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Scotland show what Vern Cotter has achieved with defeat of Wales
Strange as it may seem in this sporting era of self-interest, there are actually players out there trying to do their best for a gaffer who they know is leaving, no matter what, in two games’ time. But then, the case of Vern Cotter and Scotland is a curious one indeed.
Here is a coach who, in less than three years, has taken the national team to within a point of the World Cup semi-finals and from Six Nations no-hopers to Six Nations contenders. On Saturday, he presided over Scotland’s first win over Wales in a decade and it was not just any old win.
Here was a coach subtly changing the tactics at half-time with his team coming off second best. Here was a coach, fully understanding of the situation, who knew exactly what was required to get the most out of his players and effect a famous triumph. Here was a coach who really should not be making way for Gregor Townsend, despite the latter’s undoubted credentials.
It will seem an utterly absurd scenario should they beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 35 years and lift their first Triple Crown title in 27 years. Yet it is one that those blue shirts would love to create in south-west London in two weeks’ time.
Tim Visser spoke for all of the squad. “We want to do it especially for Vern,” he said. “The fact that he is leaving has really put a date on the end of this period. We’re trying to leave him with as much as we can. He’s put a lot of hard work into getting this team going forward. We want to show him that we have improved.”
The wing is living, bequeathing proof. Visser helped set up the Tommy Seymour try which grabbed Scotland the lead and the impetus. He stopped Rhys Webb from touching down as Wales looked to strike back at 19-13 down. And to cap a display that, alongside that of Fin Russell, could justificably be scribed as “match-winning”, he clinically took his own score which essentially killed it as a contest. “But I was most pleased with my work under the high balls,” Visser added. “It’s something I’ve worked on a lot.”
Visser has done so in the shadow of Twickenham for Harlequins and, like everyone with a Scottish bent on Saturday evening, “HQ” was on his mind. “I live quite close to Twickenham but don’t like it very much,” Visser said, getting his sly dig in early. “Look, we haven’t won there since 1983 and I wasn’t even born then. You can’t underestimate England, ever, and will have to up our game. But we are building on the performances under Vern and knew this kind of form was coming.
“We do believe we can win there, we do believe we can do special things. Vern is very hands on and makes it very clear – very clear – what he demands from us in certain areas. You saw that against Wales. We altered our game plan ever so slightly and got the rewards.”
So what did the canny Kiwi do to change the momentum which, up to the break, had been all red, with Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric in supreme control on the ground? Ian McGeechan, who was in charge of those legendary 1990 champions, applauded Cotter’s “tweak” in The Sunday Telegraph.
“They had to speed up the game, and they did so by going to ground earlier, putting the emphasis on clearing out the first man to reduce the potential for turnovers and ensuring quicker ball,” McGeechan wrote.
The former Lions coach also questioned why Cotter is leaving, saying that with Murrayfield finally rocking again after all those soulless afternoon’s, the Scottish Rugby Union “might end up looking silly”. McGeechan was being exceedingly kind.
Granted, Cotter has been aided by the arrival on the scene of some special personnel – Stuart Hogg being the most obvious and the most thrilling. And Hamish Watson’s contribution was so immense when coming on after 30 minutes that Sunday's news that John Hardie is out for the rest of the Championship with a knee injury is not as bleak as it might otherwise seem. But nobody can deny Cotter’s remarkable impact. Not even the dullards at the SRU.
The irony is that Wales were also being led by a coach with only two more goes in the hotseat. Of course, Rob Howley could still replace Warren Gatland in the permanent role when the New Zealander – currently on that bizarre Lions coaching sabbatical – departs in 2019. Yet on this evidence that did not appear very likely. Howley looked and sounded bemused at the Welsh capitulation and at their failure to finish any number of chances.
The mess was probably best encapsulated in captain Alun Wyn Jones’s revelation that he wanted to go for the posts at 16-13 down, but his kickers did not fancy it. So they went for the corner and duly gave away a penalty at the driving maul. A shambles in two acts and one which clearly did nothing for Jones’s team of for his own Lions captaincy hopes.
