Alastair Hignell: Robinson the right man for Scotland – even if he is English

It is a St George's Cross we have to bear. No witness to the self-conscious, under-confident celebrations of the feast day for England's national saint could be under any illusion that we are a particularly nationalistic race.

And, given the politically correct – not to mention morally correct – attempts to reclaim the flag of St George from any association with the BNP, not even the most rabid Welshman or one-eyed Irishman could accuse us of being jingoistic or chauvinistic.

Yet "everyone hates the English" is such a given – particularly when it comes to sport – that it only gets trotted out to refute blatantly incorrect claims to the contrary.

When Wales' New Zealand-born coach Warren Gatland declared, in the build-up to the Six Nations' decider with Ireland, that the Welsh hate the Irish more than any other nation, he attracted criticism from every part of the rugby world.

He was wrong to confuse his personal animosity – he had, after all, been sacked by Ireland – with a national characteristic.

Even the Welsh were quick to remind him of that. But he was also just plain wrong in even intimating that anyone could be hated as much as the English.

Even the English were quick to remind him of that.

And that one-way hatred is, surely, the reason why , although the other home unions have been more than happy to appoint foreigners as national coaches – and although England's cricket and football teams are run by non-nationals (Fabio Capello and Andy Flower) – it has always seemed unthinkable that anyone other than an Englishman should be in charge of the England rugby team.

By the same token, English rugby fans have never really been able to grasp the idea of an Englishman as coach of a rival nation.

Until now. Andy Robinson is favourite to be named as the new coach of Scotland.

And, even though the man who was born and brought up in the West Country, and cut his playing teeth in the parochial environment of Bath before going on to coach both his club and country, is as proud an Englishman as you could wish for, he is quite obviously the right man for the job.

As well as coaching Bath and England, first as assistant to Sir Clive Woodward, then as replacement for the departing knight, Robinson has also coached on two Lions tours and, for the last two seasons, has been making silk purses out of sows' ears at Edinburgh. And on the back of success at the Scottish region, he has been helping out Scotland A and the full national team.

As competitive and bloody-minded as they come – as befits a little man constantly forced to "punch above his weight" among the giant forwards of the modern game – Robinson is also a keen student of the sport, as you'd expect from an ex-PE student and an enthusiast with a positive, can-do outlook.

With England, those qualities were both Robinson's strength and his weakness. Sir Clive Woodward walked out of the England job in 2004 largely because his demands for more time with the players were rejected by the clubs, who felt that they were already offering up their star assets for too long, and by the RFU, who felt that any "arrangement" that had won England the World Cup didn't need modifying.

Robinson, despite, as Woodward's first lieutenant, sharing his boss's frustrations, took the job on because he believed that he could work within the system , that by being positive and pragmatic, the difficulties could be minimised. What he wasn't prepared for was the huge number of injuries and retirements that affected the key, World Cup-winning players at his disposal.

The retirements of Martin Johnson and Neil Back could have been anticipated. That of Trevor Woodman could not.

Long-term injuries to Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill, Phil Vickery – players around whom he would have expected to build a new team– as well as a host of others meant that what was a hard act to follow became an impossible one.

Now, though, older, wiser and with a better idea of how the media spotlight operates, he is in an almost diametrically opposite position.

Whereas Woodward could not have achieved any more, Frank Hadden, who was sacked as Scotland coach at the end of the Six Nations, was widely thought to have under-achieved.

For Robinson – if he gets the job – the only way is up. He is an honest man, a decent man and an Englishman. And that last quality shouldn't be held against him.