SUPER SATURDAY last season was just that - Super, with everything up in the air as far as the Six Nations was concerned. This year there is not that level of interest. England are already assured of the Championship, all that is to be settled there is whether or not they can add a Grand Slam to the overall title and the Triple Crown, which they have already won. If they do win the Grand Slam, by the way, now is the time to get your money on them winning the Team of the Year award at the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year bash in December - you might still get worthwhile odds.
With little or nothing to write about, the British mainstream media has been forced back to its favourite role, concocting disagreement and dispute - with particular emphasis on "Gypsygate" and its aftershocks.
In the old days, when, had they been in use - the referee's instructions as scrums formed would have been: "Crouch, touch, engage - punch", Messrs Marler and Lee would have sorted-out their little disagreement at the next scrum, perhaps with a bit of help from their second rows. Nobody would have been any the wiser as to what had caused the falling-out. Today, with access all areas, nobody can fart in the scrums - always a no-no by the way - without the world knowing.
I am not at all surprised that the worst that has happened to Marler is, he has been dropped to the bench for this weekend's Paris match - Britannia waives the rules is an old saw with a lot of truth to it. There has always seemed to be: one rule for England, a different one for everyone else. I still think back with disgust at the affair of "the Calcutta Plate", when Dean Richards and John Jeffrey took the Calcutta Cup for a tour of Rose Street and returned to the old North British Hotel with it in a sorry state. JJ copped a six month ban, Richards got off Scot-free.
Today, after "Bloodgate" and so on, Richards is a somewhat tainted figure, coaching a struggling lower end English club side - JJ is one of the great and the good of World Rugby.
John Jeffrey (above) and Dean Richards (below) - produced the "Calcutta Plate"
Richards' career suffered a blow when he was, as Harlequins' Director of Rugby, implicated in the "Bloodgate" scandal. Marler plays for Harlequins, as does Mike Brown, the last English player to escape punishment for on-field indiscretions, after his Paso Doble session on or around Johnny Sexton's head.
"Stack" Stevens drinking after shave - Richards - Brown - Marler - Harequins; I see a pattern developing here. Maybe there is more to this Harlequins - the Tory Party with muddy knees, than meets the eye.
BEING a football writer in Glasgow is easy - all you have to concentrate on is the Old Firm and Scotland, while "the boy" on the Sports Desk gets to cover Partick Thsitle, Clyde and Queen's Park. In Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee - there are big local teams to cover, as well as Scotland, and PA will always feed you the Old Firm stuff.
It used to be harder for rugby writers, with lots of clubs, of near-equal standing to cover, and, in mid-season, the Inter-District games, then the internationals as a wee bonus to the pairritch and auld claes of the weekly grind.
Then came professionalism. Today's rugby writers now have in Glasgow and Edinburgh an oval ball equivalent of the Old Firm, with Scotland games as the cream on top. This blog has long railed against the comparative lack of coverage of the excellent BT Premiership - the papers and the full-time rugby writers have dropped the ball, and it is telling on sales.
But today, the papers reached a new low. Wall to wall coverage of the Scotland team to face Ireland. Sure, the Herald does give some coverage to tonight's Glasgow v Leinster game at Scotstoun, a match which, in any week bar an international one would be big news, but, The Scotsman ignores this match, but does get some kudos for a wee piece on Mike Blair's head knock problems.
This weekend, there are Scotland internationals at - Full, Under-20, Club, Under-19 Women's and Women's Under-20 level, six matches. A wee bit of coverage of the other five games, outwith the Six Nations lash in Dublin just might have been a nod to serious coverage of a sport, but, from the two Scottish papers which one takes to be interested in rugby - zilch.
Nae wonder their circulations are going doon the stank.
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