Matt Taylor has claimed that he remains fully focused on getting Scotland’s defence right, but has admitted that the same could not be said for the team’s players in the closing stages against Italy last weekend.
The Australian-born defence coach has been linked with a return Down Under to become their national team’s attack coach following the sacking of their World Cup winning stand off Stephen Larkham from that role earlier this week.
The speculation has been fuelled by the imminent arrival at Rugby Australia of Scott Johnson, who has been the SRU’s director of rugby for the last few years, but is heading back to his homeland to take on a similar role there.
Taylor, who has been hugely influential at both Glasgow Warriors and Scotland over recent years, emphatically denied any interest in the switch, however, saying: “No, I’m contracted until 2021 and I’m really happy in Scotland. Scotland has been very good to me. It’s nice to be linked to those types of jobs and be thought of highly, but I’m here for the next couple of years.”
No-one has had a more recent reminder of how quickly things can change in international rugby, though, Taylor’s mood having been transformed in the space of a quarter of an hour last Saturday afternoon.
That was how long it took to turn a 30 point Scotland lead into a 13 point victory which almost resulted in the team being denied the satisfaction of finishing a Six Nations weekend on top of the championship table, since England came up just one point short of overhauling them, such was their superiority over Ireland.
While a refereeing blunder was a contributory factor, since Stuart Hogg’s individual brilliance should have been rewarded with a try that would have interrupted and probably ended what turned into a run of 17 unanswered Italian points, Taylor admitted to considerable dissatisfaction with the way the players finished the match.
“We were pretty disappointed with how we finished the game,” he said.
“I was sitting in the coaching box probably feeling quite happy with myself
on 65, then really despondent at 80 minutes. There were a few things. That change when Hoggy scored a try which was a try and they suddenly got the ball and had to do something in the last 15 minutes. We got a yellow card and put on some of our reserves and just started thinking of next week, unfortunately.
“That’s never great when you’re a defensive coach, conceding that. We talked about ironing out a few things and we certainly won’t be dropping off in the last 15 minutes of this game.”
Now hugely experienced, having worked under Vern Cotter as he turned the national team around from being whitewashed in his first Six Nations, to narrowly failing to reach a World Cup semi-final, then achieving what was only Scotland’s second Six Nations campaign in which more wins than losses were recorded, Taylor knows the importance of this match.
“It’s huge, isn’t it,” he said.
“You want to win all your home games. This is the second game and we got off to a good start with the bonus point so if you manage to get a win in the second game here, you set yourself up well for the last three games.It’s a huge challenge, Ireland is a great side. They weren’t at their best last week, so I’m sure they’ll be a lot better than they were last week, but so will we.”
He is meanwhile wary of the effect the expected conditions may have on the plans that have been put in place.
“It’s something we talked about, that we might have to adapt or some moves might have to be taken out of the playlist depending on how bad the wind is. We’ve had a discussion around that,” said Taylor.
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