Edinburgh - A Suitable Case For Treatment

WHAT are we going to do about Edinburgh? That would appear to be the main talking point for the High Heid Yins of the SRU this week.

We have had the musical chairs surrounding the Glasgow and Scotland Head Coach jobs, but, nothing at all about Edinburgh. While Glasgow got off to an absolute flyer, beating Connacht in Galway, Edinburgh's Pro12 opener in Cardiff was a case of woe, woe and thrice woe.

OK, Alan Solomons has a plan, he is seeking to leave a legacy of good, young, Scottish talent at the club. Sure, in Blair Kinghorn, Damien Hoyland, Chris Dean, the three young scrum-halves and a clutch of promising young forwards – Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Sutherland, Jack Cosgrove and Co the basis is there, but, something is missing.

I have, on the few occasions I have spoken to him, found Solomons a decent man, and he is clearly a good coach. However, I fear, he may now be past his sell-by date for Edinburgh. Of course, that club's problems go deeper than merely under-performing in the Pro12, but, if results do not pick-up quickly, it may well be time to summon a taxi for Solomons and to give one of the thrusting young Scottish coaches now making a name for themseves, a chance at the big time.

THE PROBLEM is, of course, we don't have the third pro team we need to provide the platform for our coaches and young players. The long-touted semi-professional Premiership might help this. Ayr, Melrose, Heriot's and now Watsonians are probably already semi-professional, but, some of the other Premiership clubs have a way to go.

It doesn't help make a case for such a league when you hear of the losses some of the clubs made last season – one Borders club in particular running a near six-figure deficit over the season, if rumours are true. Can the SRU afford the subsidy which will be necessary to get the semi-pro clubs running effectively? Are the potential sponsors there, for clubs in a league which doesn't get the publicity the level of play merits.

Of course, the farce of withdrawing from the British & Irish Cup, then dangling the carrot of an Italian-Scottish Cup, before withdrawing that doesn't help.

When are Mr Dodson and the other High Heid Yins going to fully appreciate, the clubs are the body of the kirk, if they don't look after that, the steeple – Glasgow and Edinburgh – will fall down.

SATURDAY'S Premiership fixtures – and what did we learn?

Ayr and Melrose will, yet again, be the teams to beat.

Ayr, from the consensus of the Millbrae cogniscenti who travelled to Goldenacre “Were shite, but found a way to win”. Time was, an Ayr team, even one playing well, struggled in the capital, and lost. Times have indeed changed.

Melrose produced some breath-taking stuff in beating Hawks, but, were greatly aided by the failure of the Glasgow side to hold onto the ball when in dangerous places.

These Hawks youngsters are good. Sure, they will endure other bad days, such as Saturday, but, they have an outside chance of making the top four.

Watsonians will be a threat – at least in the first half of the season

Watsons have recruited well, they have strengthened where they felt they had to and two wins from stwo is a real confidence-booster. However, the established teams will work them out in time. However, in Marcus di Rollo and Simon Taylor, they have two excellent young coaches who will enhance the top flight.

Dinna write-off Hawick just yet

They may prop-up the table after two games, but, I am confident Hawick will not finish the season there. We hear at least one young Teri, enticed away by a big-money offer from elsewhere has seen the light and returned to again wear the green. The Green Machine is sometimes slow to fire-up, but, it will get going again.

FRANS ten Bos died last week, aged 79. The big English-born, Scottish educated Dutchman is, to some, a reminder of a past age. As snotty early sixties schoolboys, his name was good for a laugh and a joke: “Imagine having ten baws!!!”

He was a God-send to Scotland. After England unleashed Marques and Currie on the world, the call was for giant second-row partnerships, and, in 1960 the 6' 3” - 16 stones ten Bos and the 6' 5” - 18 stones Mike Campbell-Lammerton was Scotland's response. Bill McLaren dubbed the pair, and the equally big John Douglas at number eight: “Nuclear-fuelled dinosaurs”, because they got about the park, as well as dong the grunting at the scrum-face, behind that wonderful McLeod, Bruce and Rollo front row.

Big Frans made one try and scored another when Scotland beat Wales in Cardiff in 1962, breaking a 35-year Welsh hoodoo in the process – yet he thought he had a poor game. He combined a stellar career in the City of London with a lifetime of dedication to London Scottish, while he was also a pillar of the Old Fettesians Association.

He joined the Argylls as a humble Jock, and was commissioned, having been earlier rejected as: “Not Scottish enough” by the Camerons; had two wives, and three daughters – one of whom married a Rockafellar.

He never had a bad word to say for anyone, and was yet another worshipper at the throne of Hughie “the Abbot” McLeod. A hell of a man was Frans ten Bos.

GOOD to see Stuart Lancaster back in rugby, as a Senior Coach with Leinster. He was far too good a nuts and bolts coach to be out of the game for long. Of course, he suffered from the media hysteria which surrounds any English national team – you know, if the SRU don't promote one of the young Scottish coaches when Solomons departs, the former Scottish Universities player would be not a bad fit. Just saying like.