Redpath a fan of shorter Six Nations
Scotland captain Bryan Redpath admitted the new condensed RBS 6 Nations format has had nothing to do with his side’s poor results this year.
Full-back Glenn Metcalfe claimed the schedule, now played within a seven-week period instead of a game every fortnight, has left the Scottish players physically and mentally drained.
But despite having only triumphed in one game so far, Redpath said: “I quite like the condensed format of two weeks on and a week off.
“I know that the opinion of the players and management varies and they all have a different take on it but personally I don’t have a problem with it.
“We’ve made it hard for ourselves by sometimes not performing at the levels that we can and that’s what has resulted in us losing games.
“I’m used to playing club games and then training so tiredness is not an issue at all.
“Everyone is in the same boat and as a professional you do get used to playing and training every week.
“The format is probably at its optimum at the moment in terms of games being squeezed into a certain time frame but personally I’d be happier for games on five straight weekends.”
Scotland’s main problem this year has been a lack of tries – they have touched down only against Wales, when they ran in three scores through Bruce Douglas, Simon Taylor and Chris Paterson.
However, despite that poor return, Redpath claimed the try famine was not the highest priority for Scotland players and management team in the run up to Saturday’s match against Italy at Murrayfield.
He said: “The lack of tries is never talked about in the dressing room, it’s only really mentioned by the media.
“There are other things that we have to get right or talk about other than scoring tries.
“Obviously we want to score tries and at the moment we’re not doing it but first and foremost we need to discuss why we’re not getting in the position to score them.”
Scotland’s thrashing at the hands of England last Saturday was comprehensive and decisive but Redpath tried to look on the positive side.
He said: “We probably played as well as we have done in some aspects of our game, especially defending as a group.
“But we gave away 14 points at a crucial time and that we could have done without. In the second half they kept possession longer, better and we were obviously getting tired.
“When we got the ball back we had no real energy or buzz to get going again so it was difficult.
“On the whole we were very disappointed to lose because England are a good side at home and in general it wasn’t too bad.
“I think we can take a lot from it and try and look at the positives. The England defence is far better than the Italian defence.”
