Wales should take time over Gatland contract

Rugby Correspondent Andy Howell believes the WRU should be in no rush to hand coach Warren Gatland a new contract beyond the 2011 World Cup IF the WRU feel the need to examine Warren Gatland’s contract position they should cast their gaze across the Severn Bridge towards English football.For it might just stop them making an expensive mistake.Gatland is playing a clever game by revealing he’s considering several offers to leave his post as Wales coach following the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.The Kiwi’s current deal expires at the end of that tournament and the WRU could let it run its course and not offer Gatland an extension, as the Union did with Steve Hansen in 2004.But there seems to be a desire among members of the inner circle at the Welsh Rugby Union to keep the highly-paid Gatland on after the World Cup.There’s a danger the public utterances of the canny Gatland will result in them panicking and rushing to offer the 46-year-old a new deal.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.Yet look at the football World Cup and how teams can implode overnight; the last thing you want to do is offer a new deal now. England were destroyed 4-1 by Germany on Sunday – the culmination of a dismal World Cup campaign – and that showed the mockery of the Football Association racing to tie up coach Fabio Capello before a ball had been kicked in South Africa.The FA negotiated the removal of an escape clause in his £6m per year deal amid supposed overtures from Champion League kings Inter Milan.Inter supposedly wanted him to replace Real Madrid-bound Jose Mourinho and terror set in at the FA’s Wembley headquarters.

But the only winner was Capello with a possible £12m pay-off now in the pipeline.

Just weeks after that escape clause was removed Capello is teetering on the brink with Club England chairman Sir Dave Richards saying he needs two weeks to address the Italian’s future.Hardly a ringing vote of confidence when you’ve got two years to run on your contract.The worry is the WRU could also end up with egg on its face if it offers – and Gatland accepts – a deal to extend his stay in Wales.

Unless results improve, and Wales make a real fist of the Six Nations and World Cup next year, why would some of the powers-that-be want to keep him on?

Only one thing matters in international rugby. It’s called winning, something which Wales have lost the art of since beating England at the Millennium Stadium in February 2009.Since then, Gatland’s men have lost 10 of their 15 internationals when he has been in charge (he missed the North America tour last summer because of his Lions duties in South Africa) with just wins over Italy (twice), Samoa, Argentina and Scotland.Hardly anything to write home about – and it could get worse with New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina joining Fiji in coming to Cardiff this autumn.Let me stress, I believe Gatland should see out his current deal.Judging by some of the rugby Wales play, allied to their spirit, resilience and fitness levels, the players clearly still have faith in him as the right man to take them to the World Cup.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.Wales won 10 of their opening 15 fixtures – including that magnificent 2008 Grand Slam and a home victory over Australia – under Gatland after he took over the reins following that miserable Gareth Jenkins-led World Cup flop in 2007.It could be argued Wales over-achieved during that period.But having played some magnificent rugby and erected a stone-wall defence in the 2008 Six Nations there’s no reason why they can’t repeat it, especially with the talent at Gatland’s disposal.But his overall record with Wales reads played 28, won 14, lost 14 – a modest 50% success rate.Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.That Gatland is a wanted man isn’t a surprise given an impressive CV compiled at Ireland, London Wasps, Waikato and, initially, Wales.But if he wants to fulfil his dream of coaching the All Blacks he has to qualify first by guiding a Super 15 team back home.What the WRU need is a calm hand on the tiller and patience in dealing with Gatland’s post-World Cup future.It’s far too early to consider it now... let’s see what shape we are in at the end of the Six Nations.Otherwise, Capello might not be the only international coach getting a handsome pay-off.Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

State of the Nation - Wales

The question regarding this team is not how far do they still have to go, it's how far can they still go before the next World Cup.Let's face facts: potential though this side has and competitive though it is, this is not a team that can go on to lift a World Cup, nor is it a team that will take a Grand Slam or Six Nations any time soon.Warren Gatland arrived in the principality with a fanfare in 2008, taking a side that had been knocked out of the World Cup by Fiji to a Grand Slam in the Six Nations.Since then, things have not been so good. Of the last fifteen games, Wales have won only five. With many of this current crop hitting full international maturity and with the World Cup one year away, you'd be hoping for a better return than this right now. They've been more consistent under Gatland, they've been better-organised, in many ways more competitive across the board. It's winning appears to be the problem.Having blown a 16-3 lead at home to a rag-tag South African team, Gatland talked before the series against New Zealand about mental strength being required to achieve the first win for Wales against the All Blacks in 57 years. That was a couple of days before his side fluffed several chances to build up a significant lead and then were caught napping twice for tries that turned the shape of the game. In the second half, mentally, the Welsh fell right off it.In the second game the Welsh were better but still got stuffed by nineteen points. That's the problem once again - other teams seem to be able to find a new level to close out a win or adapt to find a winning game, Wales don't. Occasionally the talent within the team finds something miraculous - remember that comeback against Scotland - but you just can't rely on things like that happening every time.So what's to be done? It's difficult to say. New players, like Dan Biggar and Tom Prydie, are popping up and giving decent accounts of themselves but looking at the collective, the Welsh are just lacking someone with a bit of X-factor to conjure up the magic that would ice the cake Gatland has baked so skillfully.However, it must also be remembered that the June tour was undertaken without several key players: James Hook, Shane Williams, Martyn Williams, Duncan Jones and Tom Shanklin were all missing, as was new flanker Sam Warburton who looks as though he will be a great one day. Perhaps they would have provided a little spark.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.
Perhaps. But what this Welsh team now needs is a big win and then some continuity from that. If it doesn't come in November, it might not come at all before Warren Gatland's contract comes to an end after World Cup 2011 - which would be a shame considering how well the Welsh have pulled together in his tenure.Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Cipriani not quitting rugby

New Australian franchise Melbourne Rebels coach Rod MacQueen has played down media reports from the UK that had reported that English fly-half Danny Cipriani is trying to get out of his newly signed rugby contract and pursue a career in soccer. The Daily Mail had reported that the 22-year-old had grown so disillusioned with rugby, after his well-publicised breakup with his English girlfriend, model Kelly Brook which had left him brokenhearted, that the ex-England international may be interested in trialling for two English Premier League clubs.
“Danny’s a little broken-hearted after the breakup with his girlfriend, but as far as I know, he’s not trying to get out of his contract”, said Rod MacQueen. after apparely receiving a text message from the player who rubbished the rumours, who is currently in Los Angeles training with NFL players to improve his footwork, before joining up with the Rebels later in the year. Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Cipriani had played 7 times for England but had since struggle to hold on to a position in the side, after narrowly missing out on selection for the 2007 World Cup, and being axed from the Six Nations Cup for inappropriate behaviour. While he has time on his side, being quite young, England manager Martin Johnson had insisted that Cipriani would not be in the equation to play for England whilst he is playing in the southern hemisphere and would therefore most likely not figure in next year’s showpiece in New Zealand. Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Panama says six-nation power line ready in Q1 2011

* Will connect six nations, 37 million consumers

* Project seen reducing power shortages, cutting costs

* Panama also working on Colombia cable for 2014



CARTAGENA, Colombia, June 24 (Reuters) - Panama said on Thursday a 1,788 km (1,110 miles) electricity transmission line serving 37 million people across six Central American countries should be operational by the first quarter of next year.

The SIEPAC line was first proposed more than two decades ago and was meant to be completed in 2006, but it has suffered repeated delays. It will connect consumers in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

"All that remains is for 30 km (19 miles) of cable to be finished in Costa Rica, and then for Costa Rica's Congress to approve one more protocol," Panama's Secretary of Energy, Juan Manuel Urriola, told an oil conference in Cartagena, Colombia.

"It should be operating by the first quarter of next year."

The transmission line is expected to reduce power shortages, cut operating costs and attract foreign capital to the region, as well as optimizing the sharing of resources like hydropower.

One feasibility study in the 1990s estimated SIEPAC could trim charges for electricity consumers by up to 20 percent.

Urriola said Panama was also working with Bogota to build a separate 614 km (380 mile) transmission line heading east into neighboring Colombia, which was expected to be working by 2014.

PANAMA AIMS TO BE ENERGY HUB

"We're working on these projects with Central America, now we're working with Colombia, and we'll look to see what other opportunities there may be," Urriola said.

"We want to become an energy hub for Central America."Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Panama is one of the best performing economies in Latin America, growing 2.4 percent last year even as most of the region contracted. The global economic recovery and a $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal is expected to contribute to projected growth of around 5 percent this year.

A generation after it shed a tradition of military rule, analysts say canny fiscal management and good stewardship of the canal have made the tiny country a model of success for today's frontier markets. [ID:nN23208633]

Delegates at the oil meeting in Cartagena heard about the big estimated benefits of integration schemes like Panama's, but also that such projects were often pegged back by a lack of political will and fear by states of relying on neighbors.

Luis Fernando Alarcon, general manager of Colombia's ISA group, said a separate proposal to add electricity connections between Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Peru was estimated to create some $3.4 billion in savings for those nations.

But he said those governments had been too slow to take advantage of the readily available benefits from integration.

"The national benefits of electrical interconnection are a banquet served right in front of us," he said. "But due to lack of political will and lack of political agreement, the meal just remains on the table and we are not able to enjoy it." (Editing by Jack Kimball; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Carolyn Hitt: ‘What might have been’ moments for Wales in 2009/10

AND so, the end is near. A long, arduous and, at times, deeply frustrating season for Wales has been framed by encounters with New Zealand.

It began last November with a creditable effort against the All Blacks in Cardiff and will finish tomorrow with the aim of a pride-salvaging performance in Hamilton.

Seven months and 12,000 miles separate those matches, but how far have Gatland’s Wales really come?

While regional rugby travelled towards the respective peaks of European and Celtic League silverware for the Blues and Ospreys, Wales’s journey had that all too familiar two-steps-forwards, one-step-back feel.

Rugby had its fair share of front-page as well as back-page coverage too. Alfie came out, Mike Phillips stepped out (with Duffy) and Gavin Henson is still out (without Charlotte). Not forgetting Andy Powell who was temporarily kicked out (Buggy-Gate).

But what are the key moments we’ll remember – and in some cases try to forget – from the 2009-10 international season?

The Try That Never Was

In the autumn clash with the All Blacks Alun Wyn Jones almost capped an immense game at lock with a dogged 70-metre sprint into Welsh rugby history.

With the score at 19-12 to the visitors, he nicked the intercept from New Zealand scrum-half Jimmy Cowan and was on the path to the posts. But it was a solo trip.

Company arrived in the unwelcome form of All Black wing Zac Guildford who tapped down the second row’s desperate pass to a distant Tom Shanklin. Great effort, but yet another “what might have been” moment for Wales.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Shane’s Argentine Tango

The debate on rugby’s kicking obsession peaked in the autumn as players produced the kind of aerial ping-pong-athons that Wimbledon currently favours. On the eve of the Argentina match Shane Williams reminded the world that when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it he just might have been on to something.

Declaring his aim to “create things rather than make 60 yards with a left-foot peg down the corner”, he was true to his word.

When a straight path to five points beckoned, he eschewed prose for poetry. Stepping two tacklers and dipping under the armpit of a third, Shane led the Argentine defence a merry tango to the line.

Scooping up spilled ball, he scored another with an arcing run behind the posts. The pocket dynamo’s milestone 50th try was a rare moment of sparkle in Wales’s lacklustre autumn campaign.

Aussies Rule

All that glistened was gold in Wales’s final match of 2009 against Australia. While the Wallabies showed flair and daring, the usual flag-bearers of northern hemisphere creativity went through an astonishing 18 phases at one point and still couldn’t conjure anything from it. Disgruntled fans were voting with their feet by the 75th minute, steaming out of the stadium to seek early solace in the bars and pondering the disappointments of the previous four weeks.

With a loss to New Zealand, an unconvincing win against Samoa, a comfortable victory over Argentina and a stuffing from the Wallabies, Wales were far from legends of the fall.

Tripped Up In Twickenham

Until February 6, 2010, the Twickenham Trip was merely something Max Boyce wrote about in Hymns & Arias. In the 37th minute of Wales’s opening Six Nations game against England, the phrase took on a whole new meaning.

As Alun Wyn Jones sent English hooker Dylan Hartley sprawling, a yellow card for the Welsh second row signalled a purple patch for the men in white. Wales conceded 17 points.

Yet with admirable grit, they clawed their way back into the game with a thunderous flop over the line from Adam Jones and a sublime individual try from James Hook.

But with just three points separating us and the Old Enemy, the cruellest of interceptions saw James Haskell clinch the game for England. It was a soul-destroying start to the tournament as the losing side felt the better side.

The Greatest Game

Was there ever a more surreal Six Nations weekend? It started with the Wales Today News Flash, as a kilt-lifting Scottish fan ensured that Hawick Balls were no longer just mints.

It ended with Andy Powell taking a golf buggy for a 15mph spin down the M4 in search of a full Welsh breakfast.

In between we had the greatest Welsh revival since Evan Roberts hit the pulpit.

“One of the most amazing games I’ve ever been involved in as a player and a coach,” was how Gatland described the last-gasp mayhem that saw Wales – 10 points adrift in the dying minutes – fight back to a 31-24 victory.

As one delirious fan said later: “It was the life of a Welsh rugby supporter summed up in five minutes – from down in the dumps to ecstatic heights in no time at all!”

That Friday Feeling

Wales’s first ever home Six Nations game on a working weekday for fans turned into a tough day at the office for the players. Just like the Scotland game, they saved the best ’til last but this time there would be no Lazarus-like miracle. While rugby clubs across the nation celebrated the main bonus of Friday night rugby – healthy bar takings – supporters who’d made the effort to be there straight from work left the stadium and found it was a bit late to commiserate… or catch an Arriva train home.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

New Kids On The Block

Wales has always seemed unnecessarily wary of that sporting dictum: “If you’re good enough you’re old enough”. But after the Dublin drubbing Gatland sprinkled some surprising teen spirit over the final Six Nations game against Italy. Tom Prydie, 18 years and 25 days old, on his debut, revealed he was “left shaking” by this most unexpected of call-ups.

The boy, who had played just 167 minutes of professional rugby for the Ospreys, broke Norman Biggs’ record to become Wales’s youngest ever player.

And by the end of the season the wing was still getting more game-time for his nation than his region.

It was also the season Bradley Davies came of age, his powerful performance against France all the more remarkable following the sudden death of his mother.

Newly-capped and intriguingly named Tavis Knoyle established himself as an entertainer off as well as on the field, giving great service in the interview anecdotes department.

The chirpy scrum-half revealed the only major tour he’d been on prior to New Zealand was to Butlins “with the Glynneath boys dressed as women”.

And tomorrow youth is to the fore again as the Welsh Outside Half Factory gives Dan Biggar the biggest shift of his life.

The task of ending Wales’s uneven season on a positive note rests on his 20-year-old shoulders.

The Ospreys number 10 is known for his confidence.

The poor guy is even occasionally derided for it, a situation that could only arise in a country that still confuses confidence with arrogance.

Let him be cocky – he’s going to need every last drop of self-belief as he goes head to head with the world’s greatest number 10 and marshals his men against the All Blacks on their own territory.

After last Saturday, and indeed the past seven months, let’s see if Biggar can move Wales on to better things.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Murrayfield accounts show rare surplus of £600,000 after turnover rises by £4m

SCOTTISH rugby clubs will be told at Saturday's annual general meeting at Murrayfield Stadium that the sport is in rude health with a financial surplus being posted for the first time under the current management board.

Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, reported yesterday that turnover had risen by nearly £4million to over £33.5million, which he stated stemmed largely from Heineken Cup and British and Irish Lions monies, shared out among the participating unions.
When McKie took over at the union's helm in 2005 turnover was falling, debt was rising and he insisted there was no firm grip on where the expenditure was going.
Five years on, he said ahead of the coming agm: "Great results will be announced. Our turnover is up by just under £4million, partly due to Heineken and British Lions, but also other increases we have managed to achieve in what has been a difficult environment.

"For the first time in a long time Scottish rugby has a surplus to report this weekend, which will create an interesting dimension because we're not in business to make a profit and what we bring in by way of revenue we spend. What we want to do is break even but this year, if you forgive the expression, we couldn't spend it quick enough. Consequently, a small surplus has been achieved of £1.5million pre-interest, £600,000 or so after interest.
"Average debt last year was less than £15million, broadly the same as the previous year, though we have spent close to £1million on capital expenditure in and around Murrayfield – pitch growth heaters, new reception, car parking and tarmac, and on a central warehouse to bring all our kit under one roof for example.
"The year-end debt is slightly up but that's because last year we had the benefit of Heineken Cup ticket monies and we had launched November ticket sales, but we haven't begun to do that because we don't know about the games."
McKie did not detail how turnover has risen by £4million, but that information should come to light at the agm. Ticket sales were actually down this year on 2009, by over £2million, largely because Scotland had one fewer home match in the RBS Six Nations Championship than last year, but that was compensated by broadcasting revenues – notably the share of an improved BBC deal for the Six Nations Championship – rising by more than £3million and 'other operating income' going up by almost £3million.
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Included within that latter bracket is income generated by the Heineken Cup final being held at Murrayfield in 2009, an increase in Heineken Cup participation monies and attendances at games involving Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the addition of a share of British and Irish Lions income from last summer's tour of South Africa.
There is little doubt that McKie has brought a vice-like grip to Scottish rugby's finances and has driven the debt down to a manageable level after arriving at a time when figures were causing alarm, but criticism has come from those who believe the books have been managed to the detriment of the standard of the game itself. McKie argues otherwise, as expected, and will use the 2010 accounts on Saturday to explain how his board has increased investment in international and professional rugby (by £1.1million to £16.1million), to community and performance rugby (by £400,000 to nearly £3.9million) and to 'club support and development' (by £460,000 to £1.79million), which means overall expenditure has gone up from £28.67million to £32million.
With a one-off final payment in settlement of the outstanding 20-year lease with the Netherdale Sports Trust factored into the figures, the SRU is left with a pre-tax profit for the year of £1.37million.
On Saturday at Murrayfield, however, McKie knows he can expect clubs to respond by asking for more money to be spent on the grassroots of the game while the professional team coaches continue to push for additional funds to strengthen their playing squads for tougher and longer campaigns in the newly-expanded Magners League.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

Rugby's future in IRB's hands

Gary Boshoff

What was encouraging about the past weekend’s international fixtures was the improved performances of the Northern Hemisphere sides against their Southern Hemisphere opponents.

England and Scotland in particular gave impressive performances against Australia and Argentina respectively. Even Italy staked a claim for Northern Hemisphere rugby with a much improved performance against the Springboks in Witbank. This is especially meaningful as Italy have not really been able to shed its Cinderella status since joining the Six Nations Championship – they have been the wooden spoonists since joining the competition years back.

These are important developments ahead of the Rugby World Cup scheduled for New Zealand in 2011. Add to that the performance of Wales, which though being thumped by a Daniel Carter-inspired All Black side, was way, way better than their recent performance against the Springboks. Despite the improvement, they still lost by a huge margin – this mainly due to fantastic individual performances from Carter and Joe Rokocoko. The Welsh completely dominated the first half with excellent phase play and controlled tactical moves and it was only disciplined and resolute defence from the New Zealanders that prevented them from scoring.

Levels of competitiveness defines the health and commercial sustainability of a professional sport and it is one aspect that rugby hasn’t been able to get right since the code turned professional some 15 years ago. The past World Cups has been dominated by the three Southern Hemisphere giants with England being the exception in 2003. The globalisation of the sport as well as the increased mobility of top-class professional rugby players and coaches to emerging rugby nations has had a gradual impact on the quality of the game. Some of these players have become naturalised citizens of their new countries in order to play representative international rugby and nations like Japan, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Scotland and even France and England have benefitted from the increasing mobility of professional players and coaches.

While it is important for the IRB to ensure that levels of competitiveness improve all the time, the challenge is to find a sustainable solution that in my opinion must involve the establishment of sound grassroots systems and structures to build a culture of rugby within the respective emerging countries. The migration of professionals to and from countries provides a short-term stop gap solution at best and is not the answer for a long-term competitive competition structure.

Nick Mallett stressed this aspect about Italian rugby and underlined the importance of developing sustainable feeder systems as the lack of player depth is presently the one constraint that is preventing Italy from moving to the next level of competitiveness. I believe that this is the same challenge faced by emerging rugby playing nations like Russia, Romania, Canada, USA, Uruguay, Japan, etc.

While it is primarily the responsibility of countries themselves to ensure that the right systems and structures are developed to grow the game, it is the responsibility of the IRB to ensure that the level of competitiveness between rugby playing countries improves so that rugby can become a truly global sport, rivaling the beautiful game of football.

The future of the game depends on the effectiveness of the IRB strategies to take the game to a new level of competitiveness. We will know this is being realised when we begin to see countries other than South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, England and France challenge for the World Cup title. As it stands now, rugby still has a long way to go before it reaches the desired level of global competitiveness, like in football, where any one of the 32 World Cup finalists stand a good chance of winning any given match they play.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.

David Ferguson: Hat-trick of back-to-back away wins earns victorious team a place in history books

THE sound of history books being excitedly flicked through marked the end of Scotland's 2009-10 season in Argentina, with the most historic record matched by Andy Robinson's squad one that had stood unrivalled for more than 118 years.

It was in 1891-92 that Scotland last recorded three Test victories away from home on the trot, then at Belfast, Richmond and Swansea. That "record" may be a touch invidious as the international schedule has rarely allowed for three Tests back-to-back on forign soil, although Ian McGeechan still rues the one that got away in 2002, when a Six Nations win in Cardiff should have been followed by triumphs against Canada and the USA.

Famously, the Canucks denied that hat-trick in Vancouver, a defeat made all the more galling as Scotland went on to beat the USA, Romania, South Africa and Fiji that year. Scotland had only twice before enjoyed a run of six consecutive wins, home or away, in 1925-26 and 1989-90.
It is 26 years since the nation completed three away wins in a row at all, the 1984 Grand Slam team the last to experience the feeling as they won at Twickenham, Cardiff Arms Park and Lansdowne Road, with Murrayfield triumphs over England and France, and a draw with the All Blacks included in that run.

However, as Robinson, his skipper Alastair Kellock and their troops savour becoming the first in Scottish rugby history to claim a Test series win anywhere, 50 years after the country embarked on its first full Test tour below the equator, they also awake this morning to the news that they have returned to a world ranking of seventh, the highest since the official IRB rankings began in 2003.

Had Australia beaten England, and convincingly, it would have been sixth, but returning inside the world's top eight is a good measure of improvement with which to conclude Robinson's first year as Scotland's head coach.

There is also a different feel about Scotland's rise to seventh this time, because it has been earned. In June 2006 Scotland found themselves rising despite losing. While Frank Hadden's side were losing in South Africa in the summer, Argentina were beating Wales on successive Test weekends. The gulf between Scotland and the Springboks was such (eighth to second) that their Tests had no impact on Scottish ranking points, but the Pumas had been ranked well behind Wales and so the Welsh tumbled below Scotland.


Bizarrely, Scotland won their next game, against Romania in November, 2006, but fell down the rankings, again due to Argentina. Robinson will remember better than anyone why that was as his England side slumped to a 25-18 defeat to the Pumas at Twickenham, a result that hoisted Argentina from ninth place to sixth, and dropped England, Scotland and Wales back a place. It also sounded the end for Robinson's tenure as England coach.

That was when Argentina were moving into third gear in the world game, beating Italy and Ireland and losing by a solitary point to France en route to the World Cup, and an eventual third place in the tournament and third in the world rankings.

Why that is relevant now is that the IRB used the rankings from the following year to determine the seeds for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It was an attempt to ensure teams were more accurately seeded, but was in fact nonsense. Scotland are among those who could reap the most benefit though.

The Pumas were plucked from the top seeds of 1-4 world rankings, England from the second group. England now sit precariously above the Scots in sixth with the Pumas below in eighth.

Martin Johnson's side have improved down under, but still have much work in the next year to create a team with serious World Cup aspirations while Argentina face a tough 14 months to halt a steady decline since the last tournament before heading for New Zealand in 2011.

Scotland are far from a world-class outfit, but they are improving and there were signs in the past fortnight that the sum of this squad could be greater than the products of the last few seasons. Still a relatively young squad, it is beginning to understand the demands of a new, more experienced coaching team (Robinson and Graham Steadman are further ahead in their careers than were Hadden, Alan Tait and George Graham); one that is developing a steely backbone and knowledge of how to grind out victories.

They require a more potent finish, but again signs of greater creativity and unpredictability are emerging.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.