News

Hadden hopeful of Pool success

Monday 01st December 2008

The other 'big three': Frank Hadden, Felipe Contepomi and Martin Johnson pose

Scotland coach Frank Hadden believes the World Cup draw has given his team "every chance" of reaching the quarter-finals again after being paired with England and Argentina.

Scotland will face the Auld Enemy, the Pumas, another European country and a play-off winner in the group stages of the 2011 tournament.

Hadden was relieved to avoid the Tri-Nations countries in New Zealand and is confident of maintaining Scotland's record of always reaching the last eight.

The boss has led Scotland to victory in two of their last three games against England, while Scotland won a Test in Argentina this summer after being knocked out of the 2007 World Cup by the South Americans.

Scotland could have faced both New Zealand and France after slipping to third seeds, so the Scotland coach viewed the draw positively.

"It's a good draw and one that gives Scotland every chance of maintaining our proud record of being one of only five countries to qualify for the quarter-final of every World Cup," Hadden said.

"The draw is the first piece of the jigsaw. The second piece is the scheduling of games and I believe it is absolutely imperative that games are scheduled to allow players' proper recovery and preparation time given the intensity of international matches.

"As far as our Pool B opponents are concerned I'm happy with the draw.

"We haven't played England in the World Cup since the 1991 semi-final, and we lost out at last year's World Cup to Argentina in the quarter-final.

"It looks as if we've missed the Pacific Islands countries as they are pretty much playing on their home patch, so that's a bonus."

Scotland captain Mike Blair added that he was pleased with the draw and was keen to get passed both so-called bigger teams.

"I'm excited by the draw. In England and Argentina we have two extremely tough sides in our pool who have a very proud record in the tournament," the scrum-half said.

"It will take a big effort from us but that's what we will be setting our minds on."