Once Andy Robinson had made the personal decision to press on as Scotland head coach, despite presiding over the worst season in recent Scottish rugby history, the die was cast.
Thursday’s behind-closed-doors review of the whitewashed Six Nations campaign, following on from the failure to qualify for the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time, was little more than a slick PowerPoint presentation.
Having spoken to Robinson, Mark Dodson, the SRU chief executive, duly confirmed the Englishman would continue as head coach.
There was no mood within Murrayfield to forcibly remove Robinson, partly due to fiscal reasons he has a lucrative contract which goes on to the end of the World Cup in 2015 and because there is absolutely no appetite to trawl the world game for a suitable replacement.
Add in the fact Robinson had been allowed to overhaul his coaching team, with two new appointees due to take up their jobs within the next month, and the situation the union got itself into becomes even more entangled.
Dodson’s predecessor Gordon McKie was the man who gave Robinson the contract extension, at a time when Scotland appeared to be progressing under his control and there was a threat perceived if never actually confirmed that several Aviva Premiership clubs were interested in enticing the former Bath coach back into the domestic club game.
Such was Robinson’s stock at the time it is understood there were clauses within the deal to allow him a sabbatical if chosen to coach the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2013.
But the situation was further complicated by his back-up team.Doubts over playersRobinson inherited his assistants Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman from his predecessor Frank Hadden and, under McKie’s financial strictures, was compelled to retain the pair.
The contracts of both assistants ran out at the end of the current season, and Robinson, although now entrenched with his new contract extension, was only able to put in place his own team after the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Six Nations.
Scott Johnson, the Australian who was the former interim head coach of Wales, was unveiled along with his countryman, defence specialist Matt Taylor, as Townsend and Steadman’s replacements.
While Townsend’s performance had him slated for removal and defence coach Steadman’s departure was not entirely unexpected, few expected that Robinson himself would be under pressure.
The coach cuts a proud and honourable figure who regularly insists that he is all about winning.
”I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” he has pointed out on several occasions.
This led many to believe the crippling season just passed might convince him to walk away from the Scotland job, particularly as in the latter stages of the Six Nations there were increasing guarded comments from the Scotland camp about the inadequate skills and execution of the players.
The last week of the championship prior to the Italy game was understood to have been a testing one for Robinson and the squad rumours of confrontation after a practice match against the under-20 squad have been rife and there was some suggestion the coach might be convinced he could do no more.Escape routes limitedHowever Robinson’s own options of an escape to English club rugby were themselves limited.
While he may well have been courted around the time he signed his contract extension, the performance of Scotland in the last six months has seen his stock plummet and the old questions about his judgement when England head coach are being asked again.
For Dodson, who has been getting good reviews for his stewardship at Murrayfield in his first year in the job at least until the inexplicable appointment of Townsend as Glasgow head coach retaining Robinson is still a gamble.
Should Scotland continue to struggle the chief executive could be faced with axeing his head coach within a year.
No sign of real progress this time next year, with the World Cup only two years away, will mean Robinson’s exit has only been delayed.