Picking a Team Is Not Like Picking Your Nose

BACK WHEN Rugby Union was THE amateur game, and the top players all had real jobs from Monday to Friday, the SRU Selectors came in for a lot of criticism for some of their selections. Some of this criticism was no doubt justified, but the system of the time, whereby you got your cap by progressing through a series of steps:

1. Feature regularly in a top club side

2. Get picked for your District and show-up well there

3. Impress in the National Trials

4. Get capped.

That system worked. The, we progressed via having an “Advisor to the Captain” to the days of a Head Coach, who not only prepared the team for each international, he also got to – football-style – pick the team as well.

Today, we are in the age of “The Coach as God” the all-powerful main man who can make or break careers. This is ok, for as long as the team is winning, however, if that coach cannot meet the often unrealistic aspirations of the average fan in the stand, well, no matter what he does, he is going to cop some flak.

Received wisdom also has it, the hardest part of any coach's job is actually selecting the side. The alternative view, best expressed by the legend that is Jock Stein, has it that: “The hardest part of a coach's job is making sure the five players who love you have more influence on the team's performance than the five who hate you.” I suppose, in Rugby Union, the side would be split seven and seven.

For the moment, Gregor Townsend is being rather well-paid to make the big decisions for the Scottish Rugby Union, and the wider Rugby Union family in Scotland. Some of us love him, some of us hate him – the majority have an opinion somewhere between these two extremes.

My main beef with Toony, at the moment, is his seeming under-valuing of home-grown talent. I get the impression when I see some of his selection calls, that he is channelling his inner Graeme Souncess; Mr Souness, you might recall, seemed to have a serious aversion to selecting home-grown players.

Take today's news, that, injury having ruled Will Hurd out of our Guinness Six Nations squad, Toony has called-up Elliot Millar-Mills of Northampton Saints as his replacement. This has brought cries of “Elliot Millar-Who?” from across the land. So, who is the new boy?

Stockport-born, to a mother from Hamilton, the 31-year-old new boy had a short spell with Edinburgh in 2017-18, playing three games after being signed as injury cover for WP Nel. He then went to Ealing Trailfinders, then Wasps. After Wasps folded, he had one further game for Edinburgh, before signing for Saints, for whom he has made 15 appearances, mostly off the bench.

Looking at his professional career, it is, I think, fair to say, Millar-Mills is nothing more than a journeyman player, which beggars the question: what does his call-up say about Townsend's and the SRU Junta's view of their home-grown players?

Let's look at our resources in the tight-head position:

1. Zander Fagerson – 28 years old, British Lion, 62 caps, over 100 appearances for Glasgow.

2. WP Nel – 37 years old, 61 caps, approaching 200 games for Edinburgh.

3. Javan Sebastian – 29 years old, 7 caps, 70+ games for Scarlets and Edinburgh (currently injured)

4. Murphy Walker – 24 years old, 3 caps, 11 games for Glasgow (currently injured)

5. D'Arcy Rae – 29 years old 1 cap, 126 senior games (85 for Glasgow)

6. Murray McCallum – 27 years old, 3 caps, a Barbarian, now with Newcastle Falcons, approaching 100 professional games, for five clubs, including both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

7. Oli Kebble – 31 years old, 11 caps, over 140 senior professional games, primarily a loose-head, but has been capped by Scotland on the tight-head side.

8. Angus Williams – 30 years old, uncapped, 25 games for Edinbnurgh

I have not included the injured Will Hurd in this listing, but, at aged 24, and with over 30 senior appearances for Leicester, he was certainly worthy of a call-up before Millar-Mills.

No disrespect to Millar-Mills, but, Rae and McCallum are younger, have more experience and are 100 per cent Scottish. Kebble is the same age and has already played for Scotland. Williams has been a consistent player when called upon by Edinburgh. Why pick Millar-Mills ahead of these four, it does not make sense?

The fact that this on-paper tenth-choice player has been caled-up ahead of four home-based players again beggars the question – what has Toony got against fellow SRU employees, or genuine Scots?

ELSEWHERE, the worst-kept secret in Rugby Union is out, and Owen Farrell is joining Racing 92. This is perhaps another case of the Coach as God picking a favourite player. Stuart Lancaster clearly rates Farrell highly and wants him on-board.

Sure, he will kick a very-high percentage of the place kicks he gets, yes, he is very-experienced, but, after Dan Carter and Fin Russell isn't this a move down-market by the Paris club?

Farrell is now on the downward slope of his career, he will certainly be well-remunerated while in Paris and you cannot fault him for cahing-in on his fame at this stage of his playing career.

But, I think there are other, younger players who might have represented better value for money for his new club.

FINALLY – 'David' a regular reader of the blog, pulled me up after my last post, by naming one or two young Scots who I had left off my list of home-grown players with our two teams. He mentioned the likes of Logan Trotter and Ross McKnight, to name but two. Unfortunately, these players' names do not appear on any up-to-date list of Glasgow players I have seen. I am a fan of both, particularly young McKnight, who has been very-impressive for Stirling Wolves in Super Rugby.

Maybe if the Junta, particularly their Media department, was fit for purpose, we would have a better idea of which players were still in the system and which were not. However, as with so-much of the workings of the SRU these days, you get the distinct impression, the lunatics are running the asylum.