TO THOSE few of us journalists who can multi-task, covering games other than fitba, there has always been a difference between covering the Scotland football and Rugby Union teams.
BOTH teams are occasionally guilty of tripping up and consigning even those of us in the Tartan Army's Information Corps ino troughs of despair, but, when the chips are down in qualifying games, our Rugby players, unlike our footballers, tend not to stumble over lesser teams.
It is this pattern which leads me to believe, we will see-off the challenge of Samoa, at St James Park, Newcastle, on Saturday, to qualify for the Rugby World Cup, quarter-finals.
However, as always with Scotland, to achieve our goal, we need all our big guns firing on all cylinders. Rest assured, Mark Bennett will be back in the number 13 shirt; we must all offer up prayers to our God , that Finn Russell recovers from his sair ankle to fire the back line, while, a wee mention for Ross Ford and John Hardie will not go amiss when we are on our knees in prayer.
Here, I must ask a hard question - should we field Stuart Hogg on Saturday?
Not so long ago, this would have verged on blasphemy; was not Hoggie one of our few contenders for Galactico status? Maybes aye, maybes naw - but, it has to be admitted, when he's good, he is very good, but, when he isn't good, he can be average and infuriating.
And, sadly, we have to concede, in the Rugby World Cup 2015 games thus far, he has been more average and infuriating than sizzling. His passing, both in timing and execution, has been off, then, there was the "big reddie" he copped last Saturday with that "dive" when challenged by Brian Habana.
He was lucky the excellent Nigel Owens was on the whistle. A football referee such as oor ain William Collum would surely have flashed his yellow card for such a piss-poor example of play-acting.
It is not as if we MUST select Hogg. Scotland is in the fortunate position o having two British and Irish Lions full-backs in their squad. Sean Maitland may not have played much rugby in 2015, but, he is fit, he is there and he is available. We could start with Maitland rather than Hogg and not suffer.
If I was Big Vern Cotter, this is what I would do. The last time Hoggie went a wee bit flaky on us, during the run-in to season 2013-14, Gregor Townsend left him out of the Glasgow Warriors. Hogg came back from his spell on the sidelines a better player. Might this tactic work a second time?
I would start with Maitland at 15, Hogg on the bench, against Samoa.
JUST in case you missed it - there hasn't been a lot of publicity about it, but, Australia beat England on Saturday. England is OUT of the RWC.
The English mainstream media has treated this minor inconvenience with the calm, measured response which makes them so loveable. They went ape-shit.
Until, that is, this morning, when Brian "Pit Bull" Moore came up with a wonderful piece in the Daily Torygraph.
It is indeed, a sair fecht for our southern neighbours, when Moore is The Voice of Reason. Actually, I find the former hooker from Hell a refreshing commentator. Like his football equivalent - before illness silenced him - Jimmy Hill, Moore has been there, got the t-shirt and the DVDs, not to mention the caps.
He is not a paid-up member of the Little Englander Tendancy. I like him and feel in the matter of "Where Next"? his response has been a lot more measured than we oldies might have expected from a previous voice of Reason - the late and unlamented (in Scotland) John Reason, one of Moore's predecessors on the Torygraph sports pages.
It is not as if we MUST select Hogg. Scotland is in the fortunate position o having two British and Irish Lions full-backs in their squad. Sean Maitland may not have played much rugby in 2015, but, he is fit, he is there and he is available. We could start with Maitland rather than Hogg and not suffer.
If I was Big Vern Cotter, this is what I would do. The last time Hoggie went a wee bit flaky on us, during the run-in to season 2013-14, Gregor Townsend left him out of the Glasgow Warriors. Hogg came back from his spell on the sidelines a better player. Might this tactic work a second time?
I would start with Maitland at 15, Hogg on the bench, against Samoa.
JUST in case you missed it - there hasn't been a lot of publicity about it, but, Australia beat England on Saturday. England is OUT of the RWC.
The English mainstream media has treated this minor inconvenience with the calm, measured response which makes them so loveable. They went ape-shit.
Until, that is, this morning, when Brian "Pit Bull" Moore came up with a wonderful piece in the Daily Torygraph.
It is indeed, a sair fecht for our southern neighbours, when Moore is The Voice of Reason. Actually, I find the former hooker from Hell a refreshing commentator. Like his football equivalent - before illness silenced him - Jimmy Hill, Moore has been there, got the t-shirt and the DVDs, not to mention the caps.
He is not a paid-up member of the Little Englander Tendancy. I like him and feel in the matter of "Where Next"? his response has been a lot more measured than we oldies might have expected from a previous voice of Reason - the late and unlamented (in Scotland) John Reason, one of Moore's predecessors on the Torygraph sports pages.
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