Profile: A winner among Saints: Northampton have chosen a wise man to direct their rugby fortunes. Chris Rea assesses him: Ian McGeechan

IT WAS when I had made the decision to retire from international rugby in 1971 that the call came from a Scottish selector. 'Tell me,' he said with that conspiratorial air assumed by all selectors once they have been more than a week in the job, 'we're considering playing Ian McGeechan in your old position (at centre). What do you think of him?'

With the stunning perspicacity of one who was later to make his living from rugby punditry, I replied: 'A bloody good club player but he'll never make it at international level.' It was a judgement, or rather an inept misjudgement, based on a season playing alongside the pale, frail teenager at Headingley. The natural talent was obvious even to the unpractised eye, but, in addition to a build which appeared perilously at odds with such a physical game, there was a diffidence which could not, I believed, be attributed merely to youth.

The only consolations I have are that the selectors totally rejected my assessment and that I was neither the first nor the last to be completely fooled by McGeechan. His spare frame survived the pounding of 32 internationals for Scotland and eight Lions tests in the toughest of rugby arenas. The quality of his play in which he possessed the enviable gift of so often doing the right thing at the right time and the shrewdness of his rugby brain not only made him a natural candidate for captaincy but marked him out as a coach of considerable promise. Just how considerable is recorded in the game's ledgers - a Grand Slam, a place in the last four of the World Cup and two Lions tours. McGeechan's name and fame have spread throughout the world. Rob Andrew who has so often acknowledged the part McGeechan played in his rehabilitation during the Lions tour of Australia in 1989, considers that he was the most astute and knowledgeable coach in his considerable experience.

McGeechan, save for the last two and a half years spent working as company training officer for Scottish Life in Edinburgh, has remained close to his roots in his native Leeds. He is about to cut the cord once again, and at the beginning of next month formally takes up his new post as director of rugby at Northampton.

It has been a lengthy courtship. Northampton began wooing McGeechan in February, offering him a package which he admits was sorely tempting. 'But there were so many other factors to consider, principally my job from which I derived enormous satisfaction.' McGeechan's role gave him free rein to establish and develop training programmes and to build his own empire from scratch. 'It was immensely challenging, interesting work and, above all else, it was going to provide me and my family with a secure future. That's not something you walk away from in a hurry.'

A secure future was not something which Northampton in their initial approach had promised McGeechan. He thanked the club for their interest, politely declined their offer and thought no more about it. The death of his mother in April was a great sadness which occupied his thoughts in the latter part of last season when, in addition to his other commitments, he was doing his damnedest as an assistant coach to keep London Scottish afloat in the Second Division of the Courage League. Their survival race, which went all the way to the tape, the last second of the final league Saturday, gave him almost as much satisfaction as anything else, the smile on his face at Southgate after the victory over Saracens being as broad as the one which had greeted Scotland's Grand Slam four years earlier.

It was in June that Northampton came back with, as they say in the television commercials, a new, improved offer. Back went McGeechan and family to Northampton. 'We were very struck by the friendliness of the local people and by the countryside surrounding the town. It is a most attractive part of the world and we began to give serious consideration to Northampton's package.'

This time it was no short-term flirtation they were offering but a commitment to a long-term relationship, with McGeechan's duties embracing all aspects of the game within the club including the establishment of a coaching structure, fostering ties with local junior clubs and schools and developing links with the business community whose financial support is so vital to the continuing prosperity of the club. 'The rugby club is a vibrant part of the community and I want to establish Northampton as a centre of excellence. The facilities at Franklins Gardens are first class and from what little I've seen of them so far, so are the players.'

It was the quality of the players who will come under his command which finally convinced McGeechan to accept the Saints' offer. 'I was presented with a unique oportunity of bringing to fruition a crop of outstanding young players coming up through the club system. Aggressive recruitment policies which attract big name players to clubs are, in my view, dangerously shortsighted. It's my experience that if players really want to win they'll do it for each other. It's that kind of selflessness which fosters the spirit and attitude so necessary for consistent success, not occasional flashes of individual brilliance.'

McGeechan's introduction to the first-team squad and to the coaches was during the club's four- day pre-season training in Lanzarote last month. 'I was mightily impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the players. And I was even more heartened to discover how genuinely pleased they were to see me.'

McGeechan sees no problems in the apparently anomalous situation of a highly paid director of rugby as taskmaster to a group of players labelled as amateurs who have other interests outside the game and several competing calls on their time. 'In common with most others who are involved at the sharp end, I am all in favour of players being able to make whatever they can, wherever they can, from activities on the periphery of the game, but I do not believe that they should be paid for playing. The players at the top level are driven not by money but by ambition and if I can create an environment at Northampton where each player in the first-team squad has a realistic chance of playing for his country then I will have given him what he wants. There will be no talk of money, no suggestion of jealousy, no question of conflict.'

If last season was a deeply disappointing one for Northampton's fans, who understandably had great expectations following the advances made since the club coup six years ago, it was, McGeechan believes, a temporary blip. 'The club achieved so much so quickly, perhaps too quickly. They were riding high in the league and had reached a Cup final. They also had Wayne Shelford who was a tremendous influence.'

McGeechan hopes that the wisdom and experience he has accumulated over the years as a player and as coach of world renown will prove to be equally beneficial to Northampton. 'I am the old head whose primary aim initially will be to bring younger players to maturity as quickly as possible. We spent a lot of time in Lanzarote discussing our plans and laying out our agenda for the weeks ahead. I am excited by what I have seen and heard. Northampton has one of the finest playing surfaces in the country and with the completion next season of the new 2,000-

seater stand it will also be one of the best equipped. There is a wealth of natural talent and genuine pace and I think that Tim Rodber will prove to be an outstanding captain.'

The new job with Northampton does not mean that McGeechan must sever his old links with Scotland or with Scottish Life. He will continue to do consultative work with the company and along with Jim Telfer he will assume an advisory role with the national side, working alongside the coaches Dougie Morgan and Richie Dixon.

Despite the wretchedness of last season's results, McGeechan believes that there is a core of players who can once again lift Scotland to the position they enjoyed throughout most of the Eighties and in the early Nineties. 'The problem is to identify those players and to stick with them. You must remember that since the Grand Slam victory in 1984, the Scottish team has been rebuilt three times. We are currently going through another building phase and one which has been seriously disrupted by injury to players of the calibre of Gary Armstrong, the cruellest of blows for a country with so few natural resources.'

Although McGeechan's priorities have switched elsewhere, his allegiance has not and his heart will forever remain with Scotland. 'Do you know what has given me the greatest satisfaction in my career? It was being totally accepted by the Scottish players during my time as coach. It was an indescribable feeling of belonging - a huge privilege.'