Well Done Wagga

SO Leinster have won the Heineken Cup - well done to the Dublin lads, and particularly well done "Big Wagga" aka Nathan Hines. At his advanced age and with Richie Gray growing in stature with every international, I would not be surprised were the big Australian to announce his retirement from international rugby as soon as Scotland exit the World Cup.

He has always been an iconic figure, whether playing in Scotland, France or Ireland and on the day when fly half Jonathan Sexton wrote his name all over the match, how typical of Wagge to gate-crash with that crucial try for Leinster.

THE lack of self-awareness within Murrayfield is amazing. Perhaps they have been taking spin-doctoring lessons from Alastair Campbell - a man whose contribution to Rugby Union as press officer for the 2005 Lions was, well shite, says it all really.

The SRU media department put-out a press release following Mark Bennett's decision to join the Clermont Auvergne Academy, which gave the impression he had somehow emerged from a laboratory deep within Murrayfield, dedicated to producing Scottish internationals.

The gist of the release was how Bennett had come through the SRU's Pathway programme and the Scottish Age Group system and what a succcess this had been. No mention of the hard work of guys such as Harry Reilly, Morton Houston and Steve Miller - not forgetting Mark's dad, at Cumnock. Ignore the contribution of Jock Craig, Kenny Murray and the team at Ayr, who backed this brilliant youngster's promise by playing him in the first team all season - no, it was all Murrayfield's doing. Aye Right.

Maybe, if Murrayfield would give the professional clubs a bit more leeway and make them totems for the Districts, if they would put a bit more into the top of the club game, we would not be losing outstanding young talent such as Mark to foreign climes. Certainly, if I was a promising young Scot, having seen what has happened to the likes of Alex Blair, I would think twice about turning professional in Scotland.

ONE player who has turned full-time this week is Ayr prop Gordon Reid, and I had to laugh at the strap line over the story in The Scotsman. This referred to Reid as "a late developer". He's 24 and he's a loose-head prop. At that age he's barely out of nappies; but, he's packed a lot of First Division experience into his short career and, with Chunk maybe thinking about quitting after the World Cup - Reidy is the right age to maybe kick-on to add a full cap to his Club XV ones. The fight for the number one jersey at Glasgow in the new season will be keen.