When You Cannot Do The Basics - Shite Happens

BALLET DANCERS – even the Nureyev and Baryshnikov-class ones, learn the basics and repeat them at class every day. Male principal dancers just might be the ultimate male athletes, and it is all down to that in-built daily grind at the barre and in the studio.

Catching a quick clip of Duhan van der Merwe copping his red card for his illegal fend-off of Kyle Rowe in the Worcester Warriors v London irish match, my first thought was: this is down to players unable to do the basics under pressure.

IF and I have deliberately made that IF a big one, full-time professional players worked a bit more on their basic technique, there would, I feel, be little likelihood of such an incident recurring.

To partially quote old Waylon Jennings: “Let's get back to the basics.”

For a start, Kyle's tackle was too-upright. Given the difference in sizes, there is no way he can hope to do more than slow-down VDM going that high. By going high, he invited the fend, which VDM got wrong.

If we lower the tackle height, then Kyle has to try to take him round the hips or legs, where he has more-chance of bringing him down, and VDM has a better chance of attempting a hand-off, which is unlikely to get him red carded.

A lot of today's less-edifying incidents in matches would be avoided, by a return to the basics which held throughout the amateur era. #whatever it takes might not be the best slogan.

There is now speculation as to who will get the number 11 jersey, if, as expected, VDM is suspended for our game in Rome at the weekend. The smart money is on Blair Kinghorn, with Adam Hastings as back-up to Finn, on the bench.

WHEN I realised the only way I could keep abreast of events in Llanelli on Saturday night was via BBC Wales, I bailed-out; there is only so-much myopic commentary one can take.

I seemed to have picked a good one to miss, yet another Glasgow Warriors collapse from a promising position. Sadly, there appears to be a pattern emerging with the club this season – a promising start, followed by a second-half collapse.

There are suggestions of some sort of tummy bug surging through the squad on Saturday, which would certainly go some way towards explaining this particular collapse. However, with Edinburgh putting Connacht to the sword, this thumping does little for Glasgow's confidence.

At their best, Glasgow will give anyone a game, but, their inconsistent, roller-coaster form, needs urgent addressing.

BT SPORT'S rugby coverage is so-slanted towards the “England is wonderful” school of sports journalism as to be all but unwatchable at time – particularly when Austin Healey goes into overdrive.

So, well done Mike Tindall, for getting Scottish Rugby a mention on Sunday night, when he revealed he had been guesting for Bannockburn RFC on Saturday. Might his mother-in-law have pulled a few strings at Murrayfield to make that happen.

His appearance was part of Mike's role in trying to get guys who have maybe given-up the game to come back and play – an initiative in which I wish him every success.

PENULTIMATE POINT – Franklin Clark, Head Coach at Bishopton RFC, a former hooker who learned his craft at Kilmarnock and Cumnock; protege of 'The Ayrshire Ayatollah' as we disciples refer to the great John McHarg, is a man of strong opinions, with a deep feeling for the game of Rugby Union Football.

Mind you, he can be a wee shite and some of the stuff he posts on my Facebook page, Ouch! But, in general, I love the wee scallywag and take great delight in pinching a Facebook post of his from Saturday. Franklin wrote:

“Shout out to Isle of Mull RFC who travelled down to play us today and made a real effort to fulfill the fixture they also pulled in players from the main land to get a full squad, that is what real rugby clubs do to get games played, other "clubs" should take note of the effort this club makes. Brilliant effort and did their club proud on the pitch and more than did their bit in the clubhouse afterwards and I'm sure the journey back up the road was eventful, I speak for everyone at Bishopton Rugby when I say you will always be welcome at our club. See you soon “

Well said Franklin, that' the attitude we need at grass-roots level.

FINALLY – I know this is a rugby blog, but, I just had to say: how terrible it was to read last week of the passing, aged just 52, of Shane Warne. Warnie was a total one-off, a 'larakin' as the Australians called him, who marched to his own drum.

I think we Scots loved him, mainly because of the pain he caused our southern neighbours – starting with that “ball of the century,” the unplayable delivery which did for poor Mike Gatting and announced Warne to the world.

He was larger than life, as constant a front-page as back-page presence, but, a man who had a terrific sense of what his game and his part in it meant.

Michael Parkinson, one of my sports-writing heroes, a true giant of our craft, had a story of sending his sons back to Barnsley, to summer holiday with their grand-father, a coal miner and stalwart of the ultra-competitive Yorkshire leagues.

Parkie had his own cricket pitch in the back garden of his Thames-side residence and, on returning, he had the boys out there, where-upon his youngest bowled him with a leg break. Grand-father Parkinson had taught him the lost art, since, back then, there were no leg-break bowlers in first-class cricket.

Then Warne arrived and changed that – that's the mark of a genius. He deserved his place as one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the 20^th Century.

We were lucky to see him play; we shall not see his likes again.