Hadden places emphasis on a confident start

Setting early platform could make difference, says coach

ENJOYMENT and confidence are not the first words that spring to mind when reflecting on Scotland's RBS Six Nations Championship so far, but if the run of three consecutive defeats is to end those aspects of performance must be swiftly rediscovered.

When Frank Hadden took over as Scotland's head coach in 2005, he put enjoyment at the top of his wish list. He had watched morale in Scottish rugby plummet, from his position as coach at Edinburgh, and knew upon replacing Matt Williams that self-belief was the first area he had to tackle if the country's best players were to turn around a run of just three wins in 17 internationals.

He encouraged the team to rediscover the thrill of playing the game, and he introduced a more expansive style of play that gave the players more freedom and focused on moving the ball through hands more often, empowering players to make their own choices.

This strategy was designed to build self-belief and to inspire confidence. It does not take much flicking through the record books to uncover a common theme in the 1984 and 1990 Grand Slam successes, and the 1999 Five Nations Championship win – none of those sides were considered the world's best, yet alongside a core of talent, they possessed confidence and belief. For any Scottish team to succeed, they must be galvanised to produce something more than the sum of individual parts.

After desperate displays against France and Wales and then an 'improved' performance against Ireland which still saw Scotland lose by five tries to one, confidence is rock bottom – at least among supporters. The players and coaches insist that they still believe in what they are doing, and today's match will put that assertion to the test.

In Dublin, the fragility of Scotland's confidence was exposed when a first 20 minutes of pressure yielded nothing and Ireland countered with two tries from little possession.

However, the Scottish players admitted afterwards that they had begun to enjoy their rugby for the first time in many matches, if only for 20 minutes.

Hadden admitted this week: "Let's be honest, nobody enjoys losing. Everybody absolutely hates it.

"Trying to get the players to play at their optimum, to relax and perform, is clearly one of my roles. But 'relax' is not the right word and 'enjoy' is a word you use carefully because if you say you want players to enjoy this championship. People then think you enjoy losing, which we absolutely hate. Yes, they do have to relax to get the best out of themselves, and it's a fine balance between the real intensity and passion you want to bring to the table and trying to help them do that.

"There's no doubt that we have a quality of player perfectly able to cope at this level and I've told them we need to not to be afraid of moving the ball. We need to get a mindset where we ignore the pressures around about us and focus on our performance, and that's what we try to achieve in the build-up to every game.

"We definitely moved some way towards that in Dublin, but then didn't make the scoreboard tick over. When you don't score you don't get the benefits of all the build-up work and all the preparation that goes into getting you there, and the players are aware of that. We're definitely needing to make a breakthrough in that this weekend."

He continued: "Obviously, winning brings you confidence – but there is still a lot of confidence up for grabs every time you take the pitch. If you start well you grab some of that confidence and if the other team recognise you have started well they can lose confidence.

"And we deserve to go into this game with a bit of confidence because a lot of this side will have beaten England at Murrayfield, or beaten England in the Churchill Cup, or perhaps beat Leicester playing for Edinburgh, so we know we will make it tough for them this weekend and that the gap between the countries is not insurmountable.

"The challenge is starting well, getting the crowd behind us, which would be another enormous boost to the confidence, and continuing to play well."

Clearly, it is tough for coaches when their plans fail in public. Many supporters have questioned whether Hadden has run out of ideas, and the pressure of potential back-to-back wooden spoons, a fate that has not befallen Scotland since 1978-79, must shake their self- belief as much as it does the players.

Andy Robinson and Sean Lineen have watched training and offered words of advice and support this week and Tait revealed that he had sought counsel from an old rugby league mentor, Brian Noble, the former Great Britain and Bradford Bulls coach now at Wigan.

"When you're leaking the tries we're leaking you definitely think 'what am I missing; what am I doing wrong'," he said. "I'm a friend of Brian and get on well with him, so I called him this week because as coaches we don't know all the answers and he's as good as any in Britain. He gave us a few tips, but he really just backed up what I was doing, and saying, which gave me a lift.

"To give away the tries we've given away in this Six Nations is … well, don't get us wrong, the players know how upset I've been. They're soft tries, which is unacceptable. The effort is there, but the decision-making is costing us. Some of that is them trying too hard to change this run individually, which happens when things aren't going your way."

But, the coaches remain convinced they can turn it around. Tait added: "If the players stopped trying and working for each other and us I'd be the first to put my hand up and say 'that's me done' and walk away, but they're not.

"It's a reflection of the game and the players we've got in Scotland at the moment, but these guys have to pull together. At the end of the day these are the boys who will turn it around this weekend and lift the Scottish game; not the coaches.

"Yes, we're short of numbers in Scotland and are always up against it, but we just have to get on with it and get wins – it's all about winning at this level. But these boys are determined and will keep going till they get a win, and then we'll see the smiles back on the faces."