Of Gods And Ayatollahs

THE UNITED KINGDOM invented international team sports. I have no doubts those Victorian pioneers, however, had no idea what they were starting. I often wonder what Charles Allcock and Robert Gardner, the guys who organised the first true Scotland v England football match back in 1872 would make of today's World Cup, and the dead hand of FIFA. Similarly, I wonder how the guys who organised that first international Rugby Union match, at Raeburn Place back in 1871, would make of the hyperbole and hysteria around the Guinness Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup.

In particular, I wonder what they would make of today's culture, whereby: “The Coach is God.” This seems to me to be a North American concept, which has spread to this side of the big pond.

Certainly, there is a long history of successful club managers in football – the concept of a Rugby Union coach took far longer to gain traction, while, only in the 21^st century, has the Coach become more-important than the Team Captain in Cricket.

Certainly in British football, there is a long tradition of the main man being a man manager, rather than a Coach. Some great managers, more-so historical figures such as Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Bill Nicolson, Don Revie, Bobby Robson or Jock Stein were as much, arguably more, coaches as managers. I have always felt, Sir Alex Ferguson was more of a man manager than a coach. Brian Clough was a man manager, whose influenced declined when he lost Peter Taylor.

Going back even further, the likes of Bill Struth and Willie Maley, the great Old Firm bosses of the first half of the 20^th century, both coming from an athletics background, concentrated on getting their players fit – by and large leaving the tactics on the park to the more-senior members of their teams.

Today, certainly in the English Premiership, clubs appear to be going down the road of having a Director of Football, to oversee the wider running of the team, leaving the Head Coach to concentrate on getting results.

In Rugby Union, we have a situation where teams have never had football-style Managers. In our game, the Head Coach has always been more of a teacher. However, perhaps the most-successful British Rugby Union coach – Sir Clive Woodward, (to date the only British coach to win the Rugby World Cup) always insisted he was more of a football-style manager than a rugby-style coach.

Rugby Union too, at professional level, appears to have settled on the Director plus Coach model – although, at some clubs, the same man does both jobs. Rugby Union, being a more-technically challenging sport than football, has also gone down the road of specialist niche coaches to handle the various components of a game, with the Head Coach having an overview role.

But, as Mike Blair has proved, by his decision this week to step down as Edinburgh's Head Coach, not everyone is cut-out for the top job and even happy in it.

One of Blair's predecessors – Andy Robinson – earned kudos for his work as Woodward's assistant with England, where he did much of the nuts and bolts, hands-on coaching. But, elsewhere in his career, particularly with England then Scotland, as a Head Coach, he was found wanting – particularly in the field of team selection.

[Just a thought here – might the All Blacks' record of consistent success be partly down to the fact, they work a collegiate coaching/selection system, so, success or failure is not down to the decisions of a single, all-powerful coach?]

One worrying aspect of Blair's decision for me is – this young and undoubtedly talented coach might well be lost to Scottish Rugby. Given the financial constraints under which the SRU is working, there are only a limited number of coaching vacancies within the SRU itself.

To the Union's credit, the vast majority of these roles are filled by Scots. However, spaces are limited and I fear we may be turning out some good coaches who will, in the grand tradition of Scottish doctors and engineers, go elsewhere and prosper.

As for Blair's immediate replacement – I would like to think the SRU and Edinburgh management might take a punt on another young Scottish coach.

Speaking of coaches, yesterday I enjoyed a lengthy telephone chat with the man known in Ayrshire rugby circles as: “The Ayatollah.” He is the great John McHarg, still hale, hearty and sharp as a tack in his ninth decade. 'Big Al McHarg's' bigger, meaner brother, John really should write his memoirs – it would be a best-seller.

His story of his desperate efforts to get out from underneath another of rugby's great rapscallions – Wardie Kerr, after Wardie had trapped him at the foot of a ruck, had me peeing myself. As did his tale of his embarrassed mother offering to repair Tom Howie's jersey after John had torn it off him in an on-field dispute.

John's insistence: “He could buy and sell you ten times at The Cross, Mother; he can buy a replacement” cut little ice with a black-affronted Mrs McHarg.

[On the same topic – I always felt my elder brother was deliberately given torn Cumnock Academy jerseys, because the high heid yins at the school knew our mother would patch and repair them as a matter of course. Such things were important back in the 1950s.]

FINALLY – I don't usually do this, but, courtesy of Friend of the Blog, Left Field, I was directed to the following you tube clip, which I think deserves a wider audience. There are certainly lessons and talking points here for Scottish Rugby.

The link is: https://youtu.be/kqOmpgtam-g