Paterson applauds ambition behind goals set for national team

Thursday 12 July 2012

chris paterson, Scotland's most-capped player, has reacted with cautious optimism to the ambitious targets set by Mark Dodson, Scottish Rugby's chief executive, for the national side to secure a Six Nations grand slam by 2016 and win the Rugby World Cup.

Chris Paterson has no issue with bar being set high. Picture: SNS

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Gary Heatly

Dodson created a stir within the rugby community when he made the bold statement at the SRU's AGM. Paterson believes such aims are "difficult, but ambitious".

The 34-year-old said: "If you set yourself ambitious goals, which are at the top of the ladder if you like, then you have to work your way up the ladder rung by rung to get there.

"There are always different challenges and goals to achieve before you hit the top so if you can get the small bits done and do things incrementally then let's hope they [Dodson's aims] are attainable."As a player you always want to set the bar high and certainly I used to work at things incrementally. There is no point thinking about five years' time if you have a pre-season session in an hour. It is all about doing A before B. I think if you look at the last five to 10 years, we have beaten England, we have beaten France, we have beaten Australia and we have beaten South Africa, but doing it consistently is always the big challenge for Scotland."At a World Cup everyone can beat everyone else and if you can get on a good run then who knows? There is a lot of rugby to be played before 2015 though."Paterson was travelling back from a stint coaching and "fact finding" in New Zealand with the Canterbury Crusaders when Scotland defeated Australia in the first match of their summer tour.He was pleased to see them back that up with wins against Fiji and Samoa and said: "International rugby comes down to such fine margins these days and to come back with three wins is fantastic. The attitude and the desire and commitment was there to see, but I know Andy [Robinson, the Scotland head coach] and the players wanted to perform even better. I think the expectation is always high; players always want to win. They will know the Autumn Series [against New Zealand, South Africa and Tonga] will be very tough, but will be feeling good going in with three wins."Paterson described his five weeks in New Zealand as "a really worthwhile experience". He lived with the Crusaders coach Tabai Matson and his family and learned as much as he could from the former All Blacks centre and his colleagues.Since he returned to Scotland last month, Paterson has been working with players at Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby on their kicking and suggested he will be doing more work with the back three players at Scotstoun in the coming weeks.Paterson, who received his MBE last week, was speaking at the launch of the RBS RugbyForce 2012 initiative at Murrayfield yesterday.It has been developed to encourage clubs across Scotland to open up their facilities to the local community, raise the profile of the game and launch the new domestic rugby season. A total of 138 clubs across Scotland – up from 58 last year – have registered for the RugbyForce event, being held on the weekend of August 11 and 12.Twenty clubs who have each shown a real willingness to connect with their community will also receive a visit from a Scotland representative player over the weekend and Paterson has been set a Challenge Anneka-like task of visiting as many clubs as possible over the two days.Paterson, a Scottish Rugby and RBS ambassador, added: "Having been involved with RugbyForce before, I've seen for myself the difference that it can have, not only at clubs across the country but with the communities around those clubs."

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Paterson applauds ambition behind goals set for national team

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