New Zealander Keith Robertson, the man who takes over at the helm in Glasgow when Kevin Greene departs, has, from the other side of the world, given me this message to spread to his new troops on the eve of their match with Leicester.

''Anything is possible if you believe in it,'' he said in between packing his backs in readiness to make the trip halfway around the world to sunny Glasgow. ''Belief is the cornerstone, especially in this professional age, and I am a firm believer that, when it comes to money, you have to put your hand up before you can put it out.'' From there, it would appear, Robertson advocates that players stand up and be counted before cash comes their way, and, when it comes to rugby, his style is the running game.

Glasgow go into battle with Leicester in two weeks' time, and when Robertson gets into the hot seat it will be more of the same when compared with Kevin Greene, and the two will have some time to talk as Greene does not depart until after Glasgow play the match.

''When I come over I am not going to be saying to the boys that this or that is the way we do things in New Zealand,'' says Glasgow's next coach. ''I fully expect that I will learn from Glasgow's players and they will tell me what they do. I enjoy motivating players to see what they can do more than dictating to them. It's the same in the All Blacks in that John Hart, the national coach, has a 30% input into sessions and the rest is the players. Players have to do what they have to do on the pitch. You can come up with a game plan, and practise, but the players have to play and take a lot of the responsibility on themselves.'' Which is similar to Greene's ethos in that the Waikato man is more of a back seat coach than we have been used to in Scotland. Ours tend to shout a bit more.

New Zealand rugby is no place for the faint-hearted as we all know. With the Super 12s and the National Provincial championship the game has spurted forward even faster than many imagined it would. Robertson's Southland is a team few fancy, but they nearly pulled off the upset of the season. ''We took on the might of Auckland in the Ranfurly Shield, without our injured players like Josh Kronfeld and Stu Forster, and we could have won,'' says Robertson. ''There are ways of playing, and with their team so full of Maoris and Samoans and Fijians it was important we got them going backwards and we were beaten 34-32. Our winger was tackled into the corner by Adrian Cashmore.''

One of the keys to the game is fitness. ''The players here in New Zealand are so fit now,'' says Robertson. ''Our top players have to get so fit and so hard, and one of my fortes is fitness. I will want Glasgow's players to be very fit and strong, and I have to say that when Otago came across for a pre-season tour last year, the hardest game we had was from the Scottish Development XV. The English clubs we played were unfit and we beat them easily. I like the running style of rugby with all 15 players involved. That demands skills, and in the modern game you have to have forwards who can dummy, draw, swerve and pass. Most sides over here will have training sessions that last for two hours and there won't be a ball dropped in that time. The players are hard on each other if they make mistakes, and I would expect that from Glasgow.''

With a name like Robertson it's no surprise to find out that the man has Scottish ancestry. ''I suppose that most folk from this part of New Zealand, the very south in Otago and Southland, trace their roots back to Scotland,'' he says. ''My great grandfather is Scottish, and my wife's grandparents were Scottish. There has always been a huge amount of respect for the Scottish way of playing rugby, and I have spoken a great deal with Jim Telfer and Roy Laidlaw. They were both great players for their country and they are remembered with respect over here.''

It was then we had a little cameo when Roberston said he had spoken with a ''big blond bloke, a great Scottish player'' when he was here in Scotland. John Jeffrey I asked? ''That's it, John Jeffrey,'' said Roberston. ''Your players are known throughout the world as being hard and he certainly was. Yes, I can't wait to get across there. I can't wait.''