World Sevens Series Is Not The Answer For Melrose

IN THEORY, since it is the home of the club who started it, still located in the country which first embraced it – The Greenyards at Melrose SHOULD host a round of World Rugby's year-long, world-wide Sevens series.

But, in reality – nae chance. Look at it this way, by the same reasoning, Old Prestwick Golf Club should be on The Open golf schedule. Except, with the huge peripheral add-ons necessary – not least the insatiable demands of the media, neither The Greenyards, or Old Prestwick could cope.

Actually, tweaking their “sports”, the annual Melrose Sevens might better serve the Melrose club and Scottish rugby. Make it a wee bit more special, a Scottish and Rugby Union version of The Masters in golf. I know, it would be difficult to organise, and would require a lot of intelligent and in a way left-field, out-of-the-box thinking – not something you generally associate with either Borders rugby: where things - “hae aye been”, or the SRU “blazers”.

Given it's the form of Rugby Union which enjoys Olympic Games status, given time, Sevens will maybe, like Twenty-20 Cricket, become the mass-appeal, money-making side of the game. The trick for everyone is to ensure that, while, as it inevitably will thanks to the Olympics, Sevens grows, it does not surpass the purer 15-a-side form of the game.

The architect's impression of how The Greenyards will look

I know Melrose have massive modernisation plans for The Greenyards – a new stand, new 3G pitch, floodlights etc. However, the club in its plans, outlined on their website as the 1883 Legacy Project, is looking at developing the community aspect of the club, there is no mention of the massive structural changes which would be necessary, if Melrose was to become one of the venues for the World Sevens Series.

These architect's impressions of new stands and so forth always look great, but, if you look at the 1883 Legacy pages, there are plenty of shots of what the new stand will look like. To properly cater to a regular World Sevens Series slot, there would need to be another three stands, and, I reckon Melrose, even with the backing of the SRU, would struggle to get plans for these past Borders Council – even before we get down to the nitty-gritty of: “Who pays”.

As I said at the start, in theory, World Sevens Series at The Greenyards – fantastic. In reality, sorry, no. But, I feel some sort of revamp of the Melrose Sevens, in concert with a higher profile for the short game in Scottish rugby as a whole, would be no bad thing.

ON FACEBOOK this morning, I noticed an interesting item, posted by Ruck.co.uk. I don't follow this website, in fact, I had never heard of it until this morning, but, a quick look got me the impression is it some sort of spare-time time-filler run by red-top tabloid subs.

The item was big on headlines, barren of detail, but, apparently some top New Zealand refereeing wallah has been tasked with simplifying the Laws of the Game. This is news to me, I always thought New Zealand Rugby Union rules were the same as Auchinleck football rules and New York playground basketball rules: No blood – no foul.

Certainly, we could do with some of the verbiage in the law book shortened and simplified, but, this should not be at the expense of a proper, World Rugby-ran total overhaul of the Laws.

We all know where to start – sort-out the scrum, make the nines put the ball in straight, down the middle of the tunnel; take the scrum back to what it has always supposed to be : a means of restarting play after the game has broken down.

I could put a stop to the plook of endless scrum penalties in one fell swoop. You cannot hold the ball in the scrum at anything other than a scrum five, and, if a scrum does go down, either re-set it, or, if there has been an offence, the non-offending side gets to take a tap penalty, and only a tap penalty, with the opposition five metres back.

I have noticed over last season too, just as scrum halves get away with murder when feeding the scrum, more and more hookers are throwing-in squint; let's sort this out before it, like scrum feeds, becomes a problem.

Finally, can I get back on my favourite hobby horse. BRING BACK REAL RUCKING. I know, the squeamish don't like it, particularly the Twickenham Hooray Henries. Whenever big bad guys like Peter Wright, or any All Black forward you care to name, was trampling all over poor wee Will Carling, the Barbour Brigade screamed blue murder.

 Peter Wright - upset the Barbour Brigade when he stood on Will Carling

Yes, we would have to look out for, and get rid of the head-kickers and stampers, but, with today's all-seeing cameras at the top end, this would not be a problem. However, I am convinced, a return to proper rucking and the need to play the ball with feet at the breakdown, would speed-up and clean-up the game.

IN MY last post, I touched on the formation of a global professional season, featuring the best of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Well, it's not quite the same thing, but, some of Scotland's leading amateur players have apparently never stopped playing in 2017. Currently, the likes of Ayr and Scotland Club XV captain Pete McCallum, his comrade-in-arms in the Ayr back row, Blair Macpherson and Hawks' Jack Steele and Kerr Gossman are in Stockholm with the invitation Projecx Waterboys squad.

 Blair Macpherson - seeing the whole of the world, if not the whole of the moon with Projexc Waterboys. Pic courtesy of George McMillan

That happy band have been on an almost world tour since April, and good on them. After all, we all know playing, even if it is only in Tens, is always more-fun than the grind of pre-season training. Good gigs if you can get on-board, and, they have Dubai and Hong Kong coming up next season.