Rugby: Crunch time for Scots ahead of Six Nations France clash

SCOTLAND have been urged to beware the Basque destroyer that is France forward Imanol Harinordoquy when the teams meet at Murrayfield on Sunday at the start of this year's RBS Six Nations Championship.

The warning comes from Sean Lineen, Scotland A coach, pictured below, who has recent experience of the 57 times capped No.8 from his Glasgow side's Heineken European Cup clash with Biarritz this season.

"Harinordoquy kept Biarritz in the game during the first half against Glasgow last time," said a rueful Lineen when reflecting on a 20-41 defeat.

And, according to the one-time Boroughmuir and Edinburgh centre who moved along the M8 to pursue a professional coaching career, the threat doesn't end with a 6ft 4in and 16st 7lb player all of whose five encounters with Scotland, including at the 2003 World Cup, have ended in victory.

"The talk when I was in France late last month was of a young half-back pairing of Morgan Parra (21) and Francois Trinh-Duc (23) and it will be interesting to see how they go," he added.

France, however, will be relying on Harinordoquy even more following the withdrawal of fellow giant forward Sebastien Chabal due to injury yesterday.

Lineen and French international rugby go back a long way to when he was growing up in New Zealand and scoring a try for the Counties provincial side against the Tricolours who were touring in 1984 – an outing that was to have a profound influence on his rugby philosophies.

"That day France fielded a back-line comprising Gallion, Lescarboura, Bonneval, Cordoniou, Sella, Esteve and Blanco and the experience of facing so many of their great players all at once made a lasting impression on me," said Lineen who moved to Scotland in 1988 and gained 28 caps through eligibility accorded by a grandfather. "I love the way France play. They are comfortable on the ball and maybe the fact they train differently with a lot of 15 players versus 15 full-on contact is how they learn. They have some fantastic runners and I think they will bring that back into their game this weekend. Whoever France field behind the scrum, though, Scotland must contain the French pack.

"That aspect will be huge. But France can always be rattled and two years ago when I was assisting Frank Hadden it was in this same first match of the championship that Scotland won, so this could be the time to get them.

"There's no getting away from the fact that set-pieces on Sunday will be crucial because the lineout proved Glasgow's downfall at home to Biarritz and teams need a strong scrum to dictate which part of the pitch the game is played on."

So far as territorial gains are concerned, Lineen is in no doubt that rugby generally has taken a wrong turning which needs to be addressed. "Rugby is still a fantastic game but it is all about collisions at the moment," he said. There are just too many and this needs sorted out. The problem is with rucking where tacklers are being allowed to prevent the ball coming back and I'd like to see changes giving more reward to attacking teams along with legislation to stop (collapsed] scrums having to be reset so often.

"With the third man into a tackle situation often being penalised teams are risk averse and tending to kick into the opposition half which is why we see all those aerial bombardments."

Speaking at an announcement marking Edinburgh's selection as host to the World Cup of Touch Rugby at Peffermill between 22-26 June Lineen said inspiration can come from the non-contact version he helped popularise by setting up domestic leagues back in 1993.

"Touch rugby players are often tremendous athletes and are worth watching closely for the way they make use of space." Perhaps that philosophy underlines why the balance of power in Scottish domestic rugby has switched to Glasgow whose players dominate the current national squad. Among them is skipper Chris Cusiter whose talent Lineen claims to have first spotted while he was playing in a schools touch rugby tournament at Meggetland in Edinburgh.

"Chris won the outstanding player award that day and he has demonstrated that it is possible to take touch rugby skills all the way to the top in the Six Nations Championship where I think Scotland will do well in the weeks ahead."

Twenty years after sharing in Scotland's last grand slam, Lineen acknowledges another is overdue and what he is certain of is that the current squad are in good hands.

"Andy Robinson has done a great job coming in as coach. Players respect him and he has got a very talented bunch to work with. Professional rugby is all about winning and especially having France first up at home provides that opportunity."

SIX NATIONS TEAM GUIDES:

Scotland

England

France

Ireland

Italy

Wales