WHEN I was a boy and rugby was fun, there were set seasons. No club could play an organised 15-a-side game prior to 1 September in any season, and that season, as far as 15-a-side play was concerned, ended sharp on 30 April. Occasionally, the strict boundaries might be stretched by a week or so at ether end, for sevens tournaments, but it was domestically, an eight-month season, which allowed four months for cricket, tennis, golf or whatever. Certainly the Lions played in the summer months, but, that was to fit-in with the southern hemisphere's season.
Nowadays, rugby being professional, it is almost a 12-months-out-of-12 game. Indeed, those Glasgow and Edinburgh players not selected for the summer tour are already in training for season 2012-12, even as their club-mates prepare to take-on Fiji and Samoa in the final games of season 2011-12.
Do we now play too-much rugby? I feel we do. Even our top-flight club sides will be back in training within the fortnight, ready for their late August kick-off. I am a great believer in less-is-more. Cut-out the mundane, concentrate on the bigger games, go for quality of games over quantity, so why don't we get back to that September to April season? Just a thought like.
CONGRATULATIONS Tim Visser on his first cap. The Flying Dutchman has been a class act since joining Edinburgh, he has earned the right to wear the thistle and I wish him well. However, I hae ma doots about Sean Lineen trawling the world looking for potential future Scotland caps. I'd far rather the SRU was sorting-out the mess which is Scottish domestic rugby. I'd rather see a means in place whereby some kid from Possil, or Muirhouse, or the Raploch or any one of the many "sink" schemes in Scotland, attending a bog-standard comprehensive could be discovered and turned into a Scotland cap.
For too long we have relied on the same old schools as our domestic breeding grounds - nothing against the many fine Watsonians (the Hastings brothers), Herioters (Ken Scotland, Andy Irvine, the Milnes) or Academicals (Beattie Snr and Jnr, Arneil etc, Munro) be they Glasgow, Edinburgh or Kelvinside ones, who have worn the thistle, but until we see the first cap heading for an FP of a local authority comprehensive where there are few, if any, sporting outlets, we have failed to properly sell or organise rugby. We have a small enough talent pool that we can allow any youngster to slip through the net.
LAST week, Scotland beat Australia, who in turn beat Wales, while the All Blacks and Saffers did for Ireland and England. So, right now, we are top of the NH heap - scary, isn't it? I confidently predict disaster against Fiji and Samoa - it's the Scotland way.
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