A POINT I have repeatedly made in these ravings is: when it comes to sport, no nation has greater triumphs, or suffers greater disasters than Scotland. Just one of the many crosses we have to bear in being what Sir Alex Ferguson calls: “The Master Race” is, we prefer Burns to Kipling – just compare 'To a Moose' with 'If.' We cannot look at the twin imposters, triumph and disaster and treat them both the same – particularly when it comes to sports results.
Take Saturday's loss to the French. The “Disaster for Scotland” headlines were being writ large. Frankie Howard's Scottish cousin was strolling around going: “Woe, woe and thrice woe.” OK, we were disappointed, but, we were turned over by arguably the top side in the world at the moment, so, it's not as if losing to France was a shock.
OK, the two best players we've produced this century were both below their best, and, had everyone been fit, the team which took the field have been considerably different from the one which did. We made far too-many mistakes and didn't do ourselves justice. But, while I cannot argue that a six tries to two loss wasn't a right good gubbin' – was anyone really surprised that France won.
Scottish expectations are always great, the reality is too-often somewhat different.
I had a look at our performances in the Five and Six Nations since hostilities resumed, post WWII, in 1947, exactly my life time. ur record does not make encouraging reading. Take the 53 Five Nations' campaigns between 1947 and 1999, here our final position was
Winners – Three times
Second – Nine times
Third – 15 times
Fourth – 13 times
Fifth – 13 times
Then I looked at the 22 Six Nations campaigns since Italy joined-in in 2000, here our final position has been:
Champions – Never
Second – Never
Third – Four times
Fourth – Six times
Fifth – Eight times
Sixth – Four times
In fact, over the 53 Five Nations' campaigns, we had a 39.8% winning record – 84 wins from 211 games. Not very good, however, better than our winning record in the Six Nations.
Here, we have won just 35 of 113 matches up to Saturday, a winning record of 30.9%.
And there's more, in those 75 post-war seasons, we have managed just the two Grand Slams, in 1984 and 1990. But, in the same period we have managed only ten times, to win three games in a single campaign – but, four of them have been in the last five seasons. So, maybe we are finally turning the corner and, a decade from now, things might look a lot more encouarging.
Let's be honest with ourselves, we're shite and some of us know we are. We seldom have been any good and, I for one wonder what we are going to do to change this long run of being also-rans. I feel, if international rugby was run like international football – where form rather than the Old Boys Club dictated who the top nations were – we'd maybe have been playing in the Rugby Europe Championship, rather than the Six Nations, lang syne.
We accept the then SRU high heid yins made a right Horlicks of the switch from Amateur to Open rugbuy. We've been playing catch-up ever since, but, we are in our 27th season of Open Rugby, surely we should have better sorted ourselves out by now?
But, as I see it, Scottish Rugby is a wee bit like Scottish Football. “It's aye been, and aye will be” still rules the roost.
I DO NOT pay a great deal of attention to Women's Rugby. However, as the father of four daughters and with one grand-daughter, I have every respect for women's right to play a game which, let's face it, can bring-out most unlady-like emotions.
But, being Scottish, I am absolutely delighted that we will be going to the Women's World Cup, which takes place, In New Zealand, in October.
The Scottish girls will be based in Whangarei, in Northland; the most-northerly city in New Zealand and one which was founded by a Scot. So, a warm welcome is certain.
We begin our campaign with a match against Wales, on 9 October; we then take-on the Australians on 15 October, while our final pool game is against the hosts, New Zealand on 22 October.
Coach Bryan Easson and the girls have done bloody well to get there. What impressed me was, they absolutely hammered Colombia in the qualifying final – I am sorry, but, I always worry about Scottish teams going into “must-win” games, against opponents considered inferior, we Scotsmen have a long and undistinguished record of messing-up on such occasions.
I trust the SRU will now throw sufficient resources at the campaign to give the girls every chance of qualifying for the later stages, from a group in which their expectations are not great. The lift they have given women's rugby up here, just by qualifying, is immense, everything from here on is a possible bonus.
THAT WAS an interesting wee announcement that came out on Tuesday, about the necessary criteria for a place in England's Gallagher Premiership – a minimum ground capacity of 10,001.
I have my doubts if any of the current English Championship clubs could meet that need, without spending several £ million on ground improvements, or striking a deal with a friendly local football team. So, to me it looks as if, while they might allow one other team in, to even-up the numbers, the existing clubs just might be seeking to ring fence their league.
That 10,001 ground capacity rule just might help bring about the cross-border British Isles League which has been spoken off as the final destination of Super6. Watch this space with interest.
FINALLY, given the school's reputation for probity and its ethos of “muscular christianity” I am certain it was an innocent mistake which caused Loretto to field an over-age player, and thus be flung out of the Scottish Schools Under-16 Shield.
But, the less-charitable among us will surely enjoy the Musselburgh school's discomfort and embarrassment and perhaps ask: “Who do they think they are – everyone knows it's only Etonians and Fettesians that get to believe rules don't apply to them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment