What's Happening At Scotstoun?

OBVIOUSLY the main focus of the rugby media at the moment is on events in France, however, there was an interesting wee reminder of normal life going-on back at the ranch, earlier this week, when a “squad update” popped up on the Glasgow Warriors' Facebook page. What it contained concerned me somewhat.

It's easier to use the copy and paste function so:

“Oli Kebble (shoulder), Allan Dell (groin), Murphy Walker (calf), Enrique Pieretto (neck), Sean Kennedy (knee), Stafford McDowall (calf), Logan Trotter (ankle), Josh McKay (foot), Sintu Manjezi (pectoral), Thomas Gordon (knee) and Fraser Brown (knee) are all continuing their rehabilitation on their respective injuries.

JP Du Preez is awaiting surgery for a knee injury with a further update to be communicated in due course.”

Given more than a complete XV of Warriors are in France, to find a further 12 players are on the injured list, with the first pre-season hit out of the new campaign looming, it's concerning. What has Mr Smith and his coaching team been up to? Even more worrying - the first four names on that injury list are all props, I wonder who's going to be in the front row against Parma Zebre this weekend.

Another Warriors' Facebook post this week revealed they've apparently got new caterers in to look after the food needs of the Scotstoun faithful. The prices are eye-watering, there is no such thing as a cheap night-out at Warriors' games.

The prices being charged definitely prove the ground is in the affluent West End of the Dear Green Place - £10 for a burger, but, these are not any old burger, these are wild venison or pheasant burgers; or you could have 'The Pecker' – a chick pea and lentil burger – how very Ashton Lane! “Peacock” Fries and Cheese £8.50, as Chewin' the Fat might have said: “Ah! The banter.”

I suppose a request for a pie and Bovril will get you chucked out as definitely not the right sort for Scotstoun.

Apparently, they've now got draught beer in the corporate hostility areas of the ground. “They're going down-market Hamish, I can no longer get a half-decent Chablis to wash down my pheasant burger.” I can hear the complaints already.

UNLIKE their cousins across at the Scottish Football Association in Glasgow, they don't have an official roll of honour for the 50-cap men in EH12. Perhaps just as well, since so-many of the giants of the amateur era, having to juggle a rugby career with the day job, never got close to that number. Also, there were far-fewer internationals back in the day.

But if there was such a roll of honour at Murrayfield, you would not find the name of Stuart McInally on it, now his career has ended with him pulled out of the World Cup squad by injury and stranded for ever on 49 caps.

“Rambo” surely deserved that elusive 50^th cap, which he would almost-certainly have earned againsr Romania on Saturday night. But, look at it this way – there are a lot of forgotten Open Champions – one-hit wonders as it were, but, everyone with even the most-remote interest in golf remembers Doug Sanders, the guy who missed the “gimmee” putt to win at St Andrew's in th 1970 Open. I sense, Rambo will go down as the Doug Sanders of Scottish Rugby, and that's no bad thing.

I wish him well in his new career as a pilot; and, they'll still be showing that Twickenham try in 50 years time.

STILL ON the subject of the World Cup, I can see huge problems coming down the track, unless World Rugby gets a grip. A wee history lesson.

For years FIFA and The International Olympic Committee were ruled by, for want of a better explanation: “Rich, middle-class white men.” They looked after each other's interest and made sure: “the right sort of chap” got to make the big decisions.

Administrators such as England's Sir Stanley Rous and the USA's Avery Brundage ruled with an iron fist for years. However, along the way, they made enemies of some powerful figures whom they didn't quite see as the right sort of chap, and, in the end, it came back to kick them in the goolies, as the likes of João Havelange and Juan Antonio Samaranch wrestled control from the former elite, by the simple process of persuading the “second-class” nations that they had their interests at heart and could change things.

Now World Rugby has long apparently been run to suit the Big Seven (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) British Empire Nations – look how long it took France to get a seat at the top table.

When you see the difference between the suspensions handed out to serial offender Owen 'No Arms' Farrell and Namibian Captain Johan Deysel, well you have to wonder what is going on – there still seems to be one rule for one, a different rule for the other.

I fear, some day, perhaps sooner rather than later, somebody will emerge from outwith the magic inner circle, to galvanise the minor nations, turn them into a strong voting bloc and sort out the inequalities.

Unless we get a flatter playing field, then Rugby Union can never become the world game it deserves to be. But, will the “Old Farts” jump, or, will they have to be pushed overboard?

FINALLY – Stuck for something to watch on TV? Can I recommend a Netflix documentary series: Home Game, which looks at traditional local sports from across the globe.

Episode One concerns the traditional game of Florence – Calcio Storico. This one has a history going back at least as far as 1503, and it's bloody violent. In fact, it's the most-violent sport I have seen since they neutered the Auchinleck Talbot v Cumnock fixture in the late 1990s. Some of the off-the-ball stuff is right up there with the best seen at Beechwood or Townhead Park. A great watch.