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Rugby With Andy Robinson
Depending on whom you talk, Andy Robinson is a deeply complex character or simply a "rugby nut" with no more complicated than a trait evident passion for the oval ball sport.
• Robinson is on the scene at Murrayfield as he prepares his plans for the next Championship Six Nations
He enjoys other sports, many taught as a physical education teacher in the 1980s, but believes that everything must be less rugby. He came through a tough apprenticeship in amateur rugby where he wanted to play in a back row position in which its relatively small size – 5ft 9in and less than 14 stones – Does not compute in a world of giants of English. But it comes through it he did, the openside flanker position he wanted, and internationally.
If it is not unlikely that he would be sitting here looking at Murrayfield Stadium in his first Cup Six Nations tournament as coach of Scotland head. Intriguing, fun and crushing at times, Robinson's career has been unique. The last decade has witnessed only a journey more fascinating than any enjoyed by their predecessors.
The Noughties Robinson started with strengthening the bath to train in the countryside in England, moved with the duties of the Lions in 2001 and 2005 both sides of England's first World Cup triumph in Australia in 2003, fell flat with the resignation of the post of England in 2006, rose again with an appointment as coach of Edinburgh in 2007 and ended with him back in the Test arena, but this time waving jump and develop an appreciation, quiet inarticulate O Flower of Scotland.
In this three part series, we delve into the psyche of Robinson, looking back with him to his playing days in an effort to understand how man and the coach of 2010, an approach to dissect game built almost 30 years of experience and end on Wednesday the day that their names RBS Six Nations squad, with how he believes that Scotland can begin to turn around the disappointment of the last decade.
• Andy Robinson is a free meet Scottish while playing for England during the 1990 confrontation, Murrayfield
It begins with a smile. Frank Hadden has done the same and he was in good position for their first six United Nations, a copy of the schedule of opening of Robinson, who brought three victories. But Robinson could not be more different for those who have taken charge Scotland before him.
The obvious difference is that he is English, born in the flows of cider, Taunton, Somerset. The only other non-Scot coach for the rugby team in the country since rugby 'coaches' first appeared 40 years ago was Matt Williams, a tousy two seasons in 2004-5. Robinson is markedly different for the coach too.
"The key for me, I guess that is what is deep in my soul, my values," he says. "First and foremost, is to inspire people to be the best it can be, and I have a real passion for it. I enjoyed being a teacher and trying to inspire young people and then captaining Bath, protagonists, and moving into professional rugby.
"Secondly, I have a desire to be the best coach I can be, which again comes from within. The other key aspect of my values is the desire to earn the respect of people I'm working, and that is what you do every day, respecting people and gain their respect, and that is as strong now as it was when I started.
"Finally, I like the challenge and no challenge greater than that set your team and even to play the following week, it will be Heineken Cup rugby or where the coach from Scotland to play five different teams in the Six Nations.
"For me, rugby is the biggest game you can play because of the physical challenge. You have to be able to handle it. A lot of teams will lose and not have the consistency, because they can not front up week in week out. A team will win one week and then lose because they can not deliver that next week, and this is something we are working hard towards the players and teams of Scotland. "
There are many sides to the coherence of the field of play, preparation, basic skills and mental approach and other taxpayers, but it is revealing that Robinson captures the physical aspect. Clearly, that has always attracted guys like Robinson team recall after a terrier-like bastard "little" – that word is often used by those who played against him – which seemed to live for confrontation.
He stated that the determination of domestic steel and self-confidence to the challenges that stand between him and the beginning of the game, but the battles also molded him.
"I was told I would always play a prostitute, I was not big enough or good enough to play somewhere else. I began to realize then I had to be different, I had to be the strongest player field and has the highest rate of work, if I were to survive and have a chance to do the job.
"I joined Bath in 1985 (the year after he won his first] national trophy, while in my third year at uni, and then got my first job in Ridlington PE Radstock Integral in Bath. I was 22 then, but I was in the bath against the club captain Roger Spurrell (], a former paratrooper for the openside berth.
"But in those days, There was a lot of rugby, and a lot of opportunity. There was even an official championship in England, but a framework of merit and Bath played twice a week. I made my debut in 1986 against Pontypool, and argued that his record at home long term, then beat Leicester 6-3, Newport, then on Wednesday and Llanelli Scarlets, on Saturday.
"We have trained Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays played, practiced Thursday and played Saturday, and a club like the bathroom you had to deliver in every game. Team A had a strong fixture list as well, which meant some training sessions were more than a few games. "
This provides a vivid picture of competitiveness in English rugby over 20-30 years, and yet England were second best in Scotland for most of the 1980s and, from this side of Hadrian's Wall, appeared to lack of fitness side with Roy Laidlaw, John Rutherford, the Hastings brothers and Jeffrey John, to name a few.
Robinson says that the view was like from the south, and on the other hand, believes that this was another reason he did in the game.
"The players really becoming fit was probably the next step for the game in England to go during that period in mid to late 80s, but I liked because it gave me a bit of an advantage in some of the estimated forward in time.
"I had to work as I could get past the guys around me. I was on the bank of a trial before the England Six Nations in 1988, and Gary Rees was against Peter Winterbottom, and studied the two during the game. I tried to figure out how I could be as good as them and that I could bring extra.
"One of the key points was to be fitter, so that I could do things or places that could not. There was a confidence about England, then, they could play. I made my debut tour to Australia in 1988, and we lost, but I remember them coming here that fall and won handsomely (28-19], with guys like Underwood (Tony and] Jerry Guscott and Rory coming, a captain Will Carling, and a package that could win the ball.
"The big step was to generate mobility this package for the England forwards had to adjust. Came, Wade Dooley developed and became a force, Mike Teague come and gone for Harlequins and Peter did as a player, developing their management skills and open game.
"I was involved in the 12-12 draw with Scotland in 1989 and that really opened my eyes to the speed of the game was played with Scotland. There was complete chaos throughout the entire game. I had thought Australia was very quick, but it was even faster against Scotland – balls being kicked out of Rucks, so loose play – and there was also a level of physicality that the Scottish guys took to him. They were breaking games to play in. "
Now, a key figure in the area of Bath English game, Robinson traveled with the 1989 British and Irish Lions to Australia, but found himself behind the captain Finlay Calder race for the No7 shirt. He also played in six non-Test matches and believes he learned a lot about Scottish rugby and the ethos of the time spent with Calder, Jeffrey, David Sole and others Coach Ian McGeechan.
Moreover, their way of thinking about how to combine the two nations preferences "for fighting and mauling and how to balance different styles with which to attack teams. He cites the good sides from New Zealand who could ruck and maul, and talks in depth about the French teams that had really hurt the momentum adversaries.
In 1989 Robinson was voted "European Footballer of the Year, but was wounded and fell outside the test, having to wait 50 caps before winning the eighth and final cap, six years later.
But for all the agonies suffered trying to change that stark reality, and from knowledge that arises in the discussion of his playing days, and its undoubted 24 / 7 commitment to the game, also life outside rugby-shaped Robinson. He does not offer this, but I will talk about the influence of his father, Ray, the impact on him of his father's battle with multiple sclerosis, a man of 36 years, a talented all-round sportsman progressively down with the disease, in that he was confined to a wheelchair and blind.
Ray continued to be a regular supporter of his son and Bath, where he would have a guide in Recreation Ground to talk him through the game and then offer his son some words of encouragement and critique later. He died in 2001 at 61 years, but still to be an inspiration for Robinson who is now 45 years old.
The legendary Scot was also a key figure in his early learning, the back row and former captain of Scotland Jim Greenwood who helped pull the Scotland from their worst sequence of defeats (17) in 1950. Robinson, it seems, was one of many trainers in Greenwood who cultivated a deep appreciation and love for rugby while a student at Loughborough University.
"It was a great place for me to learn," Robinson says, eyes twinkling and smile in extending the memory. "I was taught by Jim. He was fantastic.
"He's a great man, very gentle, a great rugby coach who was so ahead of its time was amazing. He is a man who has an aura about him. I remember him lecturing me about the culture of Japan, where he spent time coaching the sporting culture of America as well as what was happening here, of course. There is no doubt that he fed the desire in me. "
Robinson continues: "I do not feed off of many things, like everybody else does. In rugby, I learned something from each coach I worked with, and the players.
"After he was wounded in 1989, I realized that when I was that I had become very worried increasingly about the way I had to play, rather than just concentrate on playing the way that suited me.
"I would never be 6ft 3in, or play as if someone of that size, then I had to understand that I had to play more my way. That was when I played my best, after that, 91, 92, with ball in hand, playing a good support, I just came out and played.
"I began to spend most of my time working with the back in the bath, where Brian Ashton was working on lines for implementation, maintenance, putting myself under that pressure, so I could support the back right through the games.
"It was an understanding that …" he laughs, " lineouts were probably annoying! To be honest, I'm spread so far to see the number of lineouts that openside flankers in the heel, especially when you're winning the ball on top – the first focus should be on the first ruck and who will win.
"I try to explain it to the guys that take the lineout. I hope to be there openside to win the first ball out or receive cargo for the speed of the ball we need. This is an absolutely important that we do. "
That knowledge transfer from player testing to test the brands coach Robinson out of the new Scotland coach. If he feels the need to talk more about their learning Scots' to generate support in their new habitat or not, of course he always had a relationship of Scottish rugby that makes his move north less than a mystery.
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