A
GUID NEW YEAR tae ane an' awe,
an' moany may ye see. And
let's also hope, 2019 is a less-divisive year than 2018 proved to be.
It should certainly be an exciting one, not least with a World Cup to
come in the Autumn.
But,
before then, what might we see? Well, old Aristotle has been
consulting the oracles, and reckons we might be in for a bit of a
roller-coaster ride. The fun has already started, with the release of
the PRO14 refereeing appointments for Round 13, which sees Ireland's
Joy Neville, now arguably the world's leading female match official
being given an appointment – she will be on the whistle for
Saturday's meeting of Benetton and Warriors, in Italy.
Good and bad news for Hollie Davidson: she's got a PRO14 appointment, but, Lacey is refereeing
Joy
is not the only lady on the Round 13 appointments list, oor ain
Hollie Davidson is on the second flag for the Edinburgh v Southern
Kings game at Murrayfield. And the bad news for Hollie is, Lacey's on
the whistle; at least, they have a competent TMO, in the person of
big Andy McMenemy.
Mike
Adamson and Ben Blain are in Galway on Saturday; Mikey has the
whistle, and Ben is AR1 for the Connacht v Munster love-in!!
THAT'S
the
immediate hard news, looking further ahead, what can we expect this
year?
- The kerfuffle around S6A3 will continue throughout this season – on into the close season and might not even be finally settled at the SRU AGM in August.
- S6 will happen, but the battle over where the six franchises' core amateur clubs play will go right to the wire. I expect to see it take-up a lot of time at the AGM, but, in the end, the Establishment, and the six franchises will, I feel, get their way.
- Gavin MacColl's report on governance will also make waves. I fancy we will see fewer National Leagues going forward, plus some structural changes to the leagues we do have – and, one or two cubs which think they are “big” outfits, are, I feel, in for a reality check.
- It will be interesting to see what the SRU does about replacing the Lesser-Spotted Johnson, once he takes off back down under in March. Some are asking if we really need a Director of Performance Rugby, settling that issue will keep the Board and Council busy.
- But, Scott Johnson is not the only High Heid Yin requiring to be replaced. One or two of the SRU Board are now past their sell-by date, and should, by rights, be being replaced. I gather one or two of the great and the good of past office bearers are not happy with TCD's somewhat cavalier approach to recruiting capable Board members.
- We could certainly do with a new Chairman, the present incumbent makes the Lesser-Spotted Johnson look like a publicity-hungry show-off, so anonymous has he been.
- A lot of the troops are not happy with “Doctor Who's” efforts since she replaced Lance-Corporal Jones at the AGM. It is widely suggested, TLC and TCD are the puppet-masters, and that the good Doctor is being manipulated. Time to break free Dee. You and Iain Barr just might make a difference.
- Glasgow announced a raft of re-signings just before Christmas. In the next few months, I expect to see a few departures, and some new arrivals, both at Scotstoun and Edinburgh. I certainly hope the teams off-load some of the under-performing non-Scots and get a few more talented young Scots like Darcy Graham, Stafford McDowell and Grant Stewart signed-up.
- What might we expect from the Guinness Six Nations? I would happily settle for three home wins, plus that long-awaited Twickenham triumph. I don't want to be greedy and have too-high hopes going into the World Cup.
- I am looking forward to the run-in to the Tennent's Premiership. If Ayr can reproduce the display they gave at Melrose, last time out, they should finish the season on top of the table. But, anything other than an Ayr v Melrose Grand Final will surprise me.
- However, I have a sneaking suspicion Heriot's will come through to win the Scottish Cup. On their day, they can beat everyone else.
- Finally, with their new 3G pitches due to come on-stream this month, I hope my own Cumnock club can finally find consistency and get up the West Division One table, ready to mount a serious attack on the title in 2019-20.
IN
Closing this
first post of 2019, can I thank everyone who took the time to log
onto this blog in 2018. I intend being just as controversial and
cover just as broad a rugby canvas in this new year that I did in the
past.
Your
support, your comments and your interest certainly keeps an old man
happy and committed to continuing.
Re Scott Johnson replacement:
ReplyDeleteA cost conscious option would be someone like Sean Lineen. An ambitious option would be going out and headhunting someone with hands-on experience of another system that consistently works.
Re Cumnock (in-fact all West Regional Clubs) - it's sounding like Clubs need some clarity on what promotion and relegation is going to look like this season.
Obviously, the Super 6 Club XV balls-up is a great unknown, but what we do know is that West Clubs voted for leagues of 10 next season, so we should definitely have three down from West 1 this season (assuming one up from West 2), but it could be more depending on any West Clubs coming down from National 1 (and the 3rd relegation spot there looks like it will be close).
It's a tough ask for Cumnock to stay up (currently 13 points behind 9th spot), but a couple of wins in January will make things interesting, whilst three wins from four this month would really put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Good analysis, as ever pegj.
ReplyDeleteI think we will see a reduction in the number of National Leagues, and, assuming at least National 3 goes, that will mean possibly all five West clubs in that league being demoted to Regional status. What happens after that is open to conjecture.
Personally, I would not be against more-localised regional leagues, if you see what I mean. But, as you say, so-much is up in the air, and, we really need some guidance and clarity on several issues, well before the AGM.
How many Clubs playing at National level is an interesting discussion, and I'm hoping that's where Gavin MacColls review comes in. I also hope this review will be far more encompassing that a few paper based exercises asking what people want, and then asking similar questions again when you don't get the answer you were expecting.
ReplyDeleteWe need a proper debate about what the Club game needs to look like in 10 years time - not what we have seen recently of the Premiership being unable to come to a consensus so a structure which nobody wants is imposed on everyone.
Me personally, I'd go for two National leagues of either 10 or 12 (the Super 6 Club sides would initiatally be excluded from this), and then regional below this. The first regional league would be of 10, and then below that there would be flexibility on numbers, how promotion & relegation works, and how reserve teams are included in the competitions.
Would there be minimum criteria for entry to the National leagues? Well there's another debate.
I agree pegj. The MacColl stuff is going to have to compelling and built on sound rationale. Given the questionnaires I’m not convinced but still hold out hope.
DeleteA strong vision of the future and a description of how we get there would be a good first start.