DJ And DB Deliver Another Kicking To Murrayfield

THE SCOTSMAN is, apparently, up for sale on the cheap. The rumoured £3 million price tag is quite inviting – if it wasn't for the small matter of £220 in accrued debt being carried by the Johnston Press, which owns The Hootsmon.

Buying The Scotsman and turning it around is one of my dream bucket list things – you know, how I would spend the remainder of my hitherto mythical £150 million-plus EuroMillions winnings, after I had paid-off “the Coven” - my four daughters.

At least, The Hootsmon realises there is rugby in Scotland below the two PRO14 sides whereas The Herald only copies and pastes SRU press releases. And that is why I was sad this morning – because Graham Bean, The Hootsmon's normally excellent Head of Sport, and his faithful rugby batman Duncan Smith, failed to pick-up on David Johnston's surgical slicing of the Murrayfield Hierarchy in The Offside Line yesterday.

David Johnston scoring his famous try at Cardiff in 1982

Wee David cut through the humbug and downright deceit of recent Murrayfield actions as well as he used to cut through opposition midfields in his days with Watsonians and Scotland. His two pieces of yesterday, particularly the “long read” should be read by everyone who cares about Scottish Rugby.

Well done the two Davids, Johnston and TOL Honcho David Barnes. Like them, I will be keeping up the pressure on the charlatans currently in-charge at HQ.

Now, suppose David Johnston had stayed with Hearts, for whom he played as a teenager; then gone on to win his 27 Scotland caps at the round rather than oval-ball version of football. Supposing he had then gone on to have a spell as national coach. Had he then gone on to launch the sort of tirades against SFA mismanagement he has done in TOL to the SRU – the mainstream papers, plus BBC Scotland, would have been all over the story.

He'd have been on the back page of every paper, Richard Gordon and Tom English would be interviewing him on midweek Sportssound, while he'd be Saturday's guest of Stuart Cosgrove and Tam Cowan on the lunch-time edition of Off the Ball.

But, because he swapped Tynecastle for Myreside and starred as a centre three-quarter rather than a central midfielder, DJ's excellent expose of the failings and funny business of Murrayfield has passed largely unnoticed.

I don't necessarily blame Iain Morrison for not picking-up on Johnston's excellent piece – Morry is sadly seen as “Establishment,” while the closest-thing The Herald has to a rugby writer has been cowed and bullied into submission by Murrayfield, so, no help there.

You have to, in a way, admire the chutzpah of TCD, The Chairman, The Consigliore, Lance-Corporal Jones (still we hear wielding some power behind the throne), Doctor Who (still looking for her sonic screwdriver to get a grip of the mess) and the Munchkins on the Council, (too busy munching away at the SRU buffet to do their jobs).

“Russellgate” exposed not so-much flaws, as fault lines in the SRU's management structure and processes, but, they battened down the hatches, sat tight, said nothing, and now, with European Rugby, the Autumn Internationals, Christmas and New Year, then the Six Nations to come – why they have a chance of keeping their disgraceful behaviour, their refusal to provide the openness and candour they promised and their lack of shame deep in the long grass until maybe the end of the season.

I can see TCD being head-hunted by the Trump administration at this rate.

It's all a wee bit like Brexit. You can be fucking things up totally, but, if you've got the press and broadcast media on your side, or have convinced them: “Nothing to see here, move along,” then you can get away almost with murder.

Meanwhile, in the real world:

• We have National League teams unable to fulfil league fixtures
  
  
• We have matches called off because we have a shortage of referees
  
  
• We regularly see Regional League games unplayed
  
  
• Minor team rugby is dying a death
  
  
• Youth rugby is withering on the vine
  
  
• We are seeing schools rugby in some areas dying back to public schools only

But hey, Glasgow is selling-out Scotstoun for the Saracens game, Edinburgh's crowds are on the rise, and all is well with the world. Have another G&T, Buftie old boy.

THE CLUB CAPTAIN of one of our National League clubs recently contacted me, about something which was worrying him. It is actually something I referred to above – the terrible state of rugby in state schools.

This club captain plays for a club with a terrific relationship with local schools, and one state school in particular, which to be fair is actively promoting the game and where it is strong.

But, he made the point about how bad things were, so, I did a bit of checking, and, what I found shocked me.

I was aware of how some of the public schools are using rugby as a recruiting tool. A few very good state school players have been given bursaries and switched to public schools, where they have done well. But, in the process, this has harmed the state school.

The public schools will survive, and, in any case, they are seen as “blessed” in the eyes of Murrayfield. My concern, however, is the state schools, who, I feel, are being ignored by HQ.

I looked at the fixtures for this season's Scottish Under-18 Schools Cup. In the first round, 3 of the 8 scheduled games were not played. In the second, 8 of the 14 ties were unplayed, in the third round 5 of the 14 ties were not played and in the fourth round, to date, 1 of 3 scheduled games was unplayed, because one of the sides scratched.

In every case, it was a state school which withdrew. In the Under-18 Plate, the fall-back competition for sides which have been eliminated from the Cup, 3 of the 4 first round ties saw a scratching. In the Under-16 Plate 5 of 15 ties were conceded.

That means, in the Scottish Schools U-18 Cup, the flagship competition for Schools rugby, 17 of 39 scheduled ties – 44% of the matches – were not played.

Worryingly, the schools which scratched include some with a great rugby heritage: Royal High School, Hawick High School, Kelso High School, Jordanhill College School, Hutcheson's Grammar School and Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, being among those who have called-off games.

Now, I appreciate there will probably be mitigating circumstances in many instances, but, when you see schools with rugby heritages such as these ones unable to meet fixtures:

Murrayfield, you have a problem!!!