DOING a sum-up article on our 6 Nations campaign is difficult.
Do I do a hatchet job on Andy Robinson and our dismal statistics with seven losses on the trot, or do I take the positive approach and look at the progress which was made under him up until the games against Ireland and Italy?
The sheer disappointment of the Ireland and Italy disasters cut deep. I was gutted, so imagine what every Scottish player is feeling right now. Robinson was at a loss to make sense of what had happened.
He is considering his future and the SRU are still behind him, supposedly. It would cost a lot in compensation to let him go, but time, I think, has run out.
We all wanted Robinson at the helm after he turned round Edinburgh’s fortunes, but none of us expected our first whitewash since 2004 and a drop to an all-time low in the world rankings.
Two weeks ago, before the Irish game, we were on a high. We had Mike Blair and Greig Laidlaw at half-back, Lee Jones and Stuart Hogg came in to the backline and, had it not been for injuries, some of the more experienced members of the squad (Sean Lamont, Nick De Luca and Graeme Morrison) would arguably not have been in the starting line-up for the last two games.
In these, even our star names didn’t perform. Our tackling was bad and Italy destroyed us in almost every area. As for the usually strong line-outs we lost six of 12. That’s unheard of!
One thing is for sure.
If we are building towards the World Cup we still have time to change things.
Stuart Lancaster has done wonders for England in just a few games, so it can be done.
I think we do need a new coach in now, and with either Lancaster or Nick Mallet losing out on the England position we could do worse than bring the one that doesn’t get chosen to have a crack at the Scotland job.
Robinson’s selections since the World Cup have been flawed and I think his time is up.
I have lost confidence in him as a selector and I just don’t get the overseas appointments of Scott Johnson and Matt Taylor either.
We are in a very dark place right now and we need fresh talent and fresh ideas.