That Referee's A Baw Bag - But It Wasn't All His Doing

NO EXCUSES HERE, WHEN PUSH CAME TO SHOVE, THE SAFFERS WERE TOO-GOOD FOR US, END OFF.

But, that having been said - might we have won with a referee other than Mr Clancy, or TC Clancy as I refer to him and there are no prizes for working-out what TC means. Not for the first time, but, hopefully for the last time, this obvious Jock-hater did us.

The inconsistency over the two 'truck and trailer' tries was disgraceful, but, given the way the IRB has apparently washed its hands of any responsibility for adequate refereeing, should we have been surpised. What we need is a Scottish captain who is prepared to get right into the referee's face, until he gives us our deserved share of the tight decisions, it doesn't matter what we do - we will lose.\

Of course, the neutering of the ruck has hampered Scotland greatly. The All Blacks have found a way round this, courtesy of Mr McCaw; why cannot we be like them. All I can say about the Saffers blatantly illegal slowing-down of Scottish rucks yesterday is - would they have managed this against a back row of Calder, Beattie or Paxton and Jeffery?

That trio would have trampled all over them, but, with referees such as TC Clancy, it will never happen. I'd like to see a Scotland captain tell the likes of Clancy, the first time opponents ilgally disrupt a ruck - 'Right, ref, if you will not blow them up, we will ruck them out and if you penalise us - we're off'.

However, having got my rant at refs out of the way, again our failure to do the basics under pressure cost us dearly. Take that brilliant attacking line-out, less than five metres from their line, near the end of the game. As Ross Ford came across to take the throw-in, I said: 'He'll fuck this up".

Needless to say - he did. Throwing-in is such a vital part of the hooker's armoury today and sadly, as has been proved too often in the past, under pressure, Ford crumbles. Time to say ta-ta.

OK, we are hurting just now, but, not nearly as much as the Welsh and the English, both of whom are, I believe, victims of believing the hype of their own media.

I have never bought into notions of Welsh greatness. I reckon they are the luckiest Six Nations Champions ever, You only have to look at the poor rugby their Rabo Pro12 teams are producing to see, all is not well in Wales - a lot of average players being over-hyped.

The same is true of England. English rugby is now like English football - a lot of well-paid foreigners bringing attributes to the teams which are beyond the native Englishmen, who are, perhaps even more than the Welsh, being over-hyped, by the Sky Sports bandwagon.

A wounded Aussie is always a dangerous beast, as England found-oput yesterday an, th the Saffers and ABs to come, things are about to get mighty tough for Stuart Lancaster, an able coach whose biggest short-term job is going to be dampening down English over-optimism and their supporters' belief in England - the Master Race in Rugby.

FINALLY, a wee bit of praise for Ryan Grant. Not that long ago, it was a case of: if anything happens to "Chunk" we're in deep doo-dah. By his recent performances, Grant is now unquestionably our Number One at number one and we should praise him for that.aA