Time To Have Scottish Match Officials Being More Welsh - To Level The Playing Field

I SAT down to watch last night's Scarlets v Edinburgh match with high hopes. But, at the back of my mind a wee thought niggled away; when the referee was announced as a young Irish official, having only his eighth Pro12 game, the alarm bells went off.

 

Just how will be screw Edinburgh was my immediate thought. For, one of the certainties of life is, visiting teams in Wales will get screwed. If the referee is strong, however, they don't get as bad a doing as is possible. Pro12 protocols mean, the "home" union supplies the assistant referees, which in Wales means - the guys with the flag will be absolute nailed-on "Homers".

 

Thus was the case last night. Edinburgh were playing 17 men from the start and, when it came to assisting the referee, the guys on the touchlines were always going to see every Edinburgh offence, but, none of the Scarlets'.

 

It was a close game, between two evenly-balanced teams; but, when it came to the iffy 50-50 decisions which, in such close contests are so-important: Edinburgh got nothing from the officials.

 

There is nothing the SRU can do about this, apart from, growing a pair and telling the Scottish officials who get handed the flags when the Irish, Italians and in particular the Welsh come to Murrayfield or Scotstoun: "Look lads, level the playing field a bit for our guys, by developing selective amnesia and vision".

 

A couple of seasons of a taste of their own medicine and the Irish and Welsh might start playing fair when it comes to referees.

 

 

 

I FELT sorry for the Under-20s last night, at Colwyn Bay. We don't have the depth to be able to take three or four of our best players out of the squad to either sit on the bench or play for their professional clubs.

 

Andy Nicol and John Beattie referred to the pecking order when it came to the importance of teams, which the SRU has adopted.Their decisions, last night, cost our Under-20 team a possible Six Nations title, which would surely have done wonders for their confidence.

 

Mind you, writing that may be a wee bit hypocritical. In the bigger picture - I am more-worried about putting in place a proper development structure, for getting these very good Under-20 players to the next stage, where they are pushing for the full national squad. That is something Scott Johnston should be addressing, to justify his nice fat salary.

 

 

 

WELL, here we go this afternoon, round two of the Six Nations and Wales in Cardiff. Of course, we ought to have no chance there, anything we get, we will accept with alacrity. I do not think in my heart of hearts, we will win. However, that said, we can win, and it would be a huge boost to us all if we did defy the odds and actually pull it off.

 

You know, Wales did not look very good against Ireland. They have weaknesses, and, they didn't impress, without making the horrendous mistakes we made against England. If we cut out those errors, we can beat them.