Coaching continuity pleases Hogg

AS SCOTLAND'S strength in depth prepares to bubble up again in a new season with leading lights overcoming injuries and regaining match-fitness, the question of coaching potency remains in the spotlight.

Frank Hadden remains at the Scotland helm with Andy Robinson and Sean Lineen stepping down from assistant roles to concentrate on continuing the rise of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively. It is clear to all and sundry that Scottish rugby desires improved foundations at professional level, as much as it needs a rejuvenated, ambitious and populous club scene, and the country's leading players are perhaps most acutely aware of how central the coaches are to that.

Allister Hogg returned to training this week alongside his fellow internationalists, having enjoyed a three-week holiday at the end of what was a gruelling 13-month season. Time spent stateside, enjoying California and Nevada, helped clear his mind of rugby for that period. The presence of Andy Robinson on the back pitches at Murrayfield in Edinburgh rather than Scotland kit, he said, had made the return significantly more appetising.

At just 25 and seven years with one club, he has endured much change in his pro career, coming to a head with last summer's acrimonious split from the Carruthers brothers and return to SRU control. He acknowledged that teammates signing new deals this year, including Scotland captain Mike Blair, had sought assurances from Robinson that he would remain before they put pen to paper.

Hogg admitted: "I wasn't involved in contracts this year, but I'd have been asking the exact same. There's only so many times you can start again in your career – I've had five coaches so far at Edinburgh.

"You all want to be successful in what you do and if you're continually going back to the start again, starting with new coaches and new teams, then it does get very frustrating.

"If Andy had been promoted to Scotland then we would have been back to square one again with a new head coach, new systems, new everything, and as I've said there's only so many times you can do that before you want a change.

So, had Robinson moved upstairs permanently, as may have been considered within Murrayfield, Edinburgh might have had another exodus on their hands. In fact, this will be the first time that Edinburgh as a professional entity have moved from one season to another with the same coaching staff, club name and badge, chief executive and home venue.

It is a given that such stability is crucial to sporting success, albeit one not recognised by all of the union's recent chiefs, and that is perhaps best reflected in what is believed to be record season ticket sales at this point in the year, the figure topping 1250 yesterday. It is also attracting wider backing with Scottish Widows yesterday launching a new 'Scotland Rugby Savings Account' from which they will pay 0.4 per cent of the total account balances each year into a scheme to benefit state secondary school rugby.

Hogg helped launch the new partnership at Murrayfield yesterday and spoke of the need to drive up participation in rugby at state schools across the country. But his immediate focus is clearly Edinburgh and Scotland and he insisted the secret to improving on-field performances of both remained continuity, which was why he also backed the retention of Hadden as national coach.

"It goes hand-in-hand," he said. "For continuity I'm pleased Andy is staying at Edinburgh and Frank is staying on with Scotland.

"The performances in Argentina showed what we can do and hopefully we can build on them going forward.

"We've had success under Frank and have performed well and there's no point in scrapping that and starting again. The thing from the Argentina tour was how we learned to build and hold on to a lead - that's something Scotland haven't done much in the past; we've always tended to come from behind.

"I think Edinburgh did a bit of that last year. We have to be more ruthless, with Edinburgh and Scotland, this season."

Hogg's pleasure at having Robinson back at the helm seems widely shared at Murrayfield as the internationalists rejoin a burgeoning squad of young players. Robinson will be glad of that, while Hadden will be eagerly seeking signs of such increased knowledge and ruthlessness in the hope that four months from now the recently creaky foundations beneath Scotland's head coach position strengthen again.