INTERVIEW: Gavin Hastings optimistic as Vern Cotter stops the rot in Scottish rugby

Matt Jones - Editor 12:20 04/02/2015
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  • Great Scot: Gavin Hastings scored 667 points in 61 caps for Scotland.

    As Scotland’s finest ever rugby player, the last 15 years have been tough on Gavin Hastings as he’s watched the national team become perennial wooden spoon candidates.

    – HSBC Rugby Festival Dubai kicks off at 7he Sevens Stadium

    But the legendary full-back, who was a key part of the 1990 championship-winning side, believes things are on the up with coach Vern Cotter at the helm. 

    Under the New Zealander, Scotland impressively beat Argentina and Tonga in the Autumn internationals either side of a narrow defeat to world champions New Zealand 24-16, playing a brand of expansive rugby Scottish fans have long yearned for. 

    Recently in Abu Dhabi as an HSBC brand ambassador, Hastings offered some of his thoughts ahead of this year’s competition.

    How confident are you for Scotland heading into this year’s Six Nations? 
    A We finally have some hope. I think Vern Cotter’s done a terrific job since he’s come on board and I just think he’s brought a real bunch of stability to the whole thing. 

    I’m very optimistic a and I think there’s lots to look forward to and hopefully we’ll have some success.

    I don’t think we can go from having no success to winning it and given the fact that we’ve finished near the bottom for the last couple of seasons, we need to make gradual steps. Let’s not get too carried away. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully we’ll have some success.

    So there’s some light at the end of the tunnel…
    It’s been tough. Professional rugby’s not been kind to Scotland, with only two professional sides, so it’s very, very hard. Particularly when we’ve had people who are not Scottish qualified either. 

    We have a lot of youngsters that are quite promising rugby players coming through and I think finally, yes it, is, but it won’t get easier.

    Gavin Hastings sharing his experience.

    We perhaps get carried away a bit when we do have some success and think naturally that it will keep on going. We all harbour ambitions for the future and desires for the team being successful again and perhaps challenging for Grand Slams again, championships and whatever else. 

    But like I said, let’s not get carried away. We had a promising set of  Autumn internationals and scored five tries against an Argentina side that then beat the French in Paris and that’s not done easily.

    What’s impressed you about Vern Cotter? 
    We’ve got a guy that understands just how to build teams and he’s come in and realised there is a lot of talent there. 

    People talk about belief and how winning becomes a habit but unfortunately so does losing. We’ve stopped the rot and now we just need to start building up again. 

    You look at the way rugby is played now and people realise that it’s more of a spectacle and for me, the most promising game in the autumn was the way they played against the All Blacks. That was great and they kept going right until the end. 

    A lot of people are saying it’s the most open Six Nations in years, do you agree?
    Yes. The teams are all capable. If one team is really on it and another is off then I think any team is capable of causing an upset. 

    You have to look at home advantage and that’s always been hugely important. The other thing to talk about is we have had a bad pitch for the last two years where we’ve had no chance of playing good rugby, and it’s been reflective of Scottish rugby.

    Now we have a wonderful pitch and so we’ve got a chance. I think it is very open.

    How important is the tournament in a World Cup year? 
    A good Six Nations would build confidence ahead of the World Cup. Too much attention can be paid to them but Six Nations is the big thing on an annual basis and I think Vern will be concentrating on that and the World Cup will come in due course.

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