Brewer the toast of Scotland?
April 18 2009
Scotland forwards coach Mike Brewer has become the first man to confirm he is applying to for the head coach's job.
Former New Zealand international Brewer joined the national team set-up last year and is now looking to succeed Frank Hadden, who stepped down just over three weeks ago after four years in charge.
Brewer, 44, believes former England boss Andy Robinson is favourite for the role.
Edinburgh Head Coach Robinson insisted on Friday he would wait until Monday's deadline before deciding whether to apply.
"He's probably the best person for the job, if you're looking at progressing your coaches through," Brewer told BBC Scotland.
"I will be putting in my application on Monday.
"I'm away around England to see the exiles over the next few days for the Six Nations review and I'm going to get their feedback on how things went and where they think we need to go forward.
"The key thing for the whole of Scottish rugby is to maintain continuity and to keep up skilling the players and at Glasgow and Edinburgh to keep increasing their expectation."
Brewer believes Scotland possess the potential to improve on their dismal recent record in the Six Nations and cited the template used by Grand Slam champions Ireland as something to emulate.
"When you compare the team that won the Six Nations, Ireland, and this current Scottish side, we're probably around two or three years away from reaching their level," he added.
"One of the key components to Ireland's success is that when things get a bit lateral, they know where to put the ball, to keep the opposition under pressure and to maintain that initiative.
"That's one of the key things that comes from years of experience at this level.
"Phil Godman, Graeme Morrison and Max Evans are very, very young in comparison to that Irish back pairing.
"We need to change and a big aspect of it is our intensity at training and our accuracy of execution, which really comes under pressure at Heineken Cup level with Glasgow and Edinburgh and at international level in the Six Nations.
"Our skill level and execution isn't as good as it should be and you have to train at that level to be comfortable playing at that level."