Enjoy Today, But The Hard Work Resumes Tomorrow Morning

ONE of my favourite rugby stories is about the 1974 Lions – the Unbeatable Immortals – in South Africa. They had just won the Third Test and with it the series; a considerable amount of strong drink had been taken both on the Saturday night, and on the Sunday morning, and the team were relaxing and recovering in their hotel.

Willie-John McBride, pictured here behind his "wing man" Gordon Brown - we would do well to remember his take on a stunning victory

Someone announced: South African TV was about to re-run the previous days match and some of the younger players were keen to watch their triumph again. Skipper Willie-John McBride, who had, as ever, been at the epicentre of the celebrations, took his pipe out of his mouth and cautioned his men: “That's history, forget it, we have other games to win.

A wee touch of McBride's common sense is called for this morning, as we think back to yesterday's stunning Scottish success at Murrayfield. There is at least one more hugely-difficult match to come. Our visit to Dublin, to face the still unbeaten Irish, will in all probability be our hardest game of the campaign. If any Irishman was daft enough to think, Ah! It's only the Jocks – and that is unlikely given how hard they know it is to beat Glasgow, and increasingly-so how hard it is to beat Edinburgh, well yesterday's destruction of England will have been a reality check.

Ireland is a seriously-good team and we will probably have to be even better against them than we were against the English, if we are to win. And, if we can win in Dublin, this will leave us facing the perennial Scottish banana skin – bottom team Italy, in a game we are overwhelming favourites to win.

It aint easy following any Scottish team, our history is full of cases of two steps forward, one step back and I, for one, scarred over so-many years, while I enjoyed yesterday, am not getting carried away.

ONE MAN who was getting carried-away yesterday was Scottish Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer Mark Dodson. There he was, throwing his arms in the air and cheering wildly, as John Barclay hoisted the Calcutta Cup at the end.

 Mark Dodson applauds, as John Barclay hoists the Calcutta Cup

And why not, that win will surely help him and Dominic MacKay better sell the SRU and Scottish Rugby to big business and on the corporate hospitality stage. So, that particular Englishman had every right to feel pleased.

One hoped-for, but by no means certain win, plus one totally-unexpected triumph out of three matches is a good return for the SRU. As the song says: “Two out of three aint bad,” but, it might give Dodson and the Ayatollahs additional cause to claim: “The system still isn't working properly, or, we might have beaten England in all three games,” as they continue hell-bent in their determination to force through Super Six and the even-more contentious Agenda 3.

This overlooks the fact, the team which lost – the Women's side – has hee-haw to do with the implementation of Super Six and Agenda 3.

The Under-20s win, which came absolutely out of left field, was, for my money, THE win of the weekend. I'll admit it, after their losses to Wales and France, I feared for the kids, but, they raised their game and came through with a fantastic second half fight-back. Throw-in the side show of the indiscipline of some of the coaching staff, and had England won by 30 or 40 points, nobody would have been surprised.

But, just maybe, the Scottish system, whereby the best young talent splits its time between the National Academy, the two professional clubs and Saturdays playing in the BT Premiership has its merits. The English boys were all in Aviva Premiership Academy sides – spending their time playing against each other, seldom tested against more-mature specimens in club games.

There is something to be said for younger players being asked to test themselves in the club environment. I certainly believe taking the likes of Kyle Rowe, Stafford McDowall, Ross Thompson and skipper Robbie Smith out of the Premiership for the untested waters of Super Six would be a mistake.

Six teams is too-small a number for regular season-long play; leave the best of our young talent playing in an eight or ten-club Premiership, and, if there has to be a cross-over point between the club game and the elite performance game then, by all means form six District sides – but only play them in a short, sharp, Mitre Cup from New Zealand style competition in the spring.

The cash – a trifling amount at that – which the SRU has set aside for their proposed six super clubs, might be better spent further across the club games – to capture those currently non-rugby-playing kids who were perhaps motivated by yesterday's result to want to try rugby – and to bring them on-board.

Last week, the SRU announced a 25-strong squad of Under-18 Home Scots, who are preparing for an Under-18s “Six Nations” tournament next month. Of the squad announced, 8 boys are from a club background, the other 17 are from traditional rugby-playing schools such as Dollar Academy, Strathallan, Edinburgh Academy, George Heriot's School, George Watson's College and Merchiston Castle School.

Scotland's rugby-playing base is still too-narrow, we are still dependant on a few private schools for the bulk of our allegedly top players. Instead of actively seeking to narrow the base, to support so-called “top schools”, and a few clubs, the SRU ought to be making every effort it can to broaden the base, and take rugby, particularly at junior level, into parts of Scotland where it is currently under-represented.

Paddy Dewhirst - from Cumnock RFC to Scotland Under-20s

When my elder brother and his pals started Cumnock Rugby Club back in 1961, they just wanted to play locally, rather than at Glasgow University and what was then the Royal College of Science and Technology, or at Ayr or Kilmarnock.

They never thought, 50-years down the line, their club, a small entity deep in the heartland of Junior Football, would have sent Mark Bennett to the national side an an Olympic silver medal in Sevens, Gavin Lowe to the Scotland Sevens squad and the extended Team GB Sevens squad or Paddy Dewhirst to the Scotland Under-20 side.

But, they built it – they came, and success followed. Learn that lesson Mr Dodson.