THE week-end just passed was, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill: "the end of the beginning" - of season 2012-13. The Pro12 and the RBS Premiership will now yield precedence to the Heineken and British & Irish Cups.
So, before this change of emphasis, we should perhaps run a State of the Nation type posting. In the professional game, Glasgow, particularly after that fine win over Cardiff on Friday night, will go into the HC in better shape than Edin burgh.
OK, there were mitigating circumstances surrounding their loss to Treviso on Friday night - not least an Italianreferee, apparently appointed courtesy of a bit of interference from the Mafia - if you read between the lines; but, that said, good teams, particularly at home, always have ways of taking an incompetent referee out of the equation - although, for some unfathomable reason, this has long proved problematic to Scottish teams.
Must Do Better - a LOT better, will surely be wee Michael Bradley's message to his troops this week.
A couple of seasons ago, when his name was first being mooted as a ptoential Glasgow recruit, I watched Mike Cusack come second to Gordon Reid, then with Ayr full time, in a B&I Cup tie. I thought then, Glasgow were chasing the wrong prop. However, the two were subsequently signed by the club and today, with Reid's case being helped by Jon Welsh's long-term absence, they have elbowed their way past three four internationalists to be Warriors' two first-choice props.
They were particularly effective in Cardiff, with Cusack fully deserving his Man of the Match award and Reid not far behind in a display which totally over-powered the Cardiff tight unit. Of course, props cannot win the bump and grind battle unaided and maybe it is now time to bury, once and for all, that old chestnut about Al Kellock not being a good scrummager.
The way the Glasgow pack has worked this season has surely also boosted Shade Munro's standing as a forwards coach, and, while I'm being gracious, the big bearded Saffer in the back row looked a much-better player in Cardiff than he had in Scotstoun the previous week.
However, Glasgow's old nemesis of passes not sticking in the red zone, was again evident in Cardiff - but, at least they are creating chances, which, they will soon be taking regularly. I feel they could have a good HC this season.
IN THE Premiership, Ayr continue to lead - seven from seven so far, which is great for them. They travel to Currie on Saturday and this will be their biggest test yet, particularly with Peter Jerecevich absent on Scotland Sevens duty.
This battle of the "New Firm" will not, on its own, settle the Premiership title; however, if Ayr can keep winning - they will become increasingly difficult to peg back over the remainder of the season. This game deserves a big crowd at Maleny Park.
The B&I Cup teams' fortunes may well come down to which professionals are available to them. Gala and Melrose are perhaps, on domestic form, the most-likely to threaten towards the knock-out stages of the competition, Dundee and Stirling County will have to climb a few more rungs of the ladder from where they currently are if they are to make an impact.
I HAD a bit of a rant during the Cardiff v Glasgow game, when the referee sent the Halfpenny try or no try decision to the TMO. He ruled, correctly, that Stuart Hogg's brilliant cover tackle had seen him push the ball out of Halfpenny's grasp and into touch-in-goal.
The decision to award Cardiff the put-in to a Scrum Five was therefore, the correct one - I just felt, the TMO ended up making a decision which he wasn't asked to make. Or am I being pedantic? I can see, somewhere down the line - please, please, let it be in a crucial Calcutta Cup decision which goes Scotland's way - the TMO making a huge, match-turning decision, which will unleash all kinds of argument about what ought and ought not, be referred "upstairs".
A wee bit more thought and guidance would not go wrong, even if, on the whole, anything whbich helps-out the poor bloody ref is to be applauded.
I WATCHED the Leeds v Warrington Rugby League Grand Final on Sunday. The very good BBC coverage was spoiled, yet again, by the prattling of the ubiquotous Jonathan "Piles" Davies. But I had to laugh at one point when he - a former Warrington player - squealed about a Leeds forward pass not being called.
If there is one thing the Welsh do know about it is forward passes - seeing as they make them so often nowadays.
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