Nobody Messes Up Like Us Scots

IF I WAS English, I'd be frothing at the mouth, ranting and raving and blaming the poor referee – Georgia's Niko Amashukeli for Edinburgh's narrow defeat at Saracens on Sunday.

But, we Scots are made of sterner stuff. Yes, probably on balance, young Niko had (another) stinker. He's a wee bit uneven, when he's good, he's very good, but, when he's off, you wonder if maybe he was Argentinian or Spanish or Brazilian. However, even allowing for the fact he came across as a bit Greek – (a definite Homer), particularly when it came to refereeing the scrums, I don't think he was the reason Edinburgh lost.

It was the old old story for Scottish clubs: wrong decisions, panic under pressure, poor technique, the line-out disintegrating under pressure. They were the better team for long periods, but, in the end their bad bits outnumbered their good bits and the game was lost.

That late attack, when in short order, Damien Hoyland, then James Lang suffered attacks of that long-standing Scottish complaint – white line fever – went for glory and ignored better-placed support runners, the game was lost then.

Saracens are the poster boys of the Gallagher Premiership. Unbeaten so far this season, according to the English media and their cheer-leaders on BT Sport one of the favourites for this season's trophy. Edinburgh are a mid-table United Rugby Championship team.

On Sunday's evidence, the English rugby teams are as over-hyped as their football team and, if Edinburgh can sort out their little problems, they might go far in this competition.

Mind you, once again Duhan van der Merwe demonstrated, he may be South African/Scots, but he's definitely got Orange ancestors. Once more, the cry was no defenders when DvdM was exposed. The way he was avoided for that first Saracens try was the biggest of 'big reddies.'

I am hardly one to talk – I never could tackle, but, I always thought South Africans were schooled from a very young age to do the basics. A good, old-fashioned round the hips/thighs thump and Elliot Daly was going nowhere. However, DvdM, like most of today's professionals, has been taught to tackle high – so he was easily avoided.

Let's get back to tackling below the waist, bring the opponent to ground and take our chances in the jackal. It's not as if our full-time professionals don't have training time in which to get that technique spot-on.

Something else I have been saying for ages: I have long held, at 32 and 33 respectively, Stuart McInally and Fraser Brown are now never likely to be cured of having Rugby Union's equivalent of golf's “yips”. The yips is an inability to put away the short putts – that's the reason why the great Peter Allis switched from playing to punditry; as he said: “When you've got them – you've got them.”

An inability to hit their target with pressure lines-out, from around the five metre line at either end, that's Rugby's version of the yips and I am afraid both McInally on Sunday and Brown in another recent Glasgow game have shown – they've got them. Time to stand them down and get in younger hookers who can do the business when it matters.

I opted for the ITV coverage of Saracens v Edinburgh. I feared if I took the BT Sport coverage I'd have to put-up with The Sprite. But, on ITV, as with BT Sport, it was clear from the off – they were there to watch Sarries win and the Jocks were there to make-up the numbers.

Even Jill Douglas had to big-up the London club – why are the English so insecure, they even need Scots lassies and big Welsh lumps like Jamie Roberts to wax lyrical about the English side to the ignorance of the opposition. There were two teams on the park on Sunday, but, as far as the media was concerned, only one was worth talking about.

THIS HAS been a tough winter, with Doddie Weir passing in late November, and Jim Taylor dying last week. I meant to mention Jim's passing sooner, but, got somewhat side-tracked.

I never actually met him, but, his story of how he put the catastrophic scrum collapse which left him wheelchair-bound behind him, particularly with his charity work for Hearts and Balls and with his behind the scenes grafting for Glasgow Warriors was truly inspirational.

All who met him came away impressed, he will leave a huge void in Scotstoun rugby and my sympathies go to his family and friends at this dark time.