SRU director of rugby Scott Johnson has quit his job at BT Murrayfield and will return to his native Australia at the end of next year’s Six Nations Championship.
The 56-year-old, who has been at Murrayfield for the past five years, is to take on a similar role with the Australian Rugby Union, with his current employers claiming that “a satisfactory compensation package” had been agreed to enable him to make the move before the end of his existing contract.
Johnson has been a divisive figure within the domestic game, the low profile and lack of scrutiny to which he has allowed himself to be subjected since his spell as interim head coach of the national team soon after arriving in Edinburgh, appearing all the more strange given the SRU’s claims yesterday that he had been a central figure in bringing about what are perceived to be the more encouraging aspects of the Scottish game’s development in recent years.
Initially appointed in 2012 as part of former Scotland coach Andy Robinson’s management team, Johnson was elevated to the role of interim head coach for the 2013 Six Nations and Summer Tour when Robinson felt he had no choice but to depart following a humiliating defeat to Tonga and while in that role he was then appointed as director of rugby.
In his time as Scotland’s head coach the national team won only five of 16 matches, three of those against Italy, a record which betters only that of fellow Australian Matt Williams among head coaches of the national team.
While credited with playing a part in recruiting Vern Cotter, who inherited a squad that was so demoralised that it suffered a ‘whitewash’ in his first Six Nations Championship, he was also, by definition, part of the executive team that decided to release the New Zealander just as he was turning things around, reaching a World Cup quarter-final in 2015 and registering Scotland’s first win over France in a decade the following year.
During his time in office Glasgow Warriors meanwhile won the Pro12 title in 2015, but made no impact on the European stage, reaching the quarter-finals just once when they were heavily beaten, while Edinburgh endured their longest ever sequence of failure to qualify for the Heineken and Champions Cups, albeit both teams are well positioned in their current pools.
Most controversially, he is widely considered to have been the driving force behind the introduction of the ‘Super Six’ competition that is due to get underway next season, aimed at providing a semi-professional tier in which to develop players for the full-time professional teams,
However, those who have worked most closely with him have clearly valued his input, Scottish Rugby chief executive, Mark Dodson saying yesterday: “Scott has made a significant contribution to the development of elite rugby in Scotland and he leaves with our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the work he has done.
“His unrivalled global rugby knowledge and connections at every level of the game have hugely benefitted the development of how our game in Scotland has progressed in recent years, be that working with head coaches, forming partnerships beyond our borders and establishing Scottish Rugby’s high-performance department to the level it is today. He leaves with our best wishes for the next stage of his career.”
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