Big John Faces A Busy First Year As Sevens Tsar

BIG JOHN DALZIEL was somewhere he does not particularly relish being yesterday – upfront, speaking to the media. The big man, I have always found, is one of these coaches you look forward to grilling after a game. Win, lose or draw, he is open, honest and helpful – but, when you see him working with his players, you immediately get it, this is where he is happiest.

John Dalziel - now the Sevens Tsar

He has enjoyed a relatively straight-forward transformation from player, to player-coach to coach, at Melrose, with the Scotland Club and Under-20 XVs and at London Scottish. I confidently expect him to continue to move forward as Scotland Sevens Coach, and to see, under Dalziel, our short game group build on their greatly-improved form and results under predecessor Calum McCrae.

Yesterday, JD was promoting Scotland's chances in next year's Commonwealth Games Sevens tournament on the Gold Coast in Australia, where Sevens, Basketball and Netball were confirmed as the first of the three team sports in which Scotland will be represented.

The Sevens squad is already in-training for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series – which will lead into the Gold Coast event, which, in turn will be followed by the Sevens World Cup, in San Francisco – so, they face a busy year.

Scotland's Sevens squad - the secret is to keep winning

McCrae has gone – to Edinburgh; Scott Wight has hung-up his boots and enjoyed immediate success since taking-on the role of Scotland's Women's Seven Squad coach, while Rio Olympics silver medallist Mark Robertson will be passing-on his sevens secrets in his new role within the SRU Academy.

There are new faces, Robbie Fergusson has followed Dalziel north from London Scottish to the Sevens team, and others will doubtless be drafted-in, but, the bulk of last season's squad remains in situ.

Speaking to the ubiquitous Gary Heatly at yesterday's Commonwealth Games launch, skipper Scott Riddell simply oozed belief, declaring that a medal in Australia is not beyond the team.

Robbie Fergusson - one of the newcomers

And why not – the Sevens boys are the only Scottish team ever to have beaten a New Zealand team, which they did in London last season. The more-experienced players, Riddell, Hugh Blake and Dougie Fife for instance, know how to win. The likes of the experienced Gavin Lowe is fit again after a horrific year of injury, so, why should they not do well. And, come April, Mark Bennett might well be fit to return to a form of the game in which he excels.

There is a lot to be excited about as regards the Scotland Sevens squad.

However, this threat of a longer-term Team GB set-up in the World Series simply will not go away. We may not see resolution to this much before San Francisco.

By then, hopefully, Scotland has done so well, it will not simply be a case of one or two Scots being drafted-in to a primarily English squad. Indeed, the best means Scotland has of ensuring their continued place at the top table in Sevens is to punch above their current seventh place seeding, and if they can overtake England, well, who knows what might happen.

WE ARE, it seems, living in the era of The Coach As God. The top man in the technical area, or coaching box, is, apparently today the only one who matters.

So, with my long-established and jealously-guarded love for challenging hermeneutics, I am delighted to give a boost here to a just-published book: 'The Captain Class – the hidden force that creates the world's greatest teams', written by Wall Street Journal staffer Sam Walker, who suggests a special captain is more-important to a great team than a brilliant coach.

What has this to do with rugby? You ask. Well, in his book, Walker lists 16 “tier one” special sides. These are drawn from a variety of sporting disciplines –

The 1927-1930 Collingwood team in Australian Rules Football

Baseball's New York Yankees from 1949 - 1953

The Hungarian football team of Ferenc Puskas between 1950 - 1955

The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team of 1955 - 1960

The Boston Celtics basketball team between 1956 - 1969

The double World Cup-winning Brazil football team of 1958 - 1962

The Pittsburg Steelers American football team of 1974 - 1980

The USSR's “Big Red Machine” ice hockey team between 1980 - 1984

The All Blacks rugby squad between 1986 – 1990

The Cuban women's volleyball squad of 1991 – 2000

The Australian women's hockey side 1993 – 2000

The American women's football squad of 1996 – 1999

The San Antonio Spurs basketball squad of 1997 – 2016

The Barcelona football team of 2008 – 2013

The French handball team of 2008 – 2015

The All Blacks of 2011 – 2015.

The All Blacks is the only team to be rated twice, with captains Wayne “Buck” Shelford and Richie McCaw, the captains picked-out for special mention. Mind you, when it comes to All Blacks captains, mem and maybe half of New Zealand, would rate Sir Wilson Whineray, Sir Brian Lochore and Sean Fitzpatrick ahead of "Buck" Shelford.

David Sole - just one of several great Scottish captains

I look forward to reading the book fully, but, cannot help thinking, Scottish rugby has been luckier than most sports when it comes to special captains – from “Darkie” Bedell-Sivright in Edwardian times, via Wilson Shaw to Arthur Smith, then on via Jim Telfer to Ian McLauchlan, Jim Aitken, David Leslie, David Sole, Fin Calder to Greig Laidlaw.

You know, maybe the SRU blazers of the time knew more than they were letting-on when Scotland had an: “Adviser to the Captain” rather than a coach.