Former England No 8 Dean Ryan and Scotland hooker Stevie Scott will work alongside the existing remnants of Andy Robinson’s staff in Scott Johnson, defence coach Matt Taylor and specialist coaches Duncan Hodge and Massimo Cuttitta to coach the Scottish national team.
With “Scottish coaches” the current watchword, the A Team management group has been loaded with developing Scottish coaches too.
Ryan, 46, the former head coach at Bristol Rugby and Gloucester Rugby, will take on the role of interim Scotland forwards coach. He is also renowned for his astute analysis on Sky Sports rugby coverage, and should bring a real focus on details to his spell with Scotland. A lot of his work in recent months has been highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the Premiership and Heineken big boys. If you want a head start of opposition research then Ryan is surely your man.
Securing his services even for a short term is a pretty astute move by Johnson and SRU head honcho Mark Dodson.
Ryan, who won four caps for England during a playing career which saw him represent Saracens, Wasps, Newcastle and Bristol, said: “I’ve responded to an invitation from Scott to assist the Scotland management team over the next 12 weeks and will look to bring my experience to bear to give Scotland players the best opportunity to represent their country in the best way.”
Galashiels-born Scott, 39, who was a member of the management team that led Scotland A to a 35-0 victory over England Saxons last year and who was a well-liked coach at Sale Sharks, will be an interim skills coach.
According to Dodson, Ryan and Scott will begin work on Monday.
Meanwhile, two ex-Scotland locks will join forces with a former Scotland stand-off to coach the Scotland A team.
Scotland A will be led by head coach Shade Munro, who is joined by Scotland’s most-capped forward (87 caps), fellow internationalist and lineout exponent Scott Murray. Murray has been coaching the pack as well as playing for Mont de Marsan in France’s Top 14. Duncan Hodge takes charge of the backs for the A team’s sole match of the Six Nations window – against England Saxons at Kingston Park, Newcastle on Friday 1 February.
Murray, 37 later this month, has been coaching the forwards at Mont de Marsan in the French top 14 for the last month and was targeted as a coach at his previous French club, Castres.
5 Responses
Enough is enough how many different coaches are we going to have in the ” interim”. How are players already low in confidence supposed to react to coaches who are in all likelihood not going to be there after the 6N. Dean Ryan is an astute coach but how can he manage to do in a 12 week period that someone like George Graham couldn’t manage to do. I can’t believe Mr Dodson and his board haven’t got an idea of who they want to take permanent control of the team I just hope they are not waiting to see if Johnson gets a couple of miracle results to justify giving him the job. The whole structure of coaching needs overhauled because none of our ” imports” are cutting it at any level. Greening was supposed to herald a new Dawn in Sevens last time I looked we were in a lower position than under Shiels or Gemmill before him. Forget other people’s rejects and get in better and reform the coaching structures.
Isn’t Dean Ryan coming up here for a three month period to see whether he can be coaxed back into coaching full time in, say, the Edinburgh job?
How long is interim?
Is Scott Johnson just appointed head coach until the last game of 6 nations?
Come the 17th of march he is either appointed to the job full time or someone new is appointed?
If that is how it is and it is someone new then they need to b appointed and announced within the next month. That is the only way they stand any chance of putting together their own team of coaches and starting to plan and prepare for the South African trip
If u leave it until the 17th March or later that gives them 2 months to get on board, settle in, hire coaches and start picking and preparing a squad before getting on a plane.
Otherwise If Scott Johnson is being given a test drive in the hope he pulls a miracle out of the hat in the 6 Nations and that doesn’t eventuate we r truly screwed
I mean how can u approach coaches saying hi we would like you to interview for the Scotland job and yes we think you would b great for the job but let’s wait and see how we do in the 6 nations before we commit to anything
16th March France v Scotland
8th June Scotland v Samoa in South Africa
If you were appointed Scotland coach how long would u want to put a coaching and playing group together before playing v Samoa on the 8th and South Africa on the 15th to stand any chance?
Johnson is in charge until the end of the South Africa tour at the minute.
Obviously a dire 6 Nations might force the SRU’s hand.
They’re recruiting a coach and a director of rugby so I suspect it’s a case of getting the director installed before appointing a coach to make sure they get along.
Good to see yet another coach signed up!
We now have more coaches than options at stand off!
Never knew the SRU had so much money.
Do see how Dean Gaffney is going to get the respect of the players.