I will not hae a hauf of Walker's, but good luck to the SRU

I HAVE not allowed a drop of Johnnie Walker to pass my lips since the day Diageo pulled the brand out of Kilmarnock, and I never will drink it again. However, that said, well done to Dominic McKay, or MH33 as he is referred-to in this blog, getting JW onboard as “Official Whisky Partner” is a good bit of business.

But, does this mean The Famous Grouse, a better blend in my view, is off the menu at BT Murrayfield? The thing is, Walker's best-known recent sponsorship has been with The Ryder Cup, they have tended to do “flagship” international sponsorships. I doubt very much if the SRU is getting that kind of money for this deal, but, to get such an international Scottish brand on-board is good business.

A WEE bird tells me the good men and women of the SRU Council are not best pleased at the way the announcement of the Establishment stitch-u.., sorry Independent Review into Governance was handled. Apparently, TCD forgot/omitted to tell them he was going to hand Sir Bill Gammell and Norman Murray the biggest can of whitewash he could find inside the biggest B&Q in Edinburgh and delegate them to cover his, and others' fat arses.

But, what's new, for every good move, such as the Walker's tie-in which they come up with, the Three Amigos – TCD, MH33 and J Cheever Loophole manage to come-up with something like half a dozen means of proving, they are at the moment beyond the control of the body which is supposed to have oversight and control.

All of, or at least the vast majority of the problems afflicting the SRU at the moment keep coming back to one unavoidable touch of reality – the rugby side of the Scottish Rugby Union does not appear to be being run by rugby people.

Sure, allow MH33 to bring Walker's cash to the table – but it is you, the Council members, who should be telling him, and his two partners in crime, where and how it should be spent.

When she first stood for high office, Dee Bradbury stood on a platform of standing-up for the clubs, and holding the paid executives to account. Well, you've had your first year as President, Mrs B; you haven't impressed – time is running out if you wish to leave a legacy from your status as the first woman president of a major union.

Because, you haven't come up to the mark, you have made it a lot harder for the next woman who tries for high office.

I understand too, that the two stooges who were humiliated when they opposed Ian Barr for the vice presidency last season, are attempting to return to the trough. Let the clubs be fore-warned.

IN THE WAKE of our relegation out of the top tier of the Under-20 World Cup, I have started an in-depth examination of our progress in bringing through young talent. Unfortunately, I am having bother finding-out the names of some squads over the past decade, but, from what I have discovered thus far, we are not doing too-well.

I have, as yet, been unable to find any details on one complete season, and short of spending a full day up at The Mitchell Library, it will be difficult to find the missing information, but, what I have found is far from encouraging.

Over the past decade I have found that, only around 50% of any one season's Under-18 squad advance into a future Under-20 squad. Less than a quarter then advance to earn a full professional contract, and less than 10% make the final leap to full international status.

My data is, as I have said, incomplete, but, at first glance, serious questions have to be asked, about our initial talent weeding-out, and more-so about how we bring these kids on once we have identified them as maybe having that bit extra.

It does not look good at the moment, but, I will get back to number crunching before I write more-fully on the subject.

But, all is not lost. At the same time, I am conducting a similar exercise on Scottish football, and the SFA's inability to spot real talent makes the SRU appear to be paragons of virtue when it comes to giving youth a chance.

IN MY ongoing efforts to always look on the bright side of life, I am occasionally thankful that, grim though many aspects of life in Scottish Rugby are at the moment – we are not England or Wales, where famine, pestilence and outright civil war seem to be permanently ongoing.

Poor wee Eddie Jones, one of the three men currently holding the bigger poisoned chalices of English Exceptionalism in Cricket, Football and Rugby is having a wee moan to Robert Kitson in The Guardian this morning.

Eddie only joined the RFU in the wake of England's failure to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup, but, as he pointed-out, in less than four years, he has had to work with FOUR different Chief Executives at Twickenham.

We up here might not be fans of TCD, but, at least, he has hung-in there. And, unlike Eddie, Gregor Townsend is not in the middle of a continuing battle for supremacy between the Union and the top clubs.

Leicester Tigers are now up for sale, what will the rugby landscape down south become if, as is rumoured, the same international big money which has polluted the English football Premiership gains a foothold in English Rugby? I'd rather not go there, thank you very much.