Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'What really has impressed me is the attitude of the players - they're desperate to get better'

Scott oversees a scrummaging session Credit: Team photographer William Racule

As the crow flies, it’s a little over 4,500 miles from Salt Lake City to the rugged Borders of Scotland, but in the icy throes of his first Utah winter, Stevie Scott feels right at home.

ADVERTISEMENT

On the day of our interview, the peak temperature in the state capital is a solitary degree Celsius. The high for the week is 7C and at night, the mercury can drop as low as -6C.

“It’s so cold and frosty and snowy that we can’t train outside until later in the year,” he says.

The distinctly Caledonian climate notwithstanding, Scott embarked to the mountain metropolis seeking a taste of something different. For the past decade, the former hooker has coached the elite, working in the English Premiership with Sale Sharks, the Pro14 with Edinburgh and on the international scene with Scotland, for whom he won 11 caps.
Now, the “we” he refers to is the Utah Warriors, one of nine teams competing in the fledgling Major League Rugby competition, the latest attempt at introducing a professional club tournament to North America.

In its maiden season last year, MLR was a success, delivering entertaining play, an encouraging response from supporters and good broadcast exposure, while its teams contributed a raft of players to Gary Gold’s USA Eagles. The second season begins at the end of January and forwards coach Scott aims to help Utah and their boss man Alf Daniels get further than the semi-final defeat they suffered in 2018.

“The opportunity came through Gary Gold. I know him quite well and he asked me if I was interested to come across and help with the teams,” Scott says. “I thought, yeah, different experience, different opportunity. What really has impressed me is the attitude of the players – they’re desperate to get better, very coachable.

Solomons and Scott during his time at Edinburgh
ADVERTISEMENT

“We’ve got a good group that are full-time but others have jobs as well. These boys get up in the morning and train from 6-8am, some go away and do a job all day then come back to train at night. They never mutter a word; they just crank on and keep repeating. That’s really impressed me.

“Gary was keen to get good coaches across here. The players are just technically behind a little bit and that’s where I can make such a difference. They’ve not had the technical coaching from a young age; they’re in their early twenties and still very, very young in their rugby development.”

Scott’s greatest challenge to date? Making himself understood on the training paddock. The Americans may lust for knowledge but before they can negotiate the finer points of the set-piece, they have to attune themselves to their forwards guru’s thick Borders brogue and exuberant delivery.

ADVERTISEMENT

“You get the massive calls, the old yee-haws when a big tackle goes in, which you can’t take away from them,” he laughs.

“You do have to speak a lot slower. Scottish people speak quite quickly, and when you’re coaching and your adrenaline and emotions are there, it can become quite difficult. They live off my energy as a coach – even though they’re not always 100% sure what I’m saying, they know what I’m looking for.”

On the basis of what he’s seen so far, Scott reckons the standard of the league “is about English Championship level”. The facilities at his disposal, however, are much more illustrious.

Scott holding court in a team meeting Credit: Team photographer William Racule

“We have an indoor facility, which is probably two or three times the size of Oriam (Scottish sport’s £33m high-performance centre) back home.

“The training facility is superb, it’s used by a lot of the soccer and American football academies. We play games in there as well. We played a warm-up game in there last week. It cost about $85m, the facility.”

Utah’s captain and fulcrum last season was their 113kg centre Paul Lasike, a former NFL full-back whose thunderous performances with his club and the Eagles earned him a move to Harlequins. Another Utah man, number eight David Tameilau, was signed in the summer by Glasgow.

There is rugby talent developing but America too produces a torrent of wonderful athletes who fall just shy of a career in the NFL, NBA or Olympic-level athletics. Ex-sprinter Carlin Isles and former footballer Perry Baker have been sensational additions to the USA Sevens squad and Scott expects more like them to flow towards rugby.

“As the sport starts to grow and get more recognition here, you’ll start to pick up more players that don’t make it to the NFL. There are loads of transferable skills,” he says.

Players have being there best to understand Scott’s accent in training Credit: Team photographer William Racule

“We’ve got one or two, John Cullen has played for America and was an NFL trialist in his younger days. It is happening and as it grows and as people see the chance to have a career from rugby, they’ll pick up more.

“There are players in this league that are good enough to go places. They’ve got a lot of Polynesians in this state as well. Our team is probably made up of 70-80% Polynesians. You’ve got Fetu’u Vainikolo, the top try-scorer for Tonga – he scored against Scotland in bloody Aberdeen in 2012, the loss that cost Andy Robinson his job. There are players here that are quality and gems that are still to mature.”

Rugby is desperate to crack North America and its riches but hasn’t quite figured out how to do so.

The league’s predecessor, the ill-fated PRO Rugby founded by businessman Doug Schoninger, suffered a controversial and litigious demise after a single season.

MLR looks to have substantially more legs, though, and a sustainable future, with teams spread as far as Seattle and New York and plans to introduce three more clubs in 2020.

“This team last year played their first game at the Rio Tinto Stadium, which holds about 20,000. They never really knew what to expect and all of a sudden 9,000 fans turned up. That’s the potential it’s got,” Scott says. “We had a pre-season game last weekend in the indoor facility. It’s got seating for about 800 people and they reckon about 1300 just turned up.

“The way they need to look at it and drive it is that this game is an hour-and-a-half of non-stop action. The Americans watch American football and it’s like four hours. It’s a day out. A lot of people I speak to now say it’s great to come and watch rugby because you’ve got this action and you’ve got the rest of your day to do whatever you want, and the boys are going full tilt at each other.

“Once it does that, and teams develop, it goes on TV, teams get better players and coaches, big companies will start to back these teams. It could become massive out here.”

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

O
Oh no, not him again? 1 hour ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Marcus Smith on that substitution and his England plea Marcus Smith on that substitution and his England plea
Search