IT USED to be implied, back in the days when the title was a serious newspaper, that whoever was Chief Football Writer of the Scottish Daily Express was the reigning Scotland Team Manager's best buddy – that certainly was the aura given off by John Mackenzie, aka “The Voice of Football.” Then Gerry McNee got the job and promptly displayed his independence by falling-out with everyone, even Billy McNeill.
Today, that ultimate Munsterman Tom English appears to be Scotland's 'Voice of Football.' of whatever code, since he also pontificates on Scottish Rugby. Now I will concede, Mr English is a fine journalist, but, I also feel, he's a bit of a shite-stirrer, who, since he operates in the Glasgow goldfish bowl, lets the Ugly Sisters away with murder.
His Number One Team is Munster, which, to an extent colours his coverage of Scottish Rugby – where he is not above a wee bit of mischief when the fancy takes him – as it did today, with a wee teaser concerning Finn Russell's omission from the Scotland squad for the Autumn Internationals.
The implication being: “I'm Toony's best buddy and he's tipped me the wink, he isn't picking Finn and going with Blair Kinghorn.”
I dare say the original piece will gain the BBC Sport Scotland website a few additional visitors, since, the story is pure click-bait.
The squad is:
Forwards: Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks), Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby), Andy Christie (Saracens), Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby), Scott Cummings, Jack Dempsey*, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson (all Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby), Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs), Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Nick Haining, WP Nel, Jamie Ritchie – CAPTAIN, Pierre Schoeman, Sam Skinner (all Edinburgh Rugby), Rory Sutherland (Ulster Rugby). George Turner, Murphy Walker* (both Glasgow Warriors), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby).
Backs: Mark Bennett. Darcy Graham (both Edinburgh Rugby), Chris Harris, Adam Hastings (both Gloucester Rugby), Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Damien Hoyland, Blair Kinghorn (both Edinburgh Rugby), Stafford McDowall*, Rufus McLean, Ali Price (all Glasgow Warriors), Cameron Redpath (Bath Rugby), Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Ross Thompson. Sione Tuipulotu (all Glasgow Warriors), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby), Ben White (London Irish).
The game v Australia being outside the international window, Russell was never going to play in it any way. In any case, his partner is due to give birth to the couple's first child sometime in November, so, there is no real reason to insist on his presence in the squad, irrespective of any alleged fall-out between player and coach.
However, while in the rugby public's eyes, Finn would be our first-pick 10, Finn's omission – he hasn't technically been dropped, he wasn't available in the Summer so, has not been recalled - will do nothing to quell the feeling that he and the Coach just don't see eye-to-eye. Townsend certainly did not use the outside the international window or impending delivery facts to attempt to say all was well between the two.
Fall-outs between players and coaches is nothing new in Scottish sporting history – I suppose we can chalk this up as just another family feud, and wait for Finn to be brought back to win us a game we had no right to.
Any way, if it all goes tits-up over the four games, the calls for Finn's reinstatement will be deafening. Toony hasn't made things easy for himself.
Toony has named a 40 player squad, 30 Home Scots, of whom 16 are Glasgow Warriors and 14 from Edinburgh. The 16 Warriors include the three uncapped squad members – Stafford McDowall, Murphy Walker and Jack Dempsey, who will win his first Scotland caps as one of the first players able to change nationalities, now more than three years have passed since he won the last of his 14 Australian caps.
SO – Ben Cairns is the new Head Coach of Heriot's FOSROC Super6 franchise. Nice gig for Ben, one of the most-promising of our younger coaches – I wish him well.
But really, am I alone in seeing 'The Nails' as Scottish Rugby's equivalent of Rangers FC, post the David Murray era. “We used to be the best in Scotland, but, we're not any more – so, let's throw money at the problem and get in a new coach, to see if we can change things.”
Umpteen Scotland full-backs, including absolute living legends such as Ken Scotland and Andy Irvine, the club of the Milne Brothers. A glorious past, but not much of a present and: forward tho' I canna see, I guess and fear.
Once upon a time, and not that long ago, George Heriot's School was one of the top rugby-playing schools in the entire UK. Today, going by the results from the SRU School and Youth leagues, they are not top ten, and can only be realistically-ranked seventh or eighth in Edinburgh.
If the grass roots have not been maintained, is it any wonder that, for all their costly recruitment for this season's S6 competition, that The Nails are also-rans.
I mentioned Rangers further up the page, at least, with the likes of Nathan Patterson (now with Everton), Robbie McCrorie and Leon King, Rangers are still producing the occasional good young player. Who was the last Goldenacre product to amount to anything in rugby?
MEANWHILE, the turmoil at The Greenyards continues, with Bruce Ruthven stepping down as Head Coach of Southern Knights. I honestly do not know what the answer is, but, S6 is the future – if only enough people would realise that, and the Borders needs to be involved.
Can enough heads be knocked together to make the Knights work? (That, by the way is a near-perfect example of Betteridge's Law: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.")
Given the differences down there, I think “No” is perhaps the correct answer.
STILL on the subject of Super6, the semi-finals are due this weekend. So, yesterday, I thought I'd have a quick look on the SRU website, just to check the schedule.
Apparently there are no games on. I first checked the FOSROC Super6 section in 'Fixtures and Results' - “No fixtures to display” was the message. OK, let's try the Super6 Hub – nope, still nothing.
However, before I put up this post, I thought I should check, and lo and behold, there they are – up for the world to see. Probably just another example of Buddy and the Elves in the SRU media team, taking three days to do what every other media team can do in one.
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