Gregor: Yes or no?

[Donny osmond]

Interesting tweet...


Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

[Donny osmond]

Sorry that doesn't loo like it's come thru very well? It's from @thistlerugbypod hopefully this will do better?

EwmDQm2WUAEg0TY.jpg

Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

[Scottish Caley Fan]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/r ... is-record/

Very good points made in this column but I still don't agree with the headline saying that GT's job is "in jeopardy" no matter what his record is.

He got a contract extension until next world cup so its, only fair that he is given up until then, possibly even longer!

[septic 9]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/r ... is-record/

Very good points made in this column but I still don't agree with the headline saying that GT's job is "in jeopardy" no matter what his record is.

He got a contract extension until next world cup so its, only fair that he is given up until then, possibly even longer!

can't see that behind a paywall for me. I usually like Steve Scott's stuff, but the headline on its own - and that's what people see and remember mostly - is stupid beyond.

he may be right that the "inconsistency" irritates the hell out of folk who will therefore call for Townsend's head, but those graphs above show that "inconsistency" for what it is. He has been and remains consistently the Scottish head coach with the best overall results.
Lots of picks and decisions that I'd disagree with Toonie on, but his record actually does speak for itself, and I very much doubt I, Steve Scott or anyone else would do better with the resources we have. Yet again this week we will be down to 4th choice stand off, 3rd choice hooker, 4th, 5th and 6th choice locks, and second choices in too many positions to mention. If you have 4 or even 12 teams to picks from, these are as a collective a real problem. when you have 2 teams and a scatter of players down south, its amazing we compete at all ever

[Big D]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/r ... is-record/

Very good points made in this column but I still don't agree with the headline saying that GT's job is "in jeopardy" no matter what his record is.

He got a contract extension until next world cup so its, only fair that he is given up until then, possibly even longer!

can't see that behind a paywall for me. I usually like Steve Scott's stuff, but the headline on its own - and that's what people see and remember mostly - is stupid beyond.

he may be right that the "inconsistency" irritates the hell out of folk who will therefore call for Townsend's head, but those graphs above show that "inconsistency" for what it is. He has been and remains consistently the Scottish head coach with the best overall results.
Lots of picks and decisions that I'd disagree with Toonie on, but his record actually does speak for itself, and I very much doubt I, Steve Scott or anyone else would do better with the resources we have. Yet again this week we will be down to 4th choice stand off, 3rd choice hooker, 4th, 5th and 6th choice locks, and second choices in too many positions to mention. If you have 4 or even 12 teams to picks from, these are as a collective a real problem. when you have 2 teams and a scatter of players down south, its amazing we compete at all ever

I am not even sure the inconsistency is the right word. We lose more close games than we win and often throw away the chance to win by shooting ourselves in the foot, even when we draw. I am not sure that is a new phenomenon either.

While I agree Townsend should stay I think the point about being most successful coach is a little more nuanced than simply on win/loss record (which I think has recently dropped below VC's record). He took us to a RWC and the squad looked undercooked, and that isn't hindsight as we all said it during the WC warm ups. We might have lost in the group stages anyway but we went out without a real fight, that matters.

He took over from a coach that had the second most successful spell in our history (behind Geech around the turn of the 90s), which he deserves some credit for through his work at Glasgow. But it is different from say VC taking over from the SJ coached team with a win record of 33% or even Geech after Dixon or Hadden after Williams. That isn't to say I think VC should have stayed on or he is a better coach than Townsend but starting point matters too.

It may be that Cotter and Townsend with their win/loss rate of slightly north of 50% is the best we can do, which is fine but Townsend has a better pool of resources now than some of his predecessors, particularly those pre Johnson. At the weekend 10 will be an issue, but Turner had a decent case to be ahead of Brown or Rambo in the 23 on form, he can call on a former Scotland captain and a lock who started the English Premiership final for the best team in Europe and a squad that should be comfortable enough to beat Italy.

The resource pool isn't as deep as some countries, or even most countries but the pool is deep enough to get us close in matches and we haven't lost the last two because of talent or injuries as we have been in a position to potentially win both. I don't agree he should go, but it is understandable that journos getting paid to write articles would author that type of piece.

[Cameo]

I agree with most of what you say there but just because we were close in the last two matches doesn't mean neither lack of talent nor injuries played a part in us losing. The fact we had our third choice hooker in contributed to what I would call the key weakness last week (and the fact that, while talented, he is not good enough to nail down a starting spot at club level is a factor). The fact Steele ended up on the flank didn't help either. Would Lang, who started against Wales, be troubling other international squads.

Like the team this week but Gilchrist wouldn't get into many top teams on recent form. Cherry wouldn't get near most squads.

Not even wanting to pick on these players. Basically, our talent pool is better than it has been in my memory, but it still is a massive constraint on our head coaches.

[switchskier]

To play devil's advocate, our talent pool is smaller than other tier 1 countries but that means that there's less room for small mistakes. At international level there's a premium on making sure that you're drilled to do the regular things well. One of the things that we all find infuriating is the Scottish habit of coughing up points from the restart immediately after scoring.

A lot of that is down to the coaches drilling players on the systems, and is an area where every Scottish coaching team, including this one, has needed to improve. So yes the talent pool is better than over the last 20 years, and yes it's shallow, but that means I'll judge on how well they do the controllable things. On that Toonies team are seemingly ok, but not great.

[Mikey Brown]

I’d agree with that. Much to improve but done a lot of good. Still think he was promoted too quickly, but unless someone established as a considerably better coach wanted to come in for no extra money we would likely be over-promoting someone else, if he were to go.

I don’t think it’s on the cards even if we get the spoon.

[Big D]

I agree with most of what you say there but just because we were close in the last two matches doesn't mean neither lack of talent nor injuries played a part in us losing. The fact we had our third choice hooker in contributed to what I would call the key weakness last week (and the fact that, while talented, he is not good enough to nail down a starting spot at club level is a factor). The fact Steele ended up on the flank didn't help either. Would Lang, who started against Wales, be troubling other international squads.

Like the team this week but Gilchrist wouldn't get into many top teams on recent form. Cherry wouldn't get near most squads.

Not even wanting to pick on these players. Basically, our talent pool is better than it has been in my memory, but it still is a massive constraint on our head coaches.

Yes but I don't think it is stopping us being competitive. That's been shown in the last two six nations.

Even with the worst line out performance in a while and all the injuries we were still drawing with Ireland with 3 min to go. Against Wales we were 3 down with 14 men and in good field position.

That suggests the talent available isn't that bad where we can't compete. Was the same for Cotter before where as some of their predecessors were barely competitive in the first place.

That's all I was saying.

[whatisthejava]

Making mistakes is contagious.