“At the level we are operating, it is about inches, small percentages of improvement," says the Head Coach of Scotland's rugby team, who made the quarter finals of this year's World Cup.  And, following a narrow victory over Italy and an agonizingly close defeat to Argentina, his words certainly ring true.

"And there’s no doubt in my mind we’ve made some progress, and it has made a difference.  But what is important is that we keep striving to make more and more progress because we still have a long way to go.  The challenge is still really tough.”

Coach Hadden knows about challenges and how to overcome them.  His first professional role began ten years ago as assistant coach with Caledonia Reds (now amalgamated with Glasgow Warriors), after which he moved to Edinburgh Rugby before continuing on to the national set-up. Even in those early days with the Reds it was apparent to Hadden that, despite all the vibes of excitement surrounding the newly professional game, Scottish rugby was taking off behind the start line.

“When I first started coaching professionally, we just weren’t competitive.  There were situations where we went to play games in France, and we would have thrown the towel in if it was possible, because the gap in ability between the teams was so huge.  The same happened in my very first year at Edinburgh.  In my second or third game we lost by 80 points at Cardiff, and then we lost by 50 at Swansea.  It was a difficult start.”

But, understanding the need to constantly improve, and believe that you can improve no matter how dismal the circumstances, is paramount for a coach.  “I still had confidence that things were going to get better.  You need to have a clear, honest picture of where you are and what is required to make progress.  The ultimate challenge is to get the players to think along the same lines, and be realistic that they are very talented, but that everybody can get better.  There is nobody that can’t get better.”

The strides that schoolboys, club players and professionals alike have made under Hadden’s tutelage is testament to his discourse, from Merchiston Castle High School right through to the senior Scotland squad. 

But Hadden also realises that if Scottish Rugby is to continue to improve under him, it is necessary to take the example from other nations who have been successful in the professional era, such as Australia, Ireland and England.  And, as a man who has spent much of his coaching career working with schoolboy and age-grade teams, Hadden speaks passionately about the fundamental need to place an emphasis on the development of young players:

“For me, the most frustrating thing about Scottish rugby is the lack of competition and intensity at junior level.  It means that almost all the serious development has to be done after the player leaves school.

“In Australia, school games are in front of thousands of people, and the players are doing 12 training sessions a week.  I taught in Australia for a while and their school league system has been going since the 1800s.”
“We haven’t even got a league yet.  And you cannot create the intensity required to develop players unless you have the sort of competition that inspires people and makes it really worth winning.”

Of course, the Southern Hemisphere rugby contingent has traditionally been regarded as being at the forefront of rugby innovation and benchmarking but, Hadden continued, closer to home the competition is still edging ahead of their Scottish counterparts:  “In Ireland, rugby is more serious at school level.  One of the reasons I used to take my school teams to tour Ireland in the mid 1980s is because it was more challenging than in Scotland.  The general standard was higher.” 

Teaching in England he saw the same pattern emerging:  “For a person from Leeds to play for England Schools, they had to play for their school, then play for Leeds, then play for West Yorkshire, then play for Yorkshire and then the North of England before even getting an England trial.  You had to fight and kick and scratch your way to Twickenham.” 

The problem, as Hadden noted, is that due to the lack of intensity of competition, it is too easy for young Scots players to break into the international arena, meaning that in the long term, they may not have quite the same spirit in them to survive at the top level: “Because guys come into the system without having to fight their way in, sometimes they don’t come in with the right mental toughness, the right desire and the right attitude.  So I think in Scotland we often have to deal with a different group of people and we have to treat them slightly differently to try to get them to take on the attitudes that we require.”

However, as Hadden mentioned earlier, it is really only a matter of inches that make the difference between success and failure in international rugby.  And, doggedly, if perhaps not at greyhound pace, Scottish rugby is chasing down the leading pack.  But where is the extra mileage coming from to ensure Hadden’s boys keep up with the rest?

“We’re constantly pushing everyone we’ve got in our pathway system.  We are producing better youngsters than we have ever done before.  Otherwise you couldn’t get guys like Ross Ford and Tom Philip to go straight into international rugby when they are 20 years old.  There must be something going on that’s working, and we can be proud that we are identifying our best players earlier and putting them through the Scottish Institute of Sport and other little pockets of excellence.  For me, it’s about harnessing the resources you have and getting the best out of them.”

However, the true key to a winning team, according to Hadden, is something that we should all be doing in sport, regardless of our age, our talent, or even our chosen sport:  “I think it has been well publicised that the first thing I said to the players when I came in [to the national setup] is that I wanted them to enjoy themselves. 

“Some people might think in Scotland that enjoying yourself is not to be associated with sport, especially professional sport, but I firmly believe that unless you are enjoying your job, you’re not going to get the most out of yourself. 

“I tell my team that I trust them, that I believe in them and that they are up to the task.  I want them to look forward to the game.  And, most of all, I want them to enjoy winning for Scotland because, ultimately, that’s what it all boils down to.”

RO

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