Scotland assistant coach Graham Steadman has challenged the Murrayfield crowd to inspire their team to complete the 2011 RBS 6 Nations Championship with a win over Italy, stressing how much the crowd’s emotion affects the players on the pitch.
“But in tough times they still have a responsibility to the players, I feel, to get behind them and believe in them right through the match.
“For an 80-minute game there’s always going to be a time when things aren’t working well for you but you’d be amazed as a player how much you can feel that doubt and lack of energy around the stadium.
“If we can generate energy on to the pitch from the stands, the players will perform, I have no doubt about that. I think the public owe the players as well as the players owing it to the public to generate that energy, the atmosphere to create a top performance.”
Steadman’s defensive system blunted the most prolific attacking team in the championship on Sunday, but he admitted just to more frustration.
“I can’t give the guys enough credit, it was 60% possession against us,” he pointed out. The question has to be why it’s taken us this long to get it right. The answer is at the start against England the set piece didn’t work but we trusted in the defence and got a foothold in the game.
“Even if the set piece fails, the defence should give us an opportunity to get into the game and it did on Sunday.
“The pack fronted up against an England pack that can steamroller teams, like they did to the Italians earlier in the championship and after taking a battering we came back and finished strong. We’re looking for a complete performance against the Italians. Against Wales, the second half was quality, against Ireland, for 50 minutes we performed.
“We played some exceptional rugby against France but were punished clinically by a team we haven’t seen again in this championship. For England we were closer to getting what we were looking for but we must have more ball.”
A lack of atmosphere at Murrayfield even when full and it is likely to be well short of capacity on Saturday with fewer than 45,000 tickets of the 67,000 capacity sold does influence the team, argued the management team’s defensive specialist.
“I can only say what I’ve witnessed,” he said. “At Munster when I worked there the passion of the Limerick crowd was phenomenal, win lose or draw and it’s no coincidence they rarely lost. For Ireland, the old Landsdowne was always passionate.
“For Scotland, for whatever reason, and it might be a minority, some don’t understand what it means to players for the crowd to get behind them and be vocal. The crowd must understand that they can be the difference in getting behind the team who are busting their guts to get a result.
“Yes, we’ve been falling short and we’re four-zip so far, but the effort and commitment from these players can’t be doubted. Against Wales when we had a difficult start it was like being at the Millennium, but then we had good spell and you could feel the crowd coming into the game, but they have to get behind them right from the off.”
Murrayfield’s problem in this regard is well known, with Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll referring to it this season and the continuing curse of some Scotland fans preferring to try to start Mexican Waves rather than concentrate on backing their team on the pitch during international games.
“The Italian crowd in Rome last weekend showed what can happen,” continued Steadman. “They were 18-6 down and apparently beaten, but the passion the supporters showed brought them through to what was without doubt their best ever victory in the 11 years they’ve been part of the championship.
“Maybe 80% of the Italians in that crowd aren’t well-versed in rugby, but they are passionate about their sport and understand a team that is committed to winning and buy into that.”
The coach admitted that it was necessary for the Scots team to start well and establish the backing, but he said the Scotland support during Sunday’s strong effort against Grand Slam-chasing England at Twickenham underlined his point.
“I don’t remember backing of an away team like that in any of my previous times there,” he said. “Of course we have to start strong, and there were times in the other games that the support must have thought, this isn’t the script, what’s happening here?
Continued…