Latest reshuffle highlights flawed appointment process in pro game

Senior Sports Writer

Thursday 7 March 2013

The appointments of Duncan Hodge and Stevie Scott as Edinburgh's interim head coaches offered the latest evidence that learning to work the system from the inside is the way to advancement in Scottish Rugby, for domestic candidates at least.

Duncan Hodge, left, and Steve Scott are the latest 'inside' appointments at Murrayfield. Picture: PA

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Kevin Ferrie

Like Gregor Townsend, who was appointed as head coach of Glasgow Warriors a year ago, neither Hodge nor Scott has experience of having been a head coach, but both have been involved with the international management.

As former Edinburgh players, they should have a feel, and feelings, for the club and both can be expected to be wholehearted in their efforts as soon as they are disengaged from Scotland duties a week on Saturday.But what does this latest reshuffle say about the way to gain advancement in the professional game? It was not Townsend's replacing the most successful head coach in the history of the Scottish professional game last year, but his appointment to the Scotland set-up more than three years earlier, that was the first source of disquiet for those coaches plying their trade with Premiership clubs.The expression "parachuted in" was freely used in such circles, but he had actually worked his way into involvement with professional players through a mentoring programme.After he survived the departure of the head coach, Frank Hadden, soon after his own appointment as attack coach, Townsend's reputation within Murrayfield remained intact during three years in which Scotland played many more matches in tournaments than they scored tries.Playing contemporaries of Townsend's such as Craig Chalmers and George Graham may have been working out how to become winning head coaches in the semi-professional environment, but involvement with the Scotland set-up, despite regularly being on the losing side, was deemed a more useful qualification when the Glasgow job became available, without so much as the post having been advertised.This feels all the more relevant because it was only on Friday that I spoke with Kenny Murray, head coach of Ayr, during the interval at Glasgow Warriors' meeting with Cardiff, congratulated him on his latest trophy success and asked him, for by no means the first time, about his own aspirations in light of the Edinburgh vacancy.The RBS Premiership title won the previous weekend meant that, in five seasons with Ayr, which is a highly professional operation for all that the players are not full-timers, Murray has won the national title and the Scottish Cup twice apiece, with another appearance in the cup final thrown in for good measure. They are through to the semi-finals of this year's cup competition.He said he would love the opportunity to coach in the professional game but, as the Gala head coach Graham had done earlier this season, cited a gathering hosted by the Scottish Rugby Union at the beginning of the season at which those with no direct experience of top-flight coaching were told they must leave the country to gain experience.Clearly outstanding in his field, Murray must sometimes wonder about the decision he made a few years ago when he left the SRU, partly as a result of his frustration at being told by his superiors at Murrayfield that he could not be involved in club coaching because of his wider responsibilities as an employee. Since then, his success with Ayr, a club that had previously never won a national trophy, might seem irresistible but apparently his mistake has been to step outside of the system that has total control of the sport.The SRU is supposedly owned by Scottish clubs, yet it seems that some of the professionals the sport employs have a low opinion of the club game and what it produces. Such a suggestion is likely to draw howls of protest from EH12 but it was a similar scenario when the same clubs were criticising the running of the professional game under the previous regime.Some of the executives currently in situ were just as sensitive then as now, but the behaviour of Mark Dodson, since he was appointed chief executive, more than justifies such criticism. Those appointed to every major rugby position by the previous chief executive, Gordon McKie, have since departed, one way or another. Andy Robinson, Graham Lowe, Sean Lineen, Michael Bradley and Graham Shiel are just a few of the casualties of the past 12 months.It has been an extraordinary sequence of events leading to Neil Back becoming the latest high-profile figure to depart, while Hodgey and the Bull (Scott) have quietly gone about their business within the system.Just for the record, I like both of them, having known them since they were young players. The memory of a pale-faced teenage Hodge meeting the media for the first time after kicking the drop goal that beat the Springboks at Melrose in 1994 is still vivid in the memory.I genuinely wish them both well as they get their chances. Yet the way they have come about them raises some interesting questions for those in the domain that Murrayfield insiders generally refer to as "clubland".

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Latest reshuffle highlights flawed appointment process in pro game

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