Some Hectic Horse-Trading Coming Up

SINCE David Barnes of the excellent The Offside Line has already put up a post with the basic details, and is seeking comment from the various interested parties, I will say little about the seven options on the table for the “post transition” seasons, beginning next season, which will follow the ending of Super Rugby in late summer.

These are going to be a hectic couple of weeks for those involved. The various club for a have to meet and attempt to thrash out a solution, which will then be discussed by the Club Rugby Board at a meeting on 15 March.

So, not a lot of time in which to solve a complex problem. The timescale will hopefully be a case of the imminence of a date with the hangman concentrating minds wonderfully. However, this is Scottish Rugby, and, as ever, Ah hae ma doots.

As things stand, no club will lose out, although one or two will surely feel they are not getting that to which they are entitled; while others will surely react less than graciously at the thought of a couple of clubs being elevated somewhat beyond their current status.

I have to say, the Focus Group, led by Gavin Scott, has bent over backwards to try to cover all bases and well done to them. However, we could yet end up with a camel, when we are trying to breed a thoroughbred – particularly given the my club first tendancy which is afoot in Scottish Rugby.

Good luck to them, but, my gut feeling is, this being Scottish Rugby, we will end up with a set-up which satisfies nobody and does nothing to move the game forward. Or, does that make me sound too-much like this guy?

A FRIEND of this blog this week sent me a cutting from The Irish Times, in which Gerry Thornley, one of their rugby writers reflected at length on the behaviour of the crowds at the Aviva Stadium.

Gerry's suggestion is that in recent years the Aviva crowds have gradually changed, with Rugby Union's version of the attendees at Old Trafford Roy Keane so-memorably described as “the prawn sandwich brigade”. The sub-text is that Ireland's presence at the top of the world rankings has turned being in the crowd at The Aviva from a case of answering Ireland's Call into being seen at one of the places to be seen in Dublin.

Thornley quoted one veteran fan, who had been going to the ground since it was known as Lansdowne Road, as saying, decades ago, he knew 30 or 40 of the fans sitting in his section, these days he barely knows two or three. This fan further insisted that internationals in Dublin were nowadays drawing fewer fans from Connacht and Ulster.

This, however, may have something to do with the success of Leinster, a success reflected by the fact, the current Irish squad is largely built around players from the Dublin-based province.

OK, that's Ireland's problem. However, you have to be demonstrating the lack of awareness of the referee in a domestic football match involving one or other of the Bigot Brothers, to fail to appreciate, something similar is going on at Murrayfield.

Say what you like about the Bufties from the old amateur days, but, they developed a system of ticket distribution which ensured that big international days at HQ were watched by a crowd who were almost-exclusively rugby people – it wasn't quite “the right crowd and no crowding” but such wee touches as the schoolboys enclosure down the front helped ensure a committed and knowledgeable crowd at Scotland games.

Then Murrayfield was re-developed, and Rugby Union went Open. Running costs rose, as did the payroll; in came the professional administrators and suddenly it became necessary to milk the paying public harder, to try to cover the costs.

It is said that Association Football at the top level, particularly in the mega-rich confines of England's Premiership has “lost its soul.” The same accusation could well be levelled at the SRU.

I ENJOYED my trawl through the BTL (below the line) readers' comments on the subject of this week's Guardian Breakdown rugby blog – Duhan van der Merwe.

Many of the responses to the praise for the big winger were all so-typically British, concentrating on Duhan's perceived failures, more than the things he does well.

A couple of stories, one with a rugby slant. Before he switched sports on his way to being one of the powers behind Cumnock Rugby Club, Jim “Tober” Morrison was a wonderful basketball player. Making his full international debut for Scotland while still at school, Tober weent on to captain the short-lived Rangers Basketball team, captain Scotland and play for Great Britain.

He was a tremendous shooter, but this cut little ice in England. The Cumnock Junior squad he played in was something special, producing six of the seven players who got on the floor the first time Scotland ever beat England at Under-15 level.

A couple of years later, the Cumnock lads went to a tournament on Merseyside and won it, becoming in the process, the first British team in at least five years to beat Crystal Palace, in the final, with Morrison outstanding.

After the game, Palace's American coach was raging, and his mood wasn't helped when the Cumnock coach asked him for a critique of Tober's performance.

The response was: “a bit slow, weak on his left side, cannot defend.”

“OK, but, what about the 65 points he scored?” was the Cumnock coach's response.

Then there was Sir Alf Ramsey's feed-back to Leeds United after Norman Hunter's debut for the England Under-23 team. This famously was: “a promising boy, but,he's terribly left-footed and that needs worked on.”

Next England Under-23 game, Ramsey approaches Les Cocker, the Leeds and England trainer and says: “Les, I thought your club was asked to work on Hunter's reliance on his left-foot.”

“Yes Gaffer, that's the foot we've been working on.”

The morale of these two tales – in British sport it's the done thing to be negative and dismissive of emerging talent. Maybe because: “You win nothing with kids.”

To return to van der Merwe, however. If you accept that wingers are Rugby Union's strikers, then it is undeniable that vdM's strike rate – 26 tries in 37 internationals – is exceptional. That works out at 0.7 tries per game. That puts him ahead of any much-vaunted England wing you might care to name and up there getting close to some All Black try machines.

This feat has puzzled blogmeister Robert Kitson and several other English scribes. It has perhaps still to hit them that, for a winger to score tries to that extent he needs team mates prepared to feed him – and getting the ball to the wings as quickly and as often as possible is apparently Hermenutics in the English version of Rugby Union.

 

A Challenge Accepted And Answered

'CLUBFAN' is the most-regular BTL (below the line) contributor to this blog. I am aware of his identity and his club but will preserve his anonymity. I will say, I do feel, the Scottish Rugby Union's Club Board is one body which would benefit immensely, should Clubfan and I ever replace at least two current board members I will again refrain from naming.

Any way, yesterday, he challenged me thus:

“I like counter factuals like the best of them, so in the spirit of curiosity, what could have/should have happened to strengthen the Super approach?”

As Clubfan also pointed-out, one of the drivers for the setting-up of Super Rugby was Scott Johnson's assertion that The Premiership was not fit for purpose. Quite how the Lesser-Spotted Aussie – who we can now see as the human Rugby Union version of Aleksandr Orlov's Australian wombat cousin - arrived at that verdict has never been established – since there was no verified sighting of Johnson at a Premiership game.

 

TCD, Scott Johnson and "Howzat" spotted at a club match
 

We all know the in-built flaws in Super Rugby. Were these to be properly addressed, it could I am sure have a positive effect on the Scottish game going forward. I still find it interesting that in setting-up their new Elite Development Competition, The Welsh Rugby Union borrowed heavily from Super Rugby, not least by inviting clubs to tender for a franchise.

That leads me to accept, franchising in a good move, since the club taking-up the franchise, while getting support, financial and otherwise, from the governing body, is shouldering a lot of the financial risk, thereby saving the Union money.

It is accepted in the world of sports organisation and financing that the most-successful leagues are those where there is as level a playing field as possible, most-often achieved by invoking a CBA or Collective Bargaining Agreement. These are common in North American Sport, and in some sports in Australia. These agreements are sometimes complex but the major issues covered are:

Revenue sharing between teams and players

• Salary caps and salary structures

• Rules for transfers (trades), drafts, and free agency

• Player discipline

• Safety standards

• Injury grievances

• Health benefits

Certain issues are mandatory during the collective bargaining process, which means that owners and players must address them in negotiating an agreement. In general, mandatory issues involve salaries, hours, and work conditions. Among other things, owners and players will determine how many games will be played each season and whether player contracts are guaranteed by the league. They also must address base salaries, the process for transferring players, disciplinary measures, player grievances, medical benefits, retirement plans, and access to the personal files of players.

The SRU failed disasterously in not fully (or even partially) explaining the reasoning behind Super Rugby. They compounded their failure by deviating from the original concept of: “no more than two franchises in any one Region” when they caved-in to the self-interest of some “Establishment” clubs in Edinburgh.

But, for me, their biggest failure was in not making it clear from the start:

• Super Rugby shall mainly be an Under-23 competition, at least 70% of each franchise's playing squad MUST be Under-23 and SCOTTISH-QUALIFIED.

Had they gone with those criteria – set in stone – it would have worked as a bridging tier between the club game and the professional one.

They could have and should have promoted and sold it better. They still could promote and sell Scottish Rugby better. If they get rid of one or two of the salary stealers inside Murrayfield who couldnae run a gird and prove this every day – one in particular.

When it was pointed-out to TCD and The Junta that there was zero enthusiasm from north of the Forth, for a franchise in either Aberdeen or Dundee or both, TCD bullishly suggeested the SRU would set-up such a frnachise themselves. Sadly, this was another in the many examples of Mancunian Bullshit we have had to put up with during his reign.

Given the success of Caledonia Region in last season's Inter-District Championship, it cannot be said that huge region is a talent-free zone. One or two franchises up there would, I am sure, have worked.

Super Rugby would also benefit from better and clearer player release agreements with the two professional clubs. It's all too hit and miss at the moment, seemingly dependant on the state of the pro team's coach's liver.

This has been an issue since the old Premiership draft, it ought to have been sorted-out long ago. One of the benefits of Super rugby should be, it allows players to measure themselves against the pros, this is a key issue with their development and needs proper regulation and management.

I would also like to see (as an experiment) a draft system for bringing younger talent into Super Rugby. This would work with the team finishing last getting first pick, and so on.

Also, I would like to see at least a Third full-time pro team. OK, wishful thinking, as received wisdom (not yet received by me) is that the SRU cannot afford a third pro team. I reckon they cannot afford NOT TO.

Better overall and in particular better financial management at Murrayfield could make this possible.

Then, if we stick with six clubs – we could have two linked to each pro side.

Wales has introduced the EDC, Ireland has the All-Ireland League, the English Championship clubs are looking for additional games. Ther was a suggestion of games against the top Italian club sides, below their two URC sides.

We therefore could and should have cross-border games, either in a recast British and Irish Cup, or in a sort of “Junior” URC. Cross-border play would do more than anything purely domestic in raising playing standards – as I have been told by several people with experience of the old B&I Cup.

So Clubfan – there you have it, in 1000 words – my vision for a better Super Rugby tier.

 

England Not Waiving The Rules - For Once; Rather Writing them To Suit Their Own Agenda

WE SCOTS do have something of a reputation as moaning-faced bar stewards, as witness PG Wodehouse's legendary epigram on the matter. But, just occasionally, we have right on our side when complaining.

Such an eventuality is Gregor Townsend's Justifiable annoyance at being without his English-based players during this fallow week in the Guinness Six Nations tournament. The English clubs cannot demand their England players return to their clubs this week; and in any case, there are no Gallagher Premiership fixtures scheduled until the wekend of 22/23/24 March – AFTER the Six Nations has concluded. You have to accept, the English clubs are doing this, because they can.

In an ideal world, perhaps, Scotland would have all our best players playing in Scotland, and it would be the same for all the other countries. But, since it was the superiority of Scottish footballers at the dawn of professional team sport in the 1870s and 1880s which brought about paying people to play and cross-border movement, we would be churlish to complain.

The fact is, the three small Celtic Nations' Rugby Unions have largely kept control of their best players, while the English have allowed sugar daddes with deep pockets to take charge of their best talent. In return for an alleged £10 million insurance sweetener, these club owners, who on Saturday's evidence from Murrayfield are paying over market rates for some fairly-average talent, allow their best players to remain with England.

I noticed one commenter on The Offside Line making the suggestion we switch the Six Nations to the end of the season, thus avoiding this clash of commitments. To make that makes sense. A calendar which saw club games, followed by European ones and ending in international matches makes a lot of sense and as such, is doomed never to happen.

We can only pray for a hastening of the day when the increasingly forlorn efforts of the English clubs to sell Rugby Union as the equivalent of English Football sees the collapse of their clubs and a levelling of the playing field on these islands. Much as the likes of Mr Craig at Bath, Mr Wray at Saracens and whichever City of London spivs are running Harlequins might wish it, I do not see the oil sheiks of the Middle East rushing to buy English rugby clubs with the same relish as their appetite for English football clubs.

I am old enouigh to remember the days when English clubs, even clubs with distinguished Scottish managers, could keep players out of Scotland squads if there was a clash with their club games. FIFA eventually stepped-in and levelled that playing field, might we expect World Rugby to do likewise here? No, I don't think so either.

Mind you, there was one glimmer of light from the whole business, apparently Richie Simpson is stepping up to do a more than adequate MacMessi impression with the national squad. Given Richie's travails with head knocks, it is good to know he is recovering and will hopefully be back in the number ten shirt for Ayrshire Bulls for the last hurrah of Super Rugby later this spring.

SIONE TUIPULOTU'S half-time departure on Saturday was a low moment for the Scottish nation, fortunately, Cameron Redpath slotted-in seamlessly, as is to be expected, since he plays inside MacMessi on a weekly basis.

Hopefully Sione will be fit for the trip to Rome, but, if he doesn't make it, it gives Toony an interesting choice to make – does he stick with the RR approach – Russell and Redpath, so effective with Bath, or does he go with another proven club combination, and bring big Stafford McDowall in alongside Huw Jones?

Whichever way he jumps, Toony already knows, as he prepares, Italy in Rome will be a tough nut to crack. A more experienced referee than Christophe Ridley – who I thought had a good game in Lille, might well have allowed Italy to retake that injury-time penalty, with a different outcome. But, as we saw from our game with the French, when you go into a game as favourites, you often get the rub of the green from officials.

IT WILL BE interesting to see which Glasgow Warriors players are released from the Scotland squad for this weekend's Round 11 of the BKT United Rugby Championship.

Benetton v Warriors – fourth v second – has rightly been given the plum 3pm Saturday slot this weekend, it is the game of the round, and Franco Smith will surely want as good a squad as he can muster to travel to the Stadio Monigo in Treviso.

FINALLY – there has been some talk about the Assistant Referee floundering in the wake of Duhan van der Merwe as the big winger scorched those 60 metres for his solo try on Saturday.

It reminded me of, more than half a century ago, as the Ayr touch judge, keeping pace, slightly behind Stewart Hay as the Ayr winger raced away for a simlar long range solo try.

The opposition had given up by the time wee Stewart crossed half way, but I and referee Alan Hosie still had to follow-up. Stewart flopped across the line, then looked up at Alan and me and called us a pair of bar stewards. Had he known it was only us following him, he would have slowed down.

P.S. - The fall-out from Saturday has been hectic down south. The one I particularly liked was one of Scotland's very-favourite (not) Englishmen, Sir Clive Woodward, having a justifiable go at Ben Earl for his repeated and childish whooperin'and a hollerin' every time England get a decision, or an opponent makes a mistake.

How terrible for us, having to say: “well said Sir”, to old Clive.

PPS – My Facebook Memories this morning was a post from three years ago, in which I had gone ballistic about the refereeing of Scotland v Wales. Thr post also noted that: “Itoje is a penalty machine and in football, would have been yellow carded long ago for consistenty conceding fouls.” Three years on and plus ca change.

 

Let's Hear It For Our Refs

ONE OF the joys I get from these ravings is the occasional confirmation that I got something right. OK, it doesn't happen very often, but, when it does it is definitely a case of making an old man very happy.

One such moment came last week, when I received this missive from a follower;

“The whole agenda 3 /Super 6 thing was supposed to improve not just players but all aspects of Scottish Rugby.

I think super 6 was the way forward but with Covid taking 2 years out of the middle the SRU should have reset the clock. As it is there will be a huge amount of head scratching in an effort to resolve all the issues arising.

Whilst focused on players, what about coaches and Match Officials getting better through the S6 - a difficult one to answer if you look at all aspects but there’s no disputing the struggle to recruit any Mos is resulting in a limited pool of ageing talent.”

That is a valid point. I firmly believe Super Rugby played it part in bringing through more Scottish match officials to the elite level.

Hollie Davidson is now recognised as not only the best woman referee on the planet, but, from the appointments she is now getting in the BKT Unitd Rugby Championship and the Guinness Six Nations, she is one refereeing appointment away from shattering the final glass ceiling for women officials. The criminally under-used Mike Adamson is also now there in the elite tier of match officials, while Sam Grove-White, after a long apprenticeship on the Sevens circuit, is now in Tier Two and not far off Tier One internationals, while getting regular exposure in the URC.

Elsewhere, Ian Kenny the torch bearer for Super Rugby referees has been added to the URC officials roster this season and will be in the middle in the Under-20 Six Nations match between France and Italy, where he will have Andy McMenemy as his TMO. Finlay Brown has been a regular on the World Rugby Sevens circuit while domestic referees such as Mike Todd, Dunx McClement (currently off the roster because of his duties in the Royal Navy taking him to NATO HQ in Brussels, Jonny Perriam, Ruaridh Campbell and Rob McDowall are now regularly on the flags in URC matches.

All these officials cut their teeth in Super Rugby and while it is true that we still, after all these years, get a chance to hurl abuse at a Changeling – Super Rugby has brought younger officials through. To be fair to David Changeling, his experience as a mentor is greatly valued inside the refereeing fraternity.

However, recruiting, training and retaining match officials continues to be a major cause for concern around Murrayfield, I don't think we are quite at crisis point just yet.

Indeed, I understand efforts are ongoing to get retiring players to switch to refereeing. I hear too Scott Steele is being actively-courted during his current injury absence, although, this may have more to do with a need for him to take up the whistle and make amends for decades of questionable decisions from his distinguished father!!!! (Only kidding John, honest).

The SRU did lose one of their best young referees a year or two ago, when exiled Ulsterman Lloyd Linton opted to advance his medical career in Germany, where he was gratefully welcomed by the German Rugby Union.

Lloyd is now busier than ever off the park, his wife recently gave birth to twin daughters. Another of our top officials – Ben Blain – is also temporarily off the roster, due to a combination of family and business issues.

IT WAS a case of Sunday, Bloody Sunday as I watched that Italian fight-back to come within a post's width of beating France. OK, losing Danty for the second half certainly hindered France, but, the way Italy went for it is surely a warning to us – we will need to be at our very-best when we go to Rome next time out.

I thought Christophe Ridley had a good refereeing debut in this match, by the way.

AS I HAVE said in the past, even when (particularly when) I had to actually do player rankings, I never liked them. These ratings are just another example of my opinions/erseholes beliefs.

I did, however, feel moved to add my opinion to those below the line on The Offside Line's player ratings from Saturday; mainly because, I felt Iain Morrison had maligned Scott Cummings, by under-rating him by at least a couple of points.

Morry has copped a lot of flak, not for his ratings as much as for identifying Scottish team members as “Australian, Irish, South African etc”. Funnily-enough he never mentions the handful we have who were born south of the Solway/Tweed line as “English.”

I have long been of the opinion, we operate in such a shallow gene/talent pool up here we need all the help we can get. Be they Anglo-Scots, second or third generation Scots, or adopted Scots. When they pull on that shirt, they are representing us and are simply SCOTTISH.

 

 For a century now Eric Liddell has been, via his international rugby feats and that Chariots of Fire Olympic gold medal, a Scottish sporting icon. However, on a wall in Beijing, there his name is, right at the top of the list, since he was the first of Chinese-born Olympic gold medal winners.

I CANNOT help but think – the answer to the new-fangled “blitz defence” is to allow the forward pass. Allow the first receiver from set-piece possession the option of passing forward.

I accept, MacMessi can land a kick pass on a sixpence, but, I reckon if he was allowed to make quarterbak-style forward passes to the likes of Darcy Graham or Duhan van der Merwe, we would score even more tries. And, the threat of a quarterback-like ten, able to fire forward passes, would be a retarder on the blitz.

 

I Hear We Won (Again)

That cup-winning feeling

 

AND WHEN that great scorer comes to write against your name, he'll ask not if you won or lost, but, how you played the game.

Scotland didn't play particularly well against England yesterday, but, they still did enough to win; which has to be pleasing. England isn't a partcularly good team at the momenty, but, we need not allow that fact to dilute the pleasure of having beaten them four games in a row, for the first time in half a century.

We can now look forward to hopefully a good win in Rome, and hopefully can put our recent poor form in Dublin behind us in our final game.

That we had the more-settled side played a big part in our win. As Robert Kitson pointed-out in The Guardian, yesterday was the twelfth time Scotland has started with a midfield trio of Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, it was the first time their immediate opponents had played together. We had more club units – a benefit of having fewer professional teams, and those we have are centrally-controlled.

We may have abandoned Toony's “fastest team in world rugby” aspirations, but, we still play at a higher tempo than England, much of whose game seems to be built around rugby by numbers. Our guys look more capable of playing what they saw in front of them, rather than to a play book.

And, of course, we had MacMessi pulling the strings. Like the wee Argentinian, Finn doesn't go into his shell if a move doesn't come off, he's just as likely to try it again seconds later – he never lets the fact he's playing in a “must-win” international bother him. That quality is rare.

OK Finn and Duhan van der Merwe grabbed the headlines, but, I want to mention one of the often-overlooked “journeymen” in our ranks. I think this was the game in which Scott Cummings finally came of age as a Scotland player.

The pre-game guff from the Master Race was about the power of the visiting pack – well big Scott, with some wonderful individual touches, and with the ever-reliable Grant Gilchrist out-played the vastly over-rated Maro Itoje and both Chessum and Martin.

The London-centric media - for example, Sam Warburton during the BBC broadcast - talked-up the power of the English props, totally forgetting the fact, none of the four can scrummage worth a damn.

Sam, you can say: “Joe Marler is the best scrummaging prop in England”. As often as you like, but, he never has been and now never will be a front-line, international prop.

Yes, Engladnd won a coule of scrum penalties, but all this proved was either: Andrew Brace guessed wrongly, or, he was at his usual default setting, which we know so-well from BKT United Rugby Championship games: “I'm giving the Jocks nothing and will penalise them at will”. I favour the second scenario.

For instance, I lost count of the number of times Brace warned Itoje for his shennanigans at rucks, but then failed to penalise him. Whereas, one slip at a ruck from any Scotsman and we were penalised. He may be Welsh-born, but, he's right up there as a “blind Irish referee”.

A final view on the television coverage, I appreciate Dylan Hartley was only in there to give an additional English slant to the coverage, but, his myopic view of the game grated after a very short time.

Any way, at the end of the day, we won without playing as well as we can, but, we had enough against very-average opposition.

DISAPPOINTING though the final result was, the performance of the losing Scotland Under-20 team against England at The Hive wasn't the worst thing about the television broadcast. That honour is reserved for the abysmal efforts of commentator Claire Thomas.

OK, hand up, I've said this before and will almost certainly say it again, but, she was honkingly poor. And, to repeat myself again, maybe it's because we were spoiled for years by having The Voice of Rugby guide us through games, but, when compared to Bill McLaren, Ms Thomas is shite. In fact, compared to the excellent Nigel Starmer-Smith, or even the terrible Inverdale – she's still shite.

Both of these past talking heads were English and proud of that fact, but, not even Inverdale at his worst grated to the extent Thomas does. I appreciate the BBC is firmly in the iron grip of “The Wokerati” but, do we really have to have a woman, who doesn't have a clue, inflicted on us. Compared to the likes of Gabby Logan, Claire Balding, or oor ain Hazel Irvine and Lee Mackenzie, Thomas is putting back the cause of female equality in broadcasting by years.

However, over-promoted female commentators wasn't the only annoying feature of the game, the display of some of the Scotland team left a lot to be desired. OK, I know the conditions weren't great, but, I am not going to join in the rush to blame Kenny Murray and his coaching staff for the fact we lost. Kenny has proved in a coaching career with Cartha-Queen's Park, Ayr, Glasgow Warriors and now Scotland, he's a good coach.

But, at the end of the day, he can only work with what he is given and within the structure of the Scottish Rugby Union. As I, and other rugby commentators have been pointing-out for years, our player development structure is clearly not fit for purpose, and hasn't been for long and weary. Until we sort out the grass roots, our elite young players will continue to struggle.

The inability of some of the Scottish lads – whose commitment and energy I could not fault – to do the basics, was embarrassing.

One of my elder brother's class-mates at Primary School went on to win youth honours for Scotland at football. While he was never full international class, he was a solid journeyman professional who played in the top flight in England, before giving such sterling service to the game as a grass roots youth coach, he was made MBE. I remember him telling me he could tell a Scottish player who had been brought-up in the English club system from another Scot, brought-up in the Scottish club system by their first and second touches. The English-trained players were technically more-proficient.

I fear the same criticism can be laid at too-many of our so-called elite young players, they simply lack the grounding in the basics. Maybe it's something to do with the make-up of the Scots – we are competitors, we would rather play and win, than spend time refining our core skills.

I can recall an American Basketball coach, working with a Scottish club, which at the time had arguably the best young player set-up in the country, raging against how he simply could not get some of his players to work on their failings.

If asked to do drills intended to correct failings, they would do it for a wee while, then revert to concentrating on the things they already did well. There seemed to be a feat of going beyond their comfort zone. Maybe we are seeing this too in our young rugby players.

Of course, the “clannishness” of Scottish sporting life may well be another factor. Too often (as witness this week's Inter-District squads announcement) Scottish coaches and selectors tend to favour the guys they know. If you went to the “right” school, or played for the “right” club – you had more chance of advancement. It has ever been thus up here.

We seem to have a lengthy record of the wrong guys getting promoted as coaches, promoting the wrong players into the wrong system. Or am I being over-critical?

Sure, it's easy to blame Kenny Murray and his coaches – but maybe we should be looking elsewhere for the failures, like, at the head of the house, where the big decision-makers have been getting decisions wrong for years and are continuing to do so.

But, the fact is, the pinnacle of youth rugby is the Under-20 team, and right now, Scotland isn't dining at the top table, and, from what I can see, is unlikely to be doing so for some time.

There are guys making a good living from the game inside Murrayfield who are clearly not fit for purpose – can we maybe hope for a new CEO who will cut out the dead wood and lead us to a brighter, better future?

If we don't clean and drain the swamp soon, it will be another forecasting gold medal for Private James Frazer.

 

All Our Calcutta Cup Yesterdays

BACK IN THE DAYS of “hot metal”, when journalism was a proud craft with a future, one of the rites of passage for a young hack on a local paper would be the weekly trawl through the archives, for a reminder of what had been news 25, 50, 75 and 100 years before. The diligent youngster could turn up some crackers.

For instance, doing the files one week, I came across a report of a disturbance at a Scottish Junior Cup tie between Irvine Meadow and Petershill, during World War II. As luck would have it, that evening I was covering a meeting of the Ayrshire Junior Football Executive Committee, so I mentioned to the then Ayrshire President, a veteran Meadow man, that I was featuring that sorry incident in that week's paper.

“Aye, Ah mind o' that brek-in – I was first onto the park, the referee was screwing us,” was the response from this pillar of football administration.

So, this week, with the Common Enemy in-town for the Calcutta Cup, I thought I'd have a look at past encounters for this oldest of actual Rugby Union trophies.

1999

Twenty-five years ago – that was a good year for Scottish Rugby, as we became the last-ever Five Nations Champions, with a record which read – played 4 – won 3 – lost 1. Unfortunately, the one we lost was the big one, the Calcutta Cup match, at Twickenham, which, unsurprisingly since we were in the middle of a barren run in south-west London, we lost 24-21.

Poor Kenny Logan may well go to his grave with reservations about this match, since received wisdom is, had Kenny had his kicking boots on the right feet, Scotland would have won.

Kenny missed what looked a fairly-straightforward penalty early on and England made good their escape with tries from Tim Rodber and Dan Luger, converted by Johnny Wilkinson, to lead 14-0.

However, Scotland pirated a loose line-out tap down, Gregor Townsend danced through their defence and Alan Tait toufhed down. Logan converted, then missed another kickable penalty and, right on half-time, Wilkinson goaled a penalty to put England 17-7 up at the break.

Scotland were right back in the game early in the second half, when Tait scythed through for his second try, again converted by Logan. England looked to have made the game safe in 67 minutes, when full-back Nick Beal finished off a sniping Matt Dawson run, and Wilkinson converted to make it 24-14.

Townsend then ensured a nervy finish for the home team with an opportunist try, converted by Logan, however, England held out for a win which, though it denied Scotland a Grand Slam could not deny them the title, after Scott Gibbs earned honourary Scottish nationality in the dying minutes of the final game.

1974

FIFTY years ago, the Calcutta Cup game was changed for ever. Prior to this match, it had always been the final game in the Five Nations. That year, however, the schedule was re-arranged and the game, at Murrayfield, was the second of the tournament. Scotland had lost 0-6 to Wales first time out, so, a morale-boosting win was sought. Things began well for the home team as Andy Irvine kicked a long-range penalty, then converted after Wilson Lauder galloped over.

England rallied, however and an unconverted Fran Cotton try and an Alan Old penalty made it 9-7 to Scotland at the interval.

England attacked constantly in the third quarter, but stout Scottish defence, with Ian McGeechan outstanding, kept them out. The final quarter, however, was the very definition of a big finish.

Tony Neary crashed over off a tapped penalty to put England 11-9 ahead, only for Irvine to go over for an unconverted try, and Scotland led 13-11. Then, with a mere three minutes left, Peter Rossborough gathered a slack clearance and dropped a 35-yard dropped goal to put the visitors ahead 14-13.

Into injury time then, with England holding on grimly, before, in the 83^rd minute, Irvine sent the whole of Scotland wild when, with the last kick of the game, he converted a penalty from right on the touchline, 40-yards out and Scotland had regained the Calcutta Cup.

1949

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago was yet another “Disaster for Scotland” at Twickenham, with England comfortably winning 19-3. Scotland defended stoutly in the first half, but, on the attack, could make nothing of the English defence and when winger Tom Jackson, in his 12^th and final cap – before Army duties and his progression to the rank of Brigadier General forced his retirement from playing – aggravated an existing knee injury and was a passenger for the final 55 minutes.

England took advantage, to go 8-0 ahead in the second half. Scotland lock GA Wilson (Oxford University) marked his third and final cap with a penalty goal, his only international points. However, England added two further tries, converting the second, to complete the scoring.

1924

IN MANY WAYS the match 100 years ago was the sorrow before the happiness – a 19-0 England win. The Triple Crown was up for grabs in this game, but, it wasn't to be although the following season's Grand Slam was perhaps consolation.

It was a case, in the end, of better chance taking by England, backed up by some resolute tackling from the home team, with Bristol full-back BS Chantrill making three try-saving tackles to deny the great Oxford University winger Ian Smith.

1899

TWICKENHAM was still a market garden in the final years of Queen Victoria's reign, so, in 1899, 125 years ago, Scotland travelled to Blackheath's Rectory Field, to post a win, very-much against the odds, winning 5-0.

Debutant JI Gillespie (Edinburgh Academical) was a late call-up to the team, but he managed, in the second half, to dribble through the

English defence to touch down for the only try of the game, converted by West of Scotland's WJ Thomson.

Scotland played most of the game with a recast team. Scrum-half JW Simpson (Royal High School FP) twisted a knee and hirpled on as a second full-back, with Watsonians' HO Smith coming out of the path to prove a more than adequate deputy.

1874

FOOTBALL history tells us that in the 1870s, under the influence of Queen's Park, Scotland was accused of “cheating”, when we pioneered the passing game. Similar accusations were flying around when England won the match, at the Oval by a dropped goal to a try.

AK Stewart (Edinburgh University), making his debut for Scotland, was known as a pioneer of the new notion of “Chucking the ball around” rather than allowing the forward to maul to their hearts' content and the way the Scottish backs inter-passed caused much comment among the 4000 spectators.

The Scots felt hard done by when what looked like a good Stewart try was erroneously disallowed, but, they were awarded a try, when JF Findlay (Edinburgh Academical) crashed over. However, back then, it was goals that counted and T Chalmers (Glasgow Academicals) failed to add the extras.

Still Scotland led, but, with time running out, H Freeman of the splendidly-named Marlborough Nomads snatched victory with a dropped goal, reportedly measured at from 80 yards.

No Calcutta Cup to be won 150 years ago however; it was still five years away from being donated for competition.