This I Am Prepared To Pay To Watch

TODAY I have done something I have always said I would never do; (memo to self – never say never). I have taken-out a Sky subscription purely to be able to watch Australia v Scotland, then the Maori v the British and Irish Lions.

I have only taken-out a one-day pass, I am not too keen on giving Uncle Rupert too much money, but, I feel I can justify this one. Needless to say, I am hopeful of at least a Scotland win, I remain somewhat ambivelent towards this pride of Lions, given the Scots were screwed totally in the selection process.

Gregor Townsend - can select from strength-in-depth

It says much about the progress we have made under BVC that Toony could make as-many changes to the starting XV and still field a competitive side. Look at it this way, here is the Scotland XV he could have fielded, but for injuries, Lions' selection and his own preferences: Hogg; Seymour, Bennett, Jones, Visser; Horne, Laidlaw; Dickinson, McInally, Welsh; R Gray, Gilchrist; Bradbury, Denton, Hardie. Replacements: Sutherland, McArthur, Lowe, Ashe, Fusaro, Hidalgo-Clyne, Weir, Brown.

Only two of those listed twenty-three players are with the squad in Australia. This means, Toony has available to him ovr 50-international-class players. I would suggest, I have never before, in over half-a-century being involved in Scottish rugby, seen us with that many quality players available to the national coach. And that is before we start considering the bright young things in last season's and this season's Under-20 squads, who will very soon be knocking on the international door.

Scottish rugby is in a good place, we just need consistent winning erformances to reinforce this. Tomorrow morning in Sydney would be a good time and place to start providing these.

MY ONE-TIME brother-in-law (he and my wife's sister subsequently divorced), could have been a contender. He was in what was then the Scotland Under-21 squad, when he sustained a career-ending knee ligament injury.

He subsequently had to retire, far-too-early, gave up rugby and has since concentrated on becoming an expert in beer and fathering lots of kids with his second wife. I suggested to him, at the time, once he got the go-ahead to run around on his rebuilt knee, he ought to start refereeing, as I was sure he could have gone far.

But, he belonged to the generation who were brought-up believing that anyone who picked-up a whistle before they had reached 35, had a severe mental problem and it didn't happen.

Fast forward 20-years or so, and we have Mikey Adamson switching seamlessly from player to referee, and doing well. Now young Hollie Davidson has joined the ranks of Scotland's full-time whistlers, and is being fast-tracked to the top.

Hollie Davidson

I welcome this initiative of the SRU's, which goes further – the Union is ensuring their Academy players have refereeing qualifications, as a fall-back option, should their playing careers not train-on as the Union and the players hope it might.

Love them or hate them, we cannot do without referees and, after too-many years of Scottish referees being under-appreciated, it is good to see some progress. The next Fleming, or Sansum or Hosie will, I am certain be along very soon.

WHAT the fuck is going on at Edinburgh? I had hoped the arrival of Richard Cockerill would have brought a much-needed dose of reality and professionalism to the seemingly eternal chaos which taints the capital club. But, still I wonder.

Edinburgh has just announced the signing of Darryl Marfo from Bath. OK, I accept, his mother is from Ayrshire – which means he has been exposed to extreme thrawnness from an early age – and he is Scotland qualified. Good.

New Edinburgh signing Darryl Marfo

However, he is 27, a seasoned professional, but, in his career with Harlequing, London Welsh, Bath, Ealing Trailfinders and London Scottish, he has been involved in 75 matches, but, when you count-up the minutes actualy on the pitch, he has only really played the equivalent of 30.

He is a loose-head, BUT, Edinburgh already has THREE Scottish international loose-heads on their books – Alasdair Dickinson, Rory Sutherland and Allan Dell. I know, both Dicko and Rory have been long-term injury absentees, but, I still do not see the need to bring-in a 27-year-old who has, thus far in his career, failed to establish himself.

Is this, I hope not, a case of an English coach having already decided, prior to his arrival, that the Jocks are simply not as good as a journeyman English-trained player in the same position? Because, if that's Cockerill's default position – I fear his tenure at Edinburgh will be short.