IT IS the end of an era for the Scotland Sevens team, with coaches and key players moving on, but they ended on a record-shattering high with a tournament triumph in London which included the landmark win over New Zealand. Calum MacRae, the head coach who will shift to become the defence coach at Edinburgh, is convinced, however, they have laid the platform for the success to continue.
"Our guys have developed a top level of consistency," he said as the team were welcomed back to BT Murrayfield with their Twickenham trophy. "Regardless of the opposition, who we obviously respect, we have the same processes in place – we focus on ourselves to give us the best chance of a win.
"John [Dalziel, who takes over] has a pedigree of playing sevens himself. Like me, he grew up playing it in the Borders. He has been involved, has played for Scotland and knows the environment. He will add a huge amount.
"He will put his spin on things. He shadowed us during the Paris week and for me it was good to have another coach there as a sounding board. The set piece is a huge strength with him. He will take the programme forward."
The programme is going to have to go ahead, however, without Scott Wight, who is also moving to coach the Women's Sevens side, and Mark Robertson, who is calling it a day after a career that has seen him become the third Scot to pass a century of tries in World Series tournaments – ending on 106 from 272 matches.
"It's huge," he said of both the tournament win and the recent run of form which saw Scotland beat all the teams ranked in the top five during the last two events. "For any Scottish team to beat the world's best gives so much belief. Especially for the youngsters. They rub shoulders with these top players and see they are just normal guys. Hopefully they can see that they can do it too.
"You've got guys like George Horne and Jamie Farndale, incredibly talented lads who are beating the world's best at 20, 21 years old. How else could they get exposed to that level of rugby, that pressure, those crowds?
"That was a fairytale [ending]. We don't work any harder than we did four, five years ago – we got some good wins back then but struggled to put four or five games together."
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