THE newfound confidence within Scottish rugby will count for nothing unless the national team delivers in the Six Nations Championship, Nathan Hines, the assistant coach, said yesterday.
Morale is high within the game after Glasgow and Edinburgh both qualified for the quarter-finals of the two European competitions, while Scotland won two out of their three matches in November and only lost the other by a point. And several respected figures within the game, including former coach Jim Telfer and 1999 championship-winning back Alan Tait, have insisted this is the best Scots side since the turn of the century.
But Hines, who like head coach Vern Cotter is in his last season with the team before going to coach in France, warned that good results and a positive frame of mind are no guarantee of success either against Ireland at Murrayfield this afternoon or in the subsequent matches in the tournament. “It’s just opinion, isn’t it?,” he said when asked if this Scotland team was the best of recent times. “Until we do something it doesn’t make a difference what anyone thinks.
“It’s all opinion. The games haven’t started, and until we can prove we can win on Saturday and win games back to back it’s still just opinion and it doesn’t mean anything.
“We just look at what we’ve done; look at what we need to do. It’s not about what people think about us outside the room.”
Having downplayed expectations with that sober assessment, Hines insisted that the team’s target for the championship could not be higher. “Win every game. Isn’t that the point of professional sport competitor?
“That’s the goal during the week – to put ourselves in the best position to win games, make sure we’re astute tactically, we can eliminate errors and that everyone knows their job and what we need to be doing every minute of the game. If we can take that confidence into the game, that will help us.”
Both Scotland and Ireland reported a clean bill of health after their training sessions yesterday.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here