Clive Woodward's words will put fire in Scotland's bellies, says Tim Visser
Friday 19 February 2016 10:32, UK
Winger Tim Visser says Sir Clive Woodward's comments about "second division" Scotland will put fire in the bellies of his team-mates for the rest of the Six Nations.
In his Daily Mail column this week, Woodward said England have "dealt very well with the Second Division of the Six Nations but it's First Division all the way from this point onwards".
His comments were not warmly welcomed by Scotland, and Harlequins star Visser believes Woodward's view will only serve to inspire the Scots.
Speaking on Rugby Club Agenda, Visser said: "It will put a bit of fire in the bellies I think.
"The Scots obviously don't get on too well with the English anyway, but stuff like that and whatever he means by it… I don't actually know what he means by that, it's pretty insincere as far as I can see."
"If you look at the quality of the players at the club and the talent within the squad it deserves to have a coach of that standing. He would be someone who could lead us on and take us even higher than we have been."
Visser, who has not played a part in this year's Six Nations so far due to injury, says Vern Cotter's side need no motivation to win after suffering the heartbreak of opening their campaign with slender losses to England and Wales.
"They're obviously going to be disappointed. I've spoken to one or two of the players and it's hard to take defeats like that when they're that narrow," Visser added.
"They're obviously going to try and stay positive. There's a whole Six Nations to still play, so not letting their heads go down is massively important.
"Going to Italy away we'll have to dig deep and get a victory there, something we obviously didn't do last year which was the turning point in the Six Nations for us.
"We need to go out there and get a win and that can give you that positive encouragement to go into France for another victory."
In the 2015 World Cup, Scotland managed to sneak into the knock-out stage after pool wins over Samoa, USA and Japan, before providing one of the performances of the tournament in a 35-34 quarter-final loss to Australia and the former Edinburgh winger is confident that Cotter can once again turn things around for Scotland.
"He's a very positive coach, he likes to play rugby. He wants to see us score tries which is really good, especially for someone like myself on the wing," said Visser.
"The way he coaches is quite interesting because even though he's a big, burly guy he tends to talk quite softly so that you actually have to pay attention.
"He'll obviously tell the boys to keep their heads up and keep playing rugby and believing in what we do. Belief is something we've been talking about for the last year.
"The talent is obviously within the squad, but it's important that we keep believing in ourselves because the tide will turn at some point, and we have shown that we can turn it like we did at the World Cup.
Visser is currently working under is Quins boss Conor O'Shea, though the Irishman has announced he will leave the club at the end of the season. Since the announcement, Harlequins have slipped to three consecutive Premiership defeats, but Visser refuses to blame O'Shea's departure for the lack of form.
"Conor is a great coach. The boys love him and they love playing for him, more importantly, but we're professional rugby players - coaches leave, players leave. I don't think it will influence the players and the way we play, I think it's more been about the timing.
"It was just before the Six Nations and we had a bit of talent lost to England and I think that's been a major factor.
"Also if you look at some of the results, the Northampton game we had practically won but we failed to get the ball off the pitch with no time left so that was particularly disappointing for us, that was four points we've left.
"We went away to Newcastle and didn't pick up the points there. Newcastle actually are on a bit of a resurgence at the moment, they're doing well so you've got to give them some credit, but looking at the table it's disappointing for us as a top 4 club not to go over there and pick up points. That will come back to haunt us I think."
One of the coaches believed to be in line to take over from O'Shea is two-time World Cup winner Wayne Smith, who Visser believes could take Harlequins to new heights.
"That would be great, the club deserves to have a coach like that.
"Conor has done wonderfully well over the years he's been here, he's picked up a lot of trophies and the club has been successful overall and I think to continue a trend like that you have to invest in coaches like that. They're enormously important.
"If you look at the quality of the players at the club and the talent within the squad it deserves to have a coach of that standing.
"He would be someone who could lead us on and take us even higher than we have been."
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