A Good Start But In The Longer Term Not Worth A Hill O' Beans

Edinburgh Coach Cockerill

 

BOTH Dave Rennie and Richard Cockerill have expressed their delight at the way their squads performed in their weekend hits-out against Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks respectively. And rightly so.

 Glasgow Gaffer Rennie

We Scots, brought-up with the in-built prejudice of: “It matters not who won nor lost – so long as you beat England”, a doctrine which has been a rampart of international sport across the world for so long, do want to see any team representing our arrogant neighbours put in their place, but, the reality was, the games at Meggetland and Bridgehaugh were nothing more than looseners for more-important battles to come.

Pre-season games are for gauging the fitness levels, rehearsing the planned moves, getting new formations to gel, and finding-out if the new, young blood has what it takes.

And it is that latter point which left Cockerill and Rennie if not exactly purring, then certainly not too-unhappy with a defeat. This is mid-August, the real stuff does not start for another two weeks, while Europe, the field on which both coaches really want their teams to shine, is even further down the track.

The Glasgow XV which Rennie will send out to open their PRO14 campaign against Connacht will be almost-entirely different from that which faced Saints, and while a few of the Edinburgh team against Sale will be stripped in Cardiff for their opener, Cockerill has a considerable number of top men to bring in for that one.

What the two weekend games did demonstrate, however, is that we maybe have more talent kicking around in Scotland than we thought we had. This also indicates, the SRU's Academy system seems to be working, with a lot of the youngsters who produced such encouraging recent results for the Under-20s and the Sevens squad are growing-up nicely into professional rugby.

But, a large part of their growing-up has been done on the playing field in the BT Premiership, a competition which, while not without its faults, has worked well over the past three or four seasons, but, which the SRU is determined to scrap for something else, which may or may-not work as well.

Sir Bobby Robson - a wise old coach

The late Sir Bobby Robson, one of the great football managers of the recent past always insisted, nothing beat: “time on the grass” - being out there, playing in matches and learning at the coal face of the sport. I fear that, when the Super Six comes in, the fact the younger professionals and Academy trainees will, in theory, have fewer games to play in and will be prevented from testing themselves in the club game on a weekly basis, might tell.

I return to the football example. In Italy and Germany for instance, the tendency is for the best young talent to be coached in the academies of the top clubs, but, to have a spell playing in one of the lower leagues, before returning to the big club.

With the domination of imports in the English (football) Premiership, a lot of good, young, English players are now being farmed-out to lower league clubs, or to Scottish clubs, to gain experience. Over the past couple of seasons this system has spread to Scotland, with Celtic and Rangers youngsters going down the leagues for toughening-up.

In English rugby, the Academy system is well-enough established to keep the youngsters ticking-over and learning. We do not have their numbers or infrastructure, and, while I applaud the setting-up of A teams by our two pro sides, I still feel, there is a case for continuing to let the youngsters learn with top club sides – as happens in Wales and Ireland. Time on the grass is important too in Rugby Union.

I WOULD not wish to be an All Black this week, even after their big win over their neighbours from: “across the ditch” in Sydney. It was all very well having the game against Australia won by half-time, but, I think Steve Hansen will be reminding his charges this week: “You lost the second-half”, when, apparently boredom set-in and the Blacks allowed the Aussies four relatively face-saving second-half tries.

Steve Hansen - will have his grumpy face on this week

The whip will be cracked and I cannot see the foot coming off the gas pedal in Christchurch this weekend, as it did in Sydney last.

There is a lot of wishful thinking going on just now. People who ought to know better trying to make out that a Lions' series draw, mainly down to the men in red getting the benefit of a few dubious refereeing calls, was some sort of defeat for the ABs.

The men in black are still the gold standard in Rugby Union, but, as anyone with any kind of sporting pedigree knows, winning is the easy part, it is keeping-on winning which is difficult.

Unless you are the Harlem Globetrotters, facing the same team every time – with that team knowing they are supposed to lose – then every winning run has to eventually come to an end.

The All Blacks lost recently, they will want to make certain, they don't have to revisit that feeling for a long time to come.