Two Out Of Three Aint Bad

BY ANY standards, Scotland's performances during the Autumn Internationals have to be considered successful, and promising. We won the two we were expected to win, and, with a wee rub of the green would also have beaten Australia. We unearthed one or two fringe players who have added to our strength-in-depth and, I believe, given luck with injuries in the interim, we can kick-on and have a good Six Nations.

We must pray for a return to full fitness of Alasdair Dickinson – the length of time he has been out of action is beginning to worry me, and of Wilem Nel. Well though Allan Dell, who has come on out of all recognition in recent weeks, and Zander Fagerson, did in the games – we need our two best props back for the 6Ns.

Vern Cotter now has real choices in the back division, particularly at centre, where Huw Jones ha been a rare find, selecting the wearers of the numbers 12 and 13 jerseys is now a real headache for the coach. We also have back row options, with Hamish Watson and Magnus Bradbury muscling their way into the mix, and Ryan Wilson having a great Autumn series.

Add that wee cameo from Ali Price against the Georgians, and confirmation of Rory Hughes's development from the same match and, yes, we are in not a bad place going into 2017.

THE atmosphere at Rugby Park was terrific, however, the match demonstrated the failings of the Ayrshire ground, a place I love and have done for many years. It was just too-busy.

The Lady I cannot live with, or live without – feelings she reciprocates, was telling me on Saturday night, how palpable the “buzz” was around the town on Saturday. This was obvious, how great to see Rugby Park nearly full – the crowd on Saturday will surely be the biggest the ground will host this season. All the franchises in the car park kept the fans around the place, everyone was happy and how different from the underlying sense of menace so-often associated with football games.

Mind you, the delays in handing out media passes pre-match didn't help, perhaps the SRU should address this issue before the 6Ns, while the lack of media parking was disgraceful, luckily for me, the Lady mentioned in the last paragraph lives 400 yards from the ground, so I was ok. Other hacks had horror stories to tell.

One glaring failure. How can you take a match to Rugby Park and NOT provide Killie Pies for the press at half-time. The SRU needs the press onside, some of us felt a wee bit under-valued when it came to the scran we were offered at the game – well down on what we expect at BT Murrayfield.

AS I suspected they would, the Scotland Women's team lost to Spain and are out of the World Cup. I accept, the SRU has to keep funding women's rugby, but, with the distaff side of the game in Scotland at such a low ebb, the governing body really is between a rock and a hard place.

Clearly, they do not seem to be getting value for money from their investment in Women's Rugby. Mind you, in Scottish Rugby, it appears to me, other than Glasgow, currently going through a bit of a dip, and to a lesser extent Scotland, every department of the game in Scotland is suffering.

Maybe if we had a half-way competent Director of Rugby looking at the whole game, and not just two professional sides, things would be better. There were a lot of people in official SRU anoraks running around Rugby ark on Saturday, and I haven't a clue what a lot of them actually do.

TOM Inglis was cremated on Friday, and thus Scottish Rugby has lost another of the good guys. Tom was an Ayr Academical, he loved life, rugby but most of all, having a good time. He seemed to be permanently smiling.

He did a lot for Ayr, and for his adopted club, Helensburgh. He did a lot during his short spell on the SRU Board and he will be sadly missed by all of us who knew him and counted him as a pal.

My lasting memory of TJ is from 40-years ago. The owners of a hotel in the town, which had suddenly become THE place to go on a Saturday night, decided it was becoming too-busy, so, they put five pence on the price of a pint.

The hotel was popular with Ayr RFC, it's where they guys went to chase women on a Saturday night, while the Friday at Five club met there to start the weekend.Any way, we said nothing about the price rise for about a month, then, one Friday night, Tom struck.

He approached the hotel owner: “Mrs Brown, about that rise in the cost of a pine....” he began.

“Yes Tom, I know, it was a bit steep, but, we felt we were attracting some riff-raff, so we have tried. to discourage them”.

“OK Mrs Brown, but, it hasn't worked – we are still here”, was Tom's response.

As I said – one of the good guys.