Vern Cotter, the man who has been appointed as Scotland's next head coach, claimed bemusement yesterday as he denied reports that he has quit his job with the top French club Clermont Auvergne.
At a press conference intended to celebrate his recruitment, albeit more than a year in advance of when he is scheduled to take over, he instead found himself repeatedly fending off questions about his current status.
Only moments before his Murrayfield debut, word had filtered through that his club's website had carried an article quoting their president, Rene Fontes, as stating that Cotter had offered his resignation after publicly criticising the performances of the club's senior players.
Clermont were considered odds-on favourites to win both the Heineken Cup and the French championship when the Scottish Rugby Union announced, earlier this month, that they had appointed a new coach but could not name him. They were defeated in both competitions.
"I am unaware of that, I have not handed in my notice," he said when asked about the website article. "I have not offered my resignation. I put an article in this morning's paper saying how I hoped the club should move forward and I have had no communication since then."
Asked if he now intended to resign his response was more equivocal.
"I need to have more understanding of what has been said from my president. The last conversation I had with Rene Fontes he was asking me to finish my contract in 2014. This is something to explore further," he said.
Since it seems clear that Cotter's unavailability to Scotland until June of next year has caused some embarrassment at Murrayfield and that the SRU are keen to negotiate an earlier release from his current contract, he also denied that he had given the newspaper interview as a way of manipulating the situation.
"I gave an honest opinion of how I thought things had to move forward holistically so they could see the big picture. They could see how competitive, how hard French Top 14 rugby is and how the club has to move forward, especially after 2014. It was honest and my vision of how they had to move forward in a competitive competition.
"You have bluffed me a bit with this information. I can't comment further on that until I get reaction and a full picture of what reaction there has been to a simple article in the local newspaper."
It also emerged yesterday that whenever Cotter does arrive in Scotland, a very unusual working relationship will be created since he intends to have the man who will be his boss, Scott Johnson, the newly appointed SRU director of rugby, as his main backs coach.
However, both men expressed confidence that they would have no problems in terms of either line management or back-line management. "We've got a bit of experience. Things will be made clear and Mark [Dodson, SRU chief executive] will make things clear as well. We're grown men and we'll get the best out of each other and the best out of the team," said Cotter.
Johnson was fully supportive: "There are no issues, not at all. You need strong coaching teams, strong personalities, that's not a bad thing. If you get two managers who always agree it's one too many but egos are left at the door. We understand that, we're grown men with experience and we want what's best for Scotland."
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