The joy of Six

Alasdair Reid

Rugby reporter

Sunday 27 January 2013

Andy Robinson is gone, but his words should not be forgotten.

Scotland fans may not be overly optimistic about the team this year, but there is always hope Photograph: Getty

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Alasdair Reid

In each of the former Scotland coach's three full seasons in charge of the national team, Robinson would deliver a new year message of such sternness that it could have been penned by the Reverend I M Jolly himself. "Things,'" he would say, "are never as good as they look."

The Englishman's West Country tones were not made for doom-laden pronouncements, but he had an important point. During his reign, Scotland's green shoots of optimism generally emerged, with typical Caledonian perverseness, in the depths of winter, either through the claiming of a major southern hemisphere scalp or by some lively performances by the country's professional sides. So Robinson felt obliged to issue his warnings as the RBS 6 Nations loomed. And give the man his due – his results made the point almost as eloquently. Over three tournaments – 15 matches in total – Robinson claimed only two wins. The graph, moreover, was always pointing downhill. The first season produced an away victory over Ireland; the second a home win over Italy; the third a humiliating whitewash.So what would Robinson make of the national mood today? It is not as if we need a cautionary voice, as November's results, ending with that calamitous loss to Tonga, extinguished all the optimism generated by an unbeaten Australasian tour a few months earlier. The last thing Scots need right now is to be told to wipe the smiles off their faces.But you can't help it. It's the Six Nations, for goodness sake. Yes, it's the giddiest rollercoaster ride in sport, but who in their right mind would refuse a ticket? The odds against a Scotland victory in London next weekend are daunting, but the spine still tingles at the thought of it. Even Scott Johnson gets up for it.A blue collar boy from the western suburbs of Sydney, Johnson's background entitles him to look at the whole thing with disdain, but talk to him for more than a couple of minutes, look behind that facade of insouciance, and you can sense his excitement.And like any good old western suburbs boy, the prospect of a spot of pom- bashing excites him most of all. Which will not, in itself, close the gap between a team who lost to Tonga in their last match and one who have just beaten New Zealand. But any rational analysis will tell you that Scotland are not really as bad as they tried to be on the last weekend of November. Nor are England really as good as they seemed against the All Blacks seven days later.Especially in the Six Nations. The tournament is a leveller and a dynamiter of expectations. Ask the Welsh, those feast-or-famine Celts who are at their best in adversity and their worst when everything looks tickety-boo. Or the Irish, who only delivered a Grand Slam when they had virtually given up on the thing. And do the French even know the meaning of consistency?Such is the joy of Six. As Andy Robinson never quite put it.

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