Frank Hadden

Frank Hadden

Birth name	Frank Hadden
Date of birth	(1954-07-14) 14 July 1954 (age 69)
Place of birth	Dundee, Scotland
School	High School of Dundee
University	Strathclyde University Carnegie School of Physical Education
Rugby union career
Position(s) Coach Current team No current team Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) Edinburgh Northern () Senior career Years Team Apps (Points) Headingley () Coaching career Years Team 2005–2009 Scotland 2000–2005 Edinburgh 1997–1998 Caledonia Reds 1983–2000 Merchiston Castle School 1994–2000 Scotland U18 1994–2000 Scotland U19 1994–2000 Scotland U16 1989 The Southport School – Dundee HSFP Correct as of 11 November 2006

Frank Hadden (born 14 June 1954) is a Scottish rugby union coach. He is a former head coach of Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby.

Hadden replaced Matt Williams and was appointed on 15 September 2005. ^[1] Hadden coached the Merchiston Castle School 1st XV after being appointed Head of Physical Education at the school in 1983. He coached several Scottish age-group teams before being appointed assistant coach of the Caledonian Reds in 1997. He was later appointed coach of Edinburgh Gunners (now Edinburgh Rugby) in 2000 prior to becoming the Scotland coach. He has since coached Scotland to notable wins over England and France in the 2006 Six Nations and again winning the Calcutta Cup against England in the 2008 Six Nations. He parted company with the national side on 2 April 2009 after a second consecutive disappointing Six Nations where they finished second bottom after winning just one match.

Background

Born in Dundee, Hadden was educated at the High School of Dundee and the University of Strathclyde, playing rugby for both. He attended the Carnegie School of Physical Education in Leeds (now Leeds Metropolitan University) to pursue a teaching career.

Playing career

While teaching at Guiseley School, he played rugby union for Headingley. He occasionally played in their 1st XV ^[2] when the incumbent fly half, Ian McGeechan (who later became coach of Scotland and the British and Irish Lions) was away on international playing duty. ^[3] Hadden also spent his youth playing for Dundee HSFP, with his last match in 1987 on a tour of Ireland. ^[4] Ironically Hadden came close to playing football, with trials with both Queens Park Rangers and Forfar Athletic, as well as being offered a contract by Raith Rovers. ^[5]

Coaching career

Merchiston Castle School and Scotland under-16s

In 1983, Hadden was appointed Head of physical education and director of rugby at Merchiston Castle School (MCS) in Edinburgh. Hadden helped turn the school's 1st XV into a dominant force in Scottish schools rugby. ^[6] During one four-year period at the school he coached their team to 54 victories from 58 matches. ^[3] In 1994 he was appointed coach of Scotland under-16s team. He continued to coach national age group sides until 2000. ^[7]

Hadden's first appointment to a professional team was in 1997 as assistant coach for the Caledonia Reds, one of the four new professional teams launched in Scotland. ^{[6] [7]} Hadden was included in the 1998 Scotland tour of Australia in the capacity of technical coach. However, when the Scottish Rugby Union was forced to merge the Caledonian Reds with the Glasgow Warriors during budget cut-backs, Hadden returned to teaching at Merchiston. ^{[8] [9]} While coaching the 1st XV he took them on to win The Scottish Schools Cup on a number of occasions. ^[10] Along with rugby he was also an athletics coach at the school. ^[10]

Edinburgh and Scotland

In 2000 a player revolt led to the removal of Ian Rankin as coach of Edinburgh Rugby. The Scottish Rugby Union's Director of Rugby Jim Telfer asked Hadden to accept the role of head coach. ^[8] In 2004, he became the first coach to take a Scottish professional team to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. ^[11]

In April 2005 Matt Williams was sacked as Scotland coach after losing all but three of his 17 matches in charge. ^[12] That month Hadden was appointed Scotland interim coach, leading Scotland to victories against the Barbarians and Romania. ^[13] On 15 September 2005 Hadden was confirmed as Scotland coach until the Rugby World Cup in 2007. ^[14]

Hadden's first Six Nations game was a historic victory over France at Murrayfield on 5 February 2006 by 20 points to 16. This was the first time since 1999 that Scotland had beaten France. He succeeded in generating confidence in the team that was lacking under his predecessor. ^[15] Chris Paterson said of Hadden's influence: "There is a confidence among the guys now and increased skill and belief in our handling... That's a testament to Frank and his coaching team." ^[15]

The Calcutta Cup returned to the SRU trophy cabinet on 25 February 2006 for the first time since 2000 after Hadden coached Scotland to victory over England. ^[16] The win was largely due to a defensive effort that saw 112 tackles made by Scotland, with only 6 missed. ^{[16] [17]}

Scotland finished third in the 2006 Six Nations, their best result since 2001. ^[18] Their three wins in the 2006 Six Nations contrasting their sole win from the 2004 and 2005 tournaments. ^[12] The turnaround was largely credited to Hadden, as the players available were nearly identical. ^[15] Their win over France in the six-nations put Scotland eighth in the IRB world rankings. Under Hadden Scotland reached as high as seventh in the world rankings. ^{[19] [20]}

Hadden continued to coach Scotland through 2007, and coached them to the quarter-finals of the 2007 World Cup where they were defeated by Argentina. On 18 December 2007 the SRU announced that Hadden had signed a rolling contract to continue as Scotland coach until November 2008. ^[21]

Hadden won the Calcutta Cup for a second time on 8 March 2008, after a 15–9 victory over England at Murrayfield. Poor performances subsequently led to commentators and former players to call for Hadden's removal. He parted company with the national side on 2 April 2009 after a second consecutive disappointing Six Nations, and was replaced by Andy Robinson.

Scotland (2005-2009)

International matches as head coach

Matches (2005–2009)
Matches	Date	Opposition	Venue	Score (Sco.–Opponent)	Competition	Captain
2005
1	5 June	Romania	Stadionul Dinamo, Bucharest	39–19	Summer Tour	Jon Petrie
2	12 November	Argentina	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	19–23	Autumn Internationals	Jason White
3	19 November	Samoa		18–11
4	26 November	New Zealand		10–29
2006
5	5 February	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	20–16	Six Nations	Jason White
6	12 February	Wales	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	18–28
7	25 February	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	18–12
8	11 March	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	9–15
9	18 March	Italy	Stadio Flaminio, Rome	13–10
10	10 June	South Africa	ABSA Stadium, Durban	16–36	Summer Tour (Scotland tour)
11	17 June		EPRU Stadium, Port Elizabeth	15–29
12	11 November	Romania	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	48–6	Autumn Internationals
13	18 November	Pacific Islanders		34–22		Chris Paterson
14	25 November	Australia		15–44
2007
15	3 February	England	Twickenham Stadium, London	20–42	Six Nations	Chris Paterson
16	10 February	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	21–9
17	24 February	Italy		17–37
18	10 March	Ireland		18–19
19	17 March	France	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	19–46
20	11 August	Ireland	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	31–21	2007 RWC warm-ups	Jason White
21	25 August	South Africa		3–27
22	9 September	Portugal	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne	56–10	2007 Rugby World Cup
23	18 September	Romania	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	42–0
24	23 September	New Zealand		0–40		Scott Murray
25	29 September	Italy	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne	18–16		Jason White
26	7 October	Argentina	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	13–19
2008
27	3 February	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	6–27	Six Nations	Jason White
28	9 February	Wales	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	15–30
29	23 February	Ireland	Croke Park, Dublin	13–34		Mike Blair
30	8 March	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	15–9
31	15 March	Italy	Stadio Flaminio, Rome	20–23
32	7 June	Argentina	Estadio Gigante de Arroyito, Rosario	15–21	Summer Tour (Scotland tour)
33	14 June		Vélez Sársfield, Buenos Aires	14–26
34	8 November	New Zealand	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	6–32	Autumn Internationals
35	15 November	South Africa		10–14
36	22 November	Canada	Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen	41–0
2009
37	8 February	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	13–26	Six Nations	Mike Blair
38	14 February	France	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	13–22
39	28 February	Italy	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	26–6
40	14 March	Ireland		15–22
41	21 March	England	Twickenham Stadium, London	12–26

Record by country

Opponent	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Win ratio (%)	For	Against
Argentina	4	1	0	3	025	73	77
Australia	1	0	0	1	000	15	44
Canada	1	1	0	0	100	41	0
England	4	2	0	2	050	65	89
France	4	1	0	3	025	58	111
Ireland	5	1	0	4	020	86	111
Italy	5	3	0	2	060	94	92
New Zealand	3	0	0	3	000	16	101
Romania	3	3	0	0	100	129	25
Pacific Islanders	1	1	0	0	100	34	22
Portugal	1	1	0	0	100	56	10
Samoa	1	1	0	0	100	18	11
South Africa	4	0	0	4	000	44	106
Wales	4	1	0	3	025	67	93
TOTAL	41	16	0	25	039	796	892

See also

• Scotland national rugby union team
• Six Nations Championship
• Sean Lineen
• Edinburgh Rugby

References

1. "Scotland appoint Hadden as coach". bbc.co.uk. 15 September 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2006.
2. Rugby union teams have 15 players, hence 1st XV refers to the top 15, or the top side.
3. Conner, Jeff (12 February 2006). "To be Frank, who are ye?". scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 27 February 2006. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
4. "Scottish Club & Community Rugby Website - HADDEN HAILS FORMER CLUB DUNDEE". Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
5. Lothian, Bill (16 May 2005). "Hadden can follow in my footsteps, says Dwyer". scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2005. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
6. McRae, Donald (15 February 2006). "Teacher's measures put a glow in the Scots". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2006.
7. Gallagher, Brendan (10 February 2006). "The simple truth of Hadden's success". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2006.^{[ dead link ]}
8. Lothian, Bill (26 October 2006). "New model army that rose from schooldays". www.scotsman.com. Johnston Publishing. Archived from the original on 16 June 2007. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
9. "Scottish Rugby Union". martinfrost.ws. Archived from the original on 14 March 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
10. Stranock, David; Various (1984–2000). "Various". Merchistonian. 1984–2000 (Spring, Summer, Autumn). Merchiston Castle School.
11. "Edinburgh 33–15 Ospreys". bbc.co.uk. 23 January 2004. Retrieved 9 November 2006.
12. "Williams sacked as Scotland coach". bbc.co.uk. 25 April 2005. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
13. Smith, Duncan (2 August 2005). "SRU puts timetable on new coach". scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
14. "Scotland appoint Hadden as coach". bbc.com. 15 September 2005. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
15. Thomas, Simon (11 February 2006). "Frank Assessment". icwales.icnetwork.co.uk. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
16. Watson, Jeremy (26 February 2006). "Calcutta Cup joy for Murrayfield underdogs". scotsman.com. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
17. English, Tom (26 February 2006). "Scotland the Brave". scotsman.com. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
18. "Scotland". guardian.co.uk. 3 February 2006. Retrieved 11 November 2006.
19. "IRB World Rankings 12/06/2006". irb.com. 12 June 2006. Archived from the original on 16 July 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
20. "Latest IRB World Rankings". irb.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
21. "Hadden to continue with Scotland". nzherald.co.nz. 19 December 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2007.

External links

• Scotland appoint Hadden as coach
• The coach: Frank Hadden

Preceded by Matt Williams	Scotland national rugby union team coach 2005–2009	Succeeded by Andy Robinson