Poor Wee Heriot's - Aye Right!!

I HAVE a (grudging) admiration for weel-kent Scottis hack Neil Drysdale. Neil lives up there in Aberdeen, seldom - if ever - actually attends a rugby match, yet manages to pen a weekly column on the game.

In his latest offering, he comes out with some sympathy for Phil Smith, the Heriot's coach, who has been having a moan about the delays to the BT Premiership Play-Off semi-finals and final.

OK, any other season, Smith and Heriot's would, by now, be celebrating having won the Premiership, by a huge margin, and, nobody would have anything to say about it. However, the goalposts were moved before this season got underway and, while the Goldenacre Gang have proved themselves best over the regular season, that doesn't amount to Big Duke's "hill of beans", because, the title will go to the team which emerges unbeaten from the play-offs.

(Maybe, if play-offs are going to be a regular feature, the SRU should award a pennant or something, to the team topping the table at the end of the regular season).

Smith is complaining about the way "player dispensation" was used by some clubs, to have the final league games and the play-offs put back.

A wee bird told me, the reason for so-many dispensations and call-offs was quite simple - the other clubs have ganged-up on Heriot's, to get back at Smith for his petty and childish citing of Ayr's Ross Curle in the recent league game between the sides.

Had Ayr's league game with Melrose not been put-back, Curle would have missed the play-offs, now, he will be available to the Millbrae club, and, should the final come down to a clash between Ayr and Heriot's, my money is on "Rosco" producing a stand-out Man of the Match performance.

Mind you, I reckon Currie has impetus and just might beat Heriot's on Saturday. Ayr v Melrose, that's just too-close to call and it could go either way.

IF Mike Blair is joining Glasgow Warriors as a player - nope, bad move. If, however, he has been recruited as a player-coach, terrific move.  Glasgow has Henry Pyrgos and Grayson Hart - both of whom are Scotland squad players, they also have Ali Price and Murray McConnell, two very-promising young nines.

Blair's experience will be great for all four to tap into, while, he will surely be able to do a job for Warriors during the World Cup and the 2016 Six Nations. He can also, if necessary, do a job at ten.

I HAVE seen a lot of comment of late about the way the 15-a-side season seems to peter-out these days. Regular play after New Year has become a thing of the past for our top club sides.

OK, they still love their "sports" down there in the Borders, but, elsewhere, sevens lang syne lost its lustre.

The Border League continues, with the local clubs playing league games midweek, so, why not instigating a West District League and an Edinburgh District One, for the benefit of their top clubs, who are not playing regularly. If not another league, why not District Cup competitions, with a limit on the number of professional players who can turn out. 

We need to offer the ambitious national level clubs more opportunities to play, it is as simple as that.

Another avenue we should be going down is to commit to competing in the British & Irish Cup EVERY season. OK, thus far, we have not got the details correct, but, this is a cracking competition which our top club sides deserve to be participating in. Not playing this season was yet another error by the guys at Murrayfield who have seemingly forgotten that the amateur (or semi-professional) game is the real heart beat of Scottish rugby.

I used the word semi-professional there - aye, that's another can or worms which should be opened. More later.