Phil Greening named as Scots sevens coach

I didnt see this one coming but its an interesting appointment...

"THE Scottish Rugby Union’s drive to improve the quality of coaching at the top level has brought the surprise appointment of another Englishman.

Former England hooker Phil Greening has been appointed as the new Scotland sevens coach, replacing Graham Shiel, who has been demoted to a skills coaching role still within the sevens set-up. Greening follows on from fellow England Test forwards Andy Robinson and Neil Back, the latter having taken over from Tom Smith at Edinburgh this summer three years after Robinson left the capital club to become Scotland head coach.

The SRU claimed that Greening’s appointment was the result of a “worldwide recruitment process”, and it is understood that former Scotland sevens captain Clark Laidlaw, currently coaching the New Zealand sevens team, was also considered. Greening was assistant sevens coach to Mike Friday between 2005 and 2007 when England finished second in the HSBC World Series and claimed the silver medal in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Appointed on a three-year contract, a big part of Greening’s task now will be to mould a Scotland squad into medal contenders at Glasgow 2014 and push towards sevens’ introduction to the Olymics in Rio in 2016, as the SRU strive to revamp the sevens set-up, but still within the thinly-spread pool of talent in the Scottish game.

Greening said: “This is a really exciting time to be joining Scottish Rugby [SRU] and their developments in sevens rugby. I can’t wait to get started and back onto the circuit.

“I want to cement the Scotland 7s team as one of the core competitors in the abbreviated game and help produce some exciting new Scottish rugby talents ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Olympics.”

Greening retired in 2005 after winning 24 caps, and after his sevens role from 2008-11 he coached London Welsh as the club pushed through the Championship. He stepped down last summer before they made their final successful assault on the English Premiership, but also steered the invitation side, Samurai International, to victory in the Middlesex International 7s in 2010 and 2011.

The appointment of the 36-year-old is surprising but continues a growing trend at Murrayfield for picking coaches from outside the Scottish game. Edinburgh have a coaching staff of an Irishman in Michael Bradley, Englishman in Back and Scot in Billy McGinty, who has spent his career south of the border in rugby league. Glasgow now have young coaches Gregor Townsend and Matt Taylor, an Australian former Scotland A cap, alongside Glaswegian Shade Munro, while Robinson’s national team is made up of two Australian coaches and an Italian.

But does that matter? The SRU’s Director of Performance Rugby, Graham Lowe, is a New Zealander, but he has been keen to find the best available coaches to take Scottish rugby forward, a drive which has found favour among players. Increasingly, in professional rugby, the origin of a coach is irrelevant alongside his ability to get the best out of his charges and Scottish rugby needs improving."

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/top-rugby-stories/surprise-as-phil-greening-named-scotland-sevens-head-coach-1-2469531

The SRU certainly need to look at all suitable candidates for their coaching posts. However being the assistant coach for the successful england 7's team betwseen 2005 and 2007 is hardly a slam dunk in terms of suitability. I suppose the success of the team he coached at the middlesex 7's in the last two years is encouraging.

This announcement follows close on the heels of Neil Back's appointment at Edinburgh . I now think that Andy Robinson's influence has reached all parts of the pro game. If Back is such a great coach why didnt he get picked up by an English Premiership club after Leeds were relegated? I However i do think he will get more out of the Edinburgh forwards that Tom Smith was able to do, another odd appointment considering his lack of experience of coaching at a high level(Yes i know he did his courses whilst still a player with Nothampton but i dont think he actually had a significant coaching role whilst doing them).

There is no doubt that all the recent appointments, including Townsend's, will have demotivated most scottish rugby coaches hoping to make the step up to pro rugby.

Time will tell if Greening, Townsend, Back and Taylor have been good appointments.

As I've said before, nationality for me comes a distance 2nd behind coaching ability. Whilst I've no view on Greening's ability as a coach, if the SRU are satisfied that he's the best we can get, then I am at least fine with their criterion.

The only appointment that in my view ought to have a demotivating effect was the appointment of Townsend at Glasgow, a Scot. There is and was no justification for that appointment. I wish him all the best, but no-one can claim that his appointment followed a "world wide recruitment process", and surely Glasgow head coach is a more important appointment that sevens head coach??

I wouldn't underestimate the benefits of having a successful sevens squad. Many in the NH see it as a sideshow or circus at best. Club rugby is easily seen as the next most important thing to test rugby and some pundits even go further and say it's the most important.

There lies a key difference in approach often between the north and south. The banner under test rugby, regardless of what it is, is a feeder system to the national squad. Success is encouraged at all levels but everything is geared towards the national team.

Graham Lowe is a surprise for me in that role but I wouldn't be surprised he is trying to send out a message that everything works towards the national interests. If you can get a foreign coach who has the credentials then so be it. I am not sure of the credentials for Greening but I don't see it as a bad thing that coaching positions shouldn't be automatically given to Scottish born residents. Only NZ and SA could get away with such a policy. The rest have to realise you have to be genuine contenders or raise your game accordingly.

All I know is that the Scottish backline could learn a lot from sevens in terms of the awareness of space and how to create it whilst doing so at pace. If rugby can learn from league in defence it can certainly learn from sevens in attack.

Agreed Kia. I think we ignore sevens at our peril. I'm not fussed that we've gone for an Englishman either; I just hope he's the right man for the job. None of these guys (Back, Taylor etc) will have come cheap and they're all on longish contracts.

Just so long as Greening doesn't select Hefin O'Hare, Scottish 7s will improve.


On a more serious note, Greening was a pretty good 7s player in his day. That form of the game has moved on though. As kia says it is used in NZ to develop the skill set of players with a view to selection for the national XV. I also agree that some exposure to 7s would improve the handling skills of the Scottish backs.

I go to the Dubai leg of the IRB 7s series every year, so I will look out for some improvement from the Scots come Nov/Dec.