently improved displays out of Edinburgh over the next couple of months that might just persuade Scottish Rugby to give him the job on a permanent basis. But with the best will in the world, it is hard to see him doing that.
Edinburgh have languished in the lower half of the PRO12 for several years now, so their present problems pre-existed the arrival of their current coach. In that sense, Hodge’s verdict that the first half on Saturday “wasn’t us” is wide of the mark: because over the past few seasons they have put in mediocre displays more often than they have achieved excellence.
The bottom line is that very few players, and even fewer teams, are at the top of their game week after week. Instead, most muddle along, achieving pass marks in the majority of games, and exhibiting sparks of genius all too rarely.
That is the most common type of consistency by far: being consistently average. Raising your game for the big occasion takes a lot out of you mentally, and sometimes a comedown in the next match is inevitable.
The job of coaches, of course, is to improve players: to make mediocre players good, good players very good, and so on. Occasionally a switch of position or the adoption of a different type of game plan is all that is required to unleash a player’s hidden potential, but in general we are talking about a very gradual improvement - one, moreover, that has limits.
Edinburgh have some excellent players, especially in the pack, but there is an imbalance of ability throughout their squad. Yes, the current lot can improve, but some fresh blood is surely needed before they can seriously start to think about ascending to the upper reaches of the table. And that could mean another transitional season next year.
Certainly, you cannot see Hodge’s team as it stands going on a run like Glasgow did last spring, when they won nine league games on the trot to soar from eighth into the play-off places. In other words, while it should not be beyond them to avoid some of their more egregious passages of play such as the ones on offer at the weekend, inconsistency may well be the best we can hope for from this Edinburgh side.
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