AS Andy Robinson puts the finishing touches to the squad he will take to Australia, Fiji and Samoa next month, the Scotland head coach has been given both a vote of confidence and a warning by the man who will ultimately decide if he stays in charge of the national team.
"I expect him to see his the contract out," said Mark Dodson, chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union. "I don't think anybody is going to stay in position no matter what happens, though. At the end of the day there comes a point where you have to make a decision, and that is my job, to decide what is best for Scottish rugby. As we stand at the moment, Andy is our guy."
The pressure on Robinson has been growing steadily over the course of the season, when Scotland's first pool-stage elimination from the World Cup was followed by a RBS Six Nations whitewash and reports of a bust-up in the camp in the lead-up to the final match of the campaign in Italy.
Should the team fail again on their Southern Hemisphere tour, that would bring their losing run up to 10 consecutive games, with New Zealand and South Africa first up in the Autumn Tests. It is not hard to envisage a scenario where Robinson's side would have lost 12 successive games between beating Georgia last year and facing Tonga, who are currently ranked three places higher than Scotland, in the third of the November matches.
While Dodson was adamant that he believes that to be unlikely, he did acknowledge that such a scenario would leave him with a decision to make. "Twelve defeats on the trot is something that nobody wants to contemplate," he said.
"We will make a decision at the right time, the appropriate time. I don't expect to be in a position where I am making that decision in a negative sense, I am confident that Andy and the team will do well. They are going to take a squad that have had a very good season. They will be buoyant, fresh and, I think, will deliver.
"It is a harsh assessment, in one way, but the numbers don't lie. We have played some outstanding rugby for most of the games and the ingredients are all there. The people who played against us all told us how difficult we were to play against.
"Andy knows that performances have to improve, but we have one of the top coaches in the world. Scott Johnson has been in the building this week talking about what we are going to do for the Australia tour. Everybody is excited and ready to go."
All of which is good tub-thumping stuff. However, the recent successes of the professional teams, with both reaching competitive semi-finals – Edinburgh in the Heineken Cup and Glasgow in the RaboDirect Pro12 – has only added to the pressure on the national coach.
"If you want to have a successful national side, you need to have successful and competitive pro sides," said Dodson. "Andy [Robinson] is excited because we now have players at the very, very top of the professional game.
"They are performing at the business end of the season. That gives you a harder edge and these players are playing on a bigger stage, more often. That can only help Andy."
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