Locking Up Our Future

AT THE RISK of boring you again Dear Reader, can I just say (and to be truly-effective, the next bit is best read in a Yorkshire accent), but: “It weren't like this in my yooung days – yooung journalists these days, they don't know they're born – 'avin' greet stories fed to them on bloody platter, if they had to go out and graft to get a story, 'twould kill 'em”.

This diversion into 'I Didn't Know You Cared' country was brought about by an email from the hard-working BKT United Rugby Championship media team, highlighting that a somewhat forgotten Scotland cap is currently ripping-up trees in darkest West Wales.

The profiled player is Alex Craig of Scarlets, (above) - back to full fitness after a too-long series of injuries derailed his career at Gloucester. Life in Wales is clearly suiting the man from Castle Douglas, to the extent he was re-called to the Scotland squad for the recent Guinness Six Nations, although he was unable to add to the two caps he won, against Italy and France in 2021.

After those two caps, off the bench, injuries began to hinder Alex's progress and last summer, after only 49 games for the Cherry and Whites, he was released, but quickly snapped up by the Scarlets, where a regular run of games and his good form got him back into the national squad.

At Stewartry Rugby Club, coming through the age groups, Alex was a team mate of Stafford McDowall and Northampton's Robbie Smith. Like them he won Scotland Under-20 honours, but while McDowall and Smith went into the Glasgow Academy, Craig went south to that prolific Gloucester nursery at Hartpury College, then onto Kingholm.

One suspects Gregor Townsend will be keeping an eye on events at Llanelli on Friday night, when Craig will go toe to toe with Max Williamson and Alex Samuel, the two young Warriors' locks. This game should give Toony an idea which locks he might want to take on the Summer Tour to the Americas.

Scotland is well-off for younger locks at the moment. Take away the three thirtysomethings: the Gray Brothers and Grant Gilchrist, and Craig is one of a clutch of young locks, battling to join Scott Cummings in the boiler-house.

With Craig, Sam Skinner, Glen Young, Cameron Henderson, Jamie Hodgson and Marshall Sykes, plus Williamson and Samuel all in contention, competition for tour places is going to be intense between now and the tour squad being named.

But, given his current form, Alex Craig could well join Ian McGregor and John Barclay in that elite list of Llanelli-based Scotland caps.

DOWN AT what you might call the “Red Tops end” of Rugby Union's social media outlets, the Boers are being even-more boorish than usual, seemingly sendible, apparently grown men, having orgasms over a single scrum.

This came in the URC match between The Sharks and Ulster. Ox Nche came off the bench for the South African side and in his first scrum, as we old props say: “He gave Tom O'Toole his wings”, hoisting the Ulster tight-head off his feet as the home eight really put down the power.

Now, “getting your wings” is an unfortunate rite of passage in the front row, BUT, and this is the bit which appears to have passed some eight foot over the jubilant Saffer fans' thick heads, at the elite level, it only ever happens when something has gone badly wrong for the player who is hoisted.

There might be several small reasons: maybe O'Toole got his positioning all wrong, perhaps he didn't get the right support from his lock, there could be one, or even several factors involved. You see such scrums a lot further down the food chain, where perhaps a more-experienced prop schools his immediate opponent. But, at that level, it seldom occurs.

Didn't stop the Saffer fans crowing like Foghorn Leghorn on steroids, but, what they failed to appreciate is, O'Toole was at the end of a particularly hard 61 minute shift, the Ox had just come on seven minutes previously. Ulster immediately withdrew O'Toole and his replacement, the 21-year-old Scott Wilson handled the Ox very-well in the remaining scrums.

So, why were the Saffer fans getting so-excited over that one scrum – methinks they were trying to convince themselves that all was well with the world.

I LIKE wee Rob Robertson, but, fear he has maybe spent too-long working for The Daily Heil – the right-wing tabloid that never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. That's my view, following a couple of recent pieces he has crafted for his new gig with Scottish Rugby News.

In reecent articles he has incorrectly identified John Jeffrey as “a past SRU President”, while identifying John McGuigan as the current holder of that office. The serving President is, of course Colin Rigby. Jeffrey was, as McGuigan currently is, Chairman of Scottish Rugby Ltd. Different jobs – I would have expected Rob to have known the difference.

FINALLY – the Rugby Rumour Mill is working overtime at the moment, around the shuffling of the deck chairs inside Scottish Gas Murrayfield. The word is the preferred option is for Gregor Townsend to move upstairs to become Director of Rugby, to be replaced as Scotland Head Coach by Franco Smith.

However, the alternative scenario sees someone else, with present Warriors Honcho Al Kellock the main one of four names in this frame, taking the DoR job, since Toony apparently doesn't want to become a desk jockey just yet, and wishes to continue in his present post.

Still no clues yet as to who might get the big job, succeeding TCD as CEO – that's going to be the really-difficult slot to fill.

A wee bit of a storm in the social media tea-cup around the process for finding Dodson's replacement – with some critics suggesting there ought to be a public recruitment process, with the job being advertised so we can see the qualities the SRU think desirable for their new Honcho. Others are seemingly quite happy with the usual SRU secrecy around leaving the task to a “head-hunting” recruitment company.

Some want “a rugby man” with the names of Kellock and the newly-departed former Edinburgh and Ulster CEO Jonny Petrie being name-checked. I also saw one suggestion that another former Glasgow High Heid Yin – Nathan Bombrys – should be brought back from his current position as CEO of Rugby Canada, to take charge at Murrayfield.

My own view is, we should get the CEO and Cchief Financial Officer posts filled and allow the newcomers something like a new President or Prime Minister's “First 100 days” to gauge the fitness or otherwise of the existing executive team, before we do anything too-serious round these other jobs.

Methinks professional rugby gets more like professional football every day – except we haven't (yet) got into the ridiculous money phase.