SCOTLAND'S route to victory this afternoon against South Africa, and in the near future, is being placed in a philosophy of 'playing what is in front of you'.
If that sounds like gobbledegook, it is because rugby players and coaches in their professional guise have followed the pro sports route of talking in code and cliché more often than not. Momentum is not as prevalent as 'go-forward' these days; the decisive last-third of the field where teams (should) finish and win games has become the 'green zone', as in green for go.
However, what we witnessed at Murrayfield last week was a new style of play for the current Scottish team, one that produced more attacking promise than has been witnessed in recent years and was founded on what the coaches called an ability 'to play what's in front of you'. Only, once through the All Blacks' initial barricades, they did not do it very well.
Ian McGeechan had a similar mantra when he was last in charge of Scotland, his ability to see the game evolving tactically before most having the potential for Scotland to punch above their weight, but it foundered on the rock of a squad not playing the same way with the same outlook from week-to-week and unable to pick it up with any consistency.
As coaches have toiled to find ways to outmanoeuvre the most organised and aggressive of defences, the sharpest minds are injecting unpredictability into their approaches. Scoring against South Africa's renowned blitz defence is very tough, so teams must compete physically in the forward exchanges and ensure good possession, and then use it to break the game out of its mould.
Kicks cause unpredictability, turnovers also – the two areas the All Blacks turned into match-winning tries at Murrayfield last week and demonstrated how far ahead they were of Scotland. Frank Hadden, Mike Brewer and Graham Steadman are now demanding that their players become sharper and more skilled in following that lead.
One legendary student of that approach was Gregor Townsend, whose playing style from school to British and Irish Lions Test level, from playing with Warringah to the Sharks, Northampton to Brive, was based on responding to opportunities that arose in a game more than pre-planning.
It was an approach that helped sweep him to five tries and Scotland to 19 in the famous 1999 Five Nations Championship triumph, but was also one that could be embarrassingly exploited by opponents when the entire team was either not skilful enough to play it or simply didn't understand it.
Now working closely with Andy Robinson at Edinburgh and Scotland A, Townsend insisted that encouraging Scottish players to adopt a less formulaic approach was vital to competing at the highest level. So, in layman's terms, what does 'playing what's in front of you' really mean?
Townsend insisted it did relate to quite a fixed style. He explained: "Reacting to breaks is a skill, not a case of putting a switch on and everybody suddenly supporting the breaking player.
"Alan Tait was the best I played with in terms of that, who realised where the ball was coming, and what sort of angle to give. Certain players do that very well, others have to work very hard to realise that the next break they have to go with that player, not to drift out and wait for the ball.
"I have seen a lot of players waiting for the next phase, because they have been reduced to playing patterns, training with players taking the ball up, setting up a ruck, and then going through the next phase ad nauseam.
"Now 'playing what you see' means thinking instead about where the player making the break wants the support, which is going to be a close off-load, like Chris Paterson's support of Mike Blair's break at the start last week. Unfortunately, Chris' support went away from him, but reading of where players are breaking is what is opening up real scoring chances now."
The other aspect to that, which Townsend highlighted, was the need for an increase in urgency once the initial break is made, a "flooding" of supporting players rather than a drip of one or two, and stepping up the tempo in the opponents' 22.
Were Scotland to be playing a re-run of last week's international with a second-string All Blacks side, there would be new confidence about what they could achieve today with those lessons, but South Africa are not New Zealand and this Test match is expected to be wholly different.
South Africa have named their strongest side. They have lost experienced scrum-half Fourie Du Preez to injury, but Ricky Januarie is a very lively replacement, and, boasting the most formidable forward pack currently in world rugby, they will undoubtedly attempt to steamroller Scotland some way under the Murrayfield turf.
They have returned to their more formulaic bish-bash-bosh style on tour to the UK, after an enterprising if rollercoaster Tri Nations, and while keen to open out more this week, and not kick away as much possession as they did in a 20-15 win in Wales, that will only come when dominance is claimed up front and in defence.
Another Stakhanovite shift from the Scottish forwards is the key to disrupting the Springboks and the form-book, not only in the set-piece, but also in attack to help carry the breaks to the try-line. It is a tough ask, but not inconceivable.
But there are at least two reasons why Scotland should persist with embracing this more enterprising approach whether or not it brings an incredible victory this afternoon.
The first is simply that Hadden's attempts to develop a lateral, wing-to-wing, with the odd midfield punch style, and then a more physical approach reliant largely on Dark Parks, the talented Glasgow stand-off, to kick Scotland into scoring positions have produced just 15 tries in the last three championships, and, significantly, only 14 wins in 34 Tests. Some of the big wins owed little to attack at all, and were founded wholly on defence.
The second reason is that Scotland have talents emerging to suit a more innovative style, in running centres Nick De Luca and Ben Cairns, wings Thom Evans and Rory Lamont and John Barclay, the openside flanker. More experienced players such as Chris Paterson, Mike Blair, Phil Godman, Allister Hogg, Kelly Brown, Simon Taylor and Ross Ford, to name some, similarly enjoy a less prescriptive approach, as do pro team coaches Andy Robinson and Sean Lineen.
One could add that Scottish supporters tend to favour bold, ambitious, entertaining rugby, preferably in victory. Townsend was part of the 2002 squad that beat South Africa and remains hopeful of another win today, but he warned: "Players and coaches need time.
"We have a back line with inexperienced guys who need time to learn how to play the way they want to at Test pace, but the lessons they will learn from playing the All Blacks and South Africa back-to-back are huge.
"We may not get the benefit this weekend, although I think you'll see improvement, but, hopefully, we will see it in the Six Nations."
More on Scotland vs South Africa:Antelope faces extinction as battle for the Springbok emblem grips South African rugbyBe wary of the gulf we are trying to bridge as we strive for parity with bigger rugby nationsThe full article contains 1258 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
