Disappointing, But The Correct Decision Was Made

I WAS at Millbrae yesterday, ready to cover the meeting between Ayrshire Bulls and Watsonians – second v first in the FOSROC Super6 and, leaving aside last night's PRO14 game between Glasgow Warriors and Leinster – the biggest game of the day in Scotland.

Sadly, it didn't happen. I must admit, I had my doubts about the game going ahead, when I heard the football match between Ayr United and Arbroath was off, so, I made sure I was at the ground early.

No Lunch For Billy Mcharg As He Tried to Get Millbrae Playable

The efforts the Ayr club made to get the pitch playable were huge. They had the covers down, they had been spiking the pitch and, when I arrived, Billy McHarg was out working on the park – while, inside the clubhouse the pre-match lunch was going ahead. Now, anyone who knows Billy will admit, for him to miss a lunch is a massive statement of his desire to get the game played.

I've played on worse pitches, it was taking a stud, but, it was patchy, so, I was not surprised when Watsonians, as is their right, declined to play. On reflection, with darkness falling, I think the pitch would have become really dangerous in the second half, so, no complaints from me about the game being off. Player safety must come first.

Mind you, given the SRU's demand for artificial pitches in S6, I hope the money can quickly be found to fund these. Maybe if The Junta cut down on the two-day jollies to five star hotels, we would get these pitches sooner.

WE IN the Scottish Rugby Media are occasionally a wee bit hard on the standards of our match officials. Mind you, I think our guys are definitely improving, as can be recognised from the greater number of PRO14 appointments our guys are now getting.

On Friday night, I watched the BT Sport coverage of Bath v Gloucester; The RFU put three of their top guys on that one, and, while I could find little on which to fault referee Karl Dickson, he got very little help from his assistants, particularly when it came to policing the offside line.

It used to be suggested: John Jeffrey and Fin Calder were born offside and remained there – compared to most of the Saracens' defensive line on Friday night, JJ and Fin were playing in the back three.

Fin CAlder - with Sarries, he'd have been a back three player

Time and again, Sarries had two or three guys in midfield metres offside. For sure, they were pinged once or twice, but, for me, not nearly often enough. Where were the yellow cards for repeatedly breaking the same Law?

World Rugby really needs to get a firm grip on policing the offside line, for the benefit of the game – it has gone beyond a joke.

THE AYE BEENERS who post below the line (BTL) comments on here and on social media wasted little time in voicing their disapproval of Gordy Reid signing his new partnership deal with Glasgow Warriors.

This will see the 41-times capped loose-head train full-time with Warriors, but mainly play in the Super6 with Ayrshire Bulls. Cue outrage from the enemies of S6, upset at the thought of a full-time professional playing in a part-time league.

This overlooks the fact, Reid's deal is the second such agreement, Sean Kennedy having already agreed a similar deal with Warriors earlier this season.

Now, there are 30 Stage III Academy “students” playing in S6 – they train full-time with Warriors, but mainly play for their S6 clubs. Add Kennedy and Reid and you have 32 of the players who are “full-time” rugby players.

That comes to just over 15% of the total player pool – is having that small a percentage of the total number of players bad, or harming the integrity of the competition? These are some of the complaints I have seen.

The idea of S6 is player development. In which case, I see nothing wrong with young players, who are full-timers, pitting themselves against experienced full-timers. It given them a notion of the standards to which they must aspire.

And, I will tell you this: as the seasons pass and S6 improves, I am sure we will see more full-timers appearing in S6, and I would suggest this will be good for the game and the competition.

Gordon Reid is still a Scotland squad member. The assumption, when Gordy stepped down from London Irish to Ayrshire Bulls was that his Scotland career might be over. It might be early days since the Rugby World Cup finished, but, as yet none of the potential replacements for Gordy in the international squad: Alex Allen, Jamie Bhatti, or Rory Sutherland has made a convincing case for promotion to replace him. Both of our PRO14 sides have tended to prefer South African loose-heads who are still not Scotland Qualified.

It is up to the contenders to step up and make the squad place their own, until then, I can see Gordy continuing to be back-up to Allan Dell come the Six Nations.

I WILL be watching Monday night's PRO14 highlights programme on BBC Shortbread with interest – to see if Welsh referee Craig Evans was as bad as the commentary team thought he was, at Scotstoun last night.

Craig Evans - the radio "pictures" of his performance were unconvincing

We are well-used to Peter Wright giving the referee pelters, it is what he has always done, and very often correctly. But, he was not alone in slagging the Welsh officials for his inconsistency – in pinging Warriors for something, then ignoring it when Leinster committed the same offence.

I have long thought, the Irish teams cheat better than the rest, and are helped in this by match officials who seem scared of the Dublin Refereeing Mafia who appear to control refereeing appointments in the PRO14.

In the PRO14, all teams are treated equally by the referees – but the Irish teams are treated more equally than the others – to amend the great George Orwell.

However, even if justified, criticism of Mr Evans and the officials cannot hide the fact, Warriors are not playing well this season.