It's The Small Details That Make The Difference

BACK last century, when I worked for a daily paper which still had credibility, and was still a “must read” for a lot of locals, one of the most-enjoyable days for me, as the guy who covered the local fitba team, was Press Day when we trotted down to the park to take the full team group – first team, reserves, youth team, back-room staff.

We would print the full team group as a wraparound for the Saturday paper, along with head shots of the new players, while, every week for the first part of the season, we would print a centre-spread poster of one of the first team on a Saturday. It sold papers.

One year, the club arranged a sponsorship with Uhlsport, the German company perhaps best-known as the company which invented the goalkeeper's glove. However, while goalkeeper supplies were a big part of their market, they covered everything you might need to wear to play football. (I always wanted one of these captain's armbands, signifying the wearer was Der “Spielführer” - a term with a certain resonance).

Now, that's what I call a captain's armband

Any way, as part of the deal, Uhlsport laid down some conditions for the group photograph. Each of the players and staff in the front row had to be wearing Uhlsport boots (regardless of the fact they generally wore Adidas, Nike or Puma); there had to be Uhlsport balls out front, with the manufactrurer's name pointing towards the camera, so it could be read easily – it was all very professional and the attention to detail was precise.

I thought then, and still do – that's how to organise a photo-call. More than 20 years later, it is clear, that lesson has not been learned at Murrayfield, if this week's announcement of the new £1 million-plus kit deal with Macron is anything to go by. What a shambles.

Now, perhaps The Junta is keeping their powder dry, saving the full technicolour, cinemascope, stereophonic sound, laser light show, bells and whistles etc for the announcement of the 2019 World Cup strip launch, on Friday week, 26 July, at Murrayfield. I understand they are going big on this, with some season pass holders being invited along to see the big reveal.

If that is the case, fair enough, but, I would have expected a bit more effort to go into announcing a six-year, £1 million-plus deal than did occur. And that picture which they put out, as one of the other silverbacks of the Scottish Rugby Press corps, perhaps the only scribe more-cynical than I on how Murrayfield does things, remarked: “Is Greig Laidlaw going to be facing the Irish in that tee-shirt, those jeans and trainers?”

It was not a good look, that's a lot of money to be throwing at Scottish Rugby, so maybe the SRU should have tried harder to demonstrate their gratitude. I had a look on one or two of the Scottish Rugby chat rooms, and, the poor bloody infantry of the Rugby Tartan Army are not 100% happy with the Macron deal.

As I mentioned in my last blog – the sizing leaves a lot to be desired, more than a few of those who took the trouble to post, are unimpressed with the quality. If enough people kick up a fuss, and the word spreads, the SRU will not shift as many replicas as they would like, and that hurts the game.

It appears, the quality is not quite there.

THE BEST own goal I ever saw was scored, for Dundee United, at Tannadice, by St Mirren's Jamie Fullarton. It was a cracker of a right-footer, into the postage stamp corner of the St Mirren goal, giving 'keeper Alan Combe no chance.

That was certainly a more-spectacular effort than yesterday's pathetic attempt at not doing their job from “Buddy and the Elves” in the SRU's Media department.

The new season's PRO14 fixtures were announced at 1pm yesterday. To be fair to them: Jeremy Bone and the team at Scotstoun had the Warriors' fixtures up, as did Stuart Martin and his team at Edinburgh – they did their job, but, you might have thought the main SRU team would also have put-up the fixtures, but, no – another own goal, and proof, that lot would not know a news story if it bit them on the bum.

No, let's not blame the team – the buck stops with the lead man, my old pal “Buddy” Horler.

As to the fixtures themselves, the two Scottish teams book-end the opening weekend's matches, with Warriors kicking things off, against the Cheetahs, in Bloemfontein on Friday, 27 September, with Edinburgh bringing down the curtain on the opening weekend, when they face Zebre, at Murrayfield, on Saturday, 28 September.

This being a Rugby World Cup year, the PRO14 season kicks off about a month later than last season, while, in another wee twist, the league has deliberately tried to avoid clashes with 6 Nations games.

Of course, there have also been subtle changes to the make-up of the two conferences, designed to maintain the league's reputation as arguably the most-entertaining of the three major European Leagues.

The full fixture lists can be viewed on the two clubs' web sites, if not the main SRU one.

This week, Glasgow Warriors announced the players they have called-in to provide cover during the Rugby World Cup. They are: Glenn Bryce, Alec Coombs, Robbie Fergusson, Gavin Lowe and Max McFarland, from the “core” Scotland Sevens squad, along with Ayr winger Kyle Rowe, who was drafted into the Sevens squad for the final couple of tournaments of last season.

Also joining-up as cover are two of the best hookers in the Tennent's Premiership last season: Boroughmuir's Jonny Matthews and Watsonians' Ross Graham, who we must never forget is a true Teri.