IF YOU WATCH nothing else this week, go to You Tube, to the Borders Rugby TV channel and catch View From the Commentary Box Seven, in which Stuart McFarlane speaks with Iain Milne.
Stuart Cameron and Stuart McFarlane do more good promotional work for Scottish Rugby than the entire SRU Media team, while The Bear is always worth listening too, even if you disagree with him. He's right on-form in this one, with Stuart drawing some intriguing points from his distinguished guest.
Iain doesn't miss his target and hit the wall, when he points out: “80% of the games called-off due to 'Covid', it was the away team that got hit.” That's a very-interesting statistic.
He suggests, we cut back on the number of 'National Leagues' we have. Iain suggests doing away with National League 3, I'd go further and abolish National League 2 as well. He would also like to see a concentration on Regional Leagues for three to five years, to stabilise the situation and get people playing again.
Iain has long been arguing for, as he says: “Getting more second and third XV rugby played, get the clubhouses buzzing again and bring back the camaraderie of the club game.”
He again makes this point well, and I am right behind him in this. It's a smashing interview, I do encourage you to seek it out on You Tube.
I HAPPENED UPON another interesting item on Facebook this morning. It was a Washington Post story about the recruiting of a quarter-back, the key position in American Football – their version of the fly half – by various private schools in the DC area. The player concerned was 14-years-old.
On the basis of what America does today, the UK will be doing next week, we could extrapolate this tale forward and have a 14-year-old fly half at a secondary school here in Scotland, being pursued for months on end by the coaches of rugby-playing public schools.
Now, I know some of our public schools have a reputation for offering full scholarships to young players from the state school system – in Fifth and Sixth Year, but, as yet they haven't, as far as I know, been chasing First or Second Year secondary boys. But, we can never say: “It will never happen here.”
You hear tales of young footballers losing all sight of reality, when they are offered a place in a big football team's Academy. Aged 13 or 14, or nowadays, sometimes as young or 8 or 10, they are seduced by the potential riches of the professional game, all thoughts of academic progress go out of the window, and they throw all their future hopes into a career in football.
The problem is, even if the club they eventually join does have a workable youth development system, the truth is, the club reckons, from every full team of 11 young players they take-on, full-time, aged 16, they will be lucky if even one makes it through to establish himself in the first-team.
One of my friends keeps me entertained with tales of his 14-year-old grandson's sporting prowess. The kid is one of Scotland's top young athletes, sitting high-up in the GB Athletics Power of 10 rankings for his event. This ranks the top times by age group and event across the UK. He also scores goals for fun for his local Boys Club football team.
The big clubs are circulating, offering all sorts of incentives, in an effort to get him to join. Fortunately, this kid's father is a former professional footballer, who went down to England as a 16-year-old, didn't make it and came back up the road to enjoy a fair career in the Scottish League. So, his Dad knows all the pitfalls and can advise the boy on the best course of action.
As yet, Rugby has not gone down this route, but, it could come over the next few years. Increasingly, we are seeing the Performance Departments seeking-out the best young talent, to get them into the Academies. There are signs the weeds which have overgrown our Pathways in recent years are being cleared.
The cream will always rise to the top, talent will out, but, I sincerely hope Rugby Union in Scotland can keep the guys who don't make it involved – and there are distressing signs that we are not doing this as well as we might. I would like to think, those young players who haven't been fast-tracked or “hot housed” by the time they are 18 or 19 can stay in the game, continue to play in club rugby and keep enjoying themselves. If they don't, rugby is doomed.
Iain Milne has a point, we've got to encourage the not-so-good players as well as the very-good.
For anyone interested, the Washington Post article can be found online at:
HERE WE ARE, four days on, and the English Rugby Media is still obsessed by Marcus Smith's failure to nail what would have been a match-winning conversion, in the Harlequins v Montpellier Champions Cup last-16 match. The latest England player to appear capable of walking on water fails, and Fleet Street's Finest go into melt-down.
I like young Marcus, the boy has something special about him, I fear he could, if he gets the right players around him, cause us untold misery for the next decade. Yes, he's a good ten, however, I'd still prefer to see Finnsanity from my fly half.
Twenty-four hours on from Smith's miss, the Gallus One guided Racing 92 to victory over Stade Francais, in a Parisienne Derby. For the entire first half, he was 4.5 Finn – that's how much you'd have given him out of 10. But, you had to keep watching him, because, he kept doing things his way, and, in the end, he and Racing clicked to win the game.
As I keep insisting, he's the best Scottish playmaker since Jim Baxter, for all his flaws, we should be happy we have him.
The Bear is valued for his playing history and his contribution to Heriots. I’m afraid that’s where it should end.
ReplyDeleteThe interview is simplistic and naive.
Unfortunately for the Bear, there is actual data for the season structure work that refutes his argument. Players think the current league structures and season length are about right.
I’m most irked by his conflation of 1sts, lower XVs and regional rugby. So in his world 1sts only really exist in Prem and Nat1? Complete garbage.
I’m also fascinated by what his regions would be? It’s well known that several clubs adjacent to Ferry Road can’t get teams to get in a car and travel. That’s in them. Not a fault of any league structure.
Iain’s solution? Langholm would play Kelso 2nds! Well that’s ok then.
And then he proposes no promotion or relegation for 3-5 years. That will really get guys energised to turn out for their clubs.
The first step is to understand the problem we are trying to solve. Offering simplistic solutions without any evidence outside of a few chats on Facebook isn’t viable.