The One About AGMs And Governance

I HAVE only ever attended one Scottish Rugby Union Annual General Meeting. This was so long ago, it was held in the old North British Hotel and the only reason I was there was no other member of my club's committee was prepared to travel from Ayrshire to Edinburgh.

I would describe the ambience as being reminiscent of the old Brooklands motor racing circuit advertisement: “The right crowd and no crowding”. I sat beside the late Glen Stirling at the back, we old-school journalists knew our place. I felt, you had to have won at least ten caps to be called to speak – the great Hughie McLeod of Hawick, for instance, was grovellingly invited to give the assembly the benefit of his wisdom. The Rugby Establishment was very much in charge.

Fast forward 50 years, and not a lot has changed; “The Blazers” (although the corporate uniform is now a blue sports jacket rather than a blazer) still call the shots and the whole edifice is still choreographed to an extent which the likes of Lionel Blair, Flick Colby and Arlene Phillips would admire. It's not like your normal rugby club agm, where the Third XV, assuming your club still runs one, can draw lots before hand to decide which forward is going to, under “Any Other Business” ask why the committee put five pence on the price of a pint.

So, for all wee Rob Robertson's scream of agony in Scottish Rugby News this week, I don't think the fact the agm has now gone on-line will make a great deal of difference. It will, however, moving forward, see The Juntaconvening and congratulating each other on how they managed to pull it off again so easily.

The game, internationally, nationally and at club level is in a mess and I am afraid, I don't see the talent being around to halt the progress of the game's hull, heading Titanic-like for the iceberg. That iceberg may well be the looming class action from former professionals with long-term neurological damage.

{I have seen a theory that the damage to the great ship was actually caused by “a heating” in the coal storage area, which weakened the hull to the extent that the rip became greater once it hit the iceberg. The CVC “investment” may yet prove to be that heating.]

Like the Titanic, I feel the good ship SRU will prove difficult to slow down or steer away from danger, maybe Alex Williamson will prove to be a better skipper than the last “Captain Smith” (although, to be fair to the good Captain Smith – he went down with his ship rather than float off on a nearly £1 million life boat).

The trouble is, so-many of the Ship's Officers who navigated it into treacherous waters are still in the ward room. We don't yet know who all is being thrown overboard, but, I fear one or two of the “officer class” who ought to have been forced at cutlas point, to walk the plank, will still be enjoying G&Ts in the ward room for a cruise or two to come.

And while I am on this course. I bear no personal ill-will towards new Vice President Hazel Swankie, who I have always been led to believe is one of the better elected officials inside the Murrayfield bubble.

However, given the Union's precarious financial position and the controversy around the finances and the nice big fat severance payment cheque which That Cunt Dodson trousered as he left the building, it does seem to me that promoting to higher office one of the officials who was on both the Audit and Risk and Remunerations sub-committees, who oversaw the payments to the fat Mancunian, reeks of rewarding failure.

THOSE PROFESSIONAL sports which allow their best exponents to make real money – think Golf and Lawn Tennis, appear to structure their year around certain major events.

In golf, the top guys get a few tournaments to loosen-up, before things get serious with The US Masters in late April. The next peak comes in June, with The US Open, followed in July by The Open, before, in August, we have the US PGA Championship. Then, every two years, the big guns get a final hurrah with The Ryder Cup.

Sure, they have weekly events throughout the year, which give them a chance to top-up their prize fund, but, if you're a top 50 player, these five events are the ones which matter.

It's the same in Tennis. The annual grind begins in January, with the Australian Open. The next big event is The French Open. In June, closely followed by Wimbledon, before the final major – The US Open follows in late August into early September.

Now, these are individual sports, perhaps it aids the top players to be able to build-up to big events, then ease-off for a time, before hyping themselves up again for the next big event, the calendar has a certain rhythm to it.

Does the same timeline work for team sports? I wonder. I sometimes feel, Rugby Union might benefit from a more obvious break between club games and international ones. After all, the only tier of the game where real money can be generated is the International one.

So, is there, I wonder, a case for a new look to the calendar. We begin with domestic league play (in professional terms Gallagher Premiership, Top 14 and United Rugby Championship games; then we go into the European games, before we end the season with The Guinness Six Nations.

You never know, it might work.

I also feel, the game needs to look more-seriously at separating governance of the game – what works for the club game doesn't work for the professional one and vice versa, and this separation should perhaps be taken as far as different laws for the two versions.

 

A Depth Gauge For Scottish Rugby

LAST WEEK one of the shit-stirring Rugby Union pages on Facebook posted a South African depth chart – listing the 50 players who had started a Test for the World Champions during 2024. So, not to be out-done, I thought I would attempt the same exercise for Scotland.

In ranking our players, the dividing lines were: how often they started a Test, then bench appearances. Here are the results:

Loose-Head Props (5): Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Nathan McBeth, Jamie Bhatti, Alec Hepburn.

Hookers (6): Ewan Ashman, George Turner, Dylan Richardson, Patrick Harrison, Robbie Smith, Johnny Matthews

Tight-Head Props (6): Zander Fagerson, Will Hurd, Murphy Walker, Elliot Millar-Mills, Javan Sebastian, D'Arcy Rae

Locks (5): Grant Gilchrist, Alex Craig, Ewan Johnston, Glen Young, Sam Skinner

Locks (4): Scott Cummings, Max Williamson, Richie Gray, Alex Samuel

Blind-Side Flankers (3): Matt Fagerson, Luke Crosbie, Gregor Brown

Open-Side Flankers (4): Rory Darge, Jamie Ritchie, Alex Onyeama-Christie, Freddy Douglas

Number Eights (3): Jack Dempsey, Josh Bayliss, Ben Muncaster

Scrum-Halves (5): Ben White, George Horne, Jamie Dobie, Gus Warr, Ali Price

Stand-Offs (5): Finn Russell, Adam Hastings, Tom Jordan, Ross Thompson, Ben Healy

Left Wingers (3): Duhan van der Merwe, Aaron Reed, Ross McCann

Inside Centres (3): Sione Tuipulotu, Stafford McDowall, Rory Hutchison

Outside Centres (3): Huw Jones, Cameron Redpath, Matt Currie

Right Wingers (2): Kyle Steyn, Darcy Graham

Full Backs (3): Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Rowe, Harry Paterson

Of the 59 players listed above – 53 actually started at least one of the 13 Test Matches Scotland played during 2024, the other six – props Alec Hepburn and D'Aecy Rae, hooker Johnny Matthrews, lock Sam Skinner, flanker Freddy Douglas and winger Ross McCann were restricted to bench duties. A further 11 players – 4 starters: (Gregor Hiddleston, Marshall Sykes, Tom Dodd, Moses Tuipulotu), 7 (Harri Morris, Mikey Jones, Fin Richardson, Olujare Oguntibeju, Lee McConnell, Ben Afshar, Jack Brown) off the bench – featured in the Scotland A team v Chile.

There were a further 15 previously capped players, still playing professional rugby but not used by Scotland during 2024. these players are:

Props: Allan Dell, Oli Kebble, Murray McCallum

Locks: Jonny Gray, Cameron Henderson, Jamie Hodgson

Open-Side Flanker: Hamish Watson

Number Eight: Magnus Bradbury

Scrum Half: Ben Vellacott

Stand Off: Dunky Weir

Winger: Damien Hoyland

Centres: James Lang, Mark Bennett

Full Backs: Ollie Smith, Stuart Hogg

Of the 85 players listed, it would be fair to assume the now Japanese-domiciled George Turner and Richie Gray and for other reasons the French-domicilied Stuart Hogg now come into the “When Hell freezes over” realm of being picked for the national team, which leaves Gregor Townsend with a player pool 82 players deep.

Sixty of these players (73%) are employed directly by the SRU via Edinburgh or Glasgow, which strikes me as being a very-healthy position. I think the national squad is in a good place moving forward.

The players were listed in each position, with the guy who wore that particular jersey most listed first, and so on. Thus, our First-Choice XV, in 1-15 order currently is: Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey; Ben White, Finn Russell; Duhan van der Merwe, Sione Tuiopulotu, Huw Jones, Kyle Steyn; Blair Kinghorn.

Twelve of that First Team play for either Edinburgh (4 players) or Glasgow (8 players), which has me wondering, even allowing for the SRU's current precarious financial position, is there not a case for putting together a central contract scheme, which gave the national side priority access to our top players – they would still be available to th two professional sides, but, only playing in the really big games.

Money will always talk, and there will always be an English or French club willing to pay megabucks for a Russell or a Kinghorn, but, central contracts might keep one or two more in Scotland.

Taking more of the big names out of the weekly grind of club games in the BKT United Rugby Championship might, to a degree, hinder Glasgow's hopes of retaining theit title, but, from a Scotland perspective, it would give our coming men more exposure and better prepare them for the international game, and that's a systemwhich has worked fairly well for Leinster and Ireland.

Better still would be for professional Rugby Union in Scotland to be so-healthy as to see us with a third or even a third and a fourth full-time professional team in the URC, but, I fearf that is a pipe dream someone like me, in my eighth decade, will never see.

I BOW to nobody in my admiration for Finn Russell; we are bloody lucky to have him. Mind you, the unique talents of The Gallus One are not always appreciated beyond Scotland's borders.

However, it was enlightening to see, on Facebook a snippet of a BBC Wales interview with Sir Gareth Edwards in which arguably the greatest number nine – before Antoine Dupont waxed lyrical about Finn's talent and ability, putting him up there with his own legendary contemporaries – Barry John, Phil Bennett and Mike Gibson.

If Gareth thinks he's that good – who are we mere mortals to argue.

 

Week-End Round-Up Part Two

I AM RELUCTANT to criticise the Scotland A team after their narrow win over Chile, at The Hive, on Saturday night. OK, the Rugby Union platoon of the Tartan Army are not exactly dancing in the streets of Raith after such a close game, but, I reckon, given the strength of the Scotland side and the fact they have had so little time together, it would be churlish to be over-critical.

Leave aside the 23-man full Scotland squad for the Sabbath clash with Australia, then factor in those players: George Turner, Dave Cherry, Richie Gray and Hamish Watson who have apparently reached the end of their international careers. Add in our injured players: Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Cam Redpath, Murphy Walker, Sam Skinner, Jack Dempsey – Jonny Gray, asking not to be picked at the moment and that's more than two XVs' worth of players who Peter Horne could not pick. Gregor Hiddleston is, at present, our fifth-choice hooker, D'Arcy Rae, at best our fourth-choice tight-head, the locks we used on Saturday even further down the pecking order.

That A team was packed with fourth or fifth-choices, some of the boys on the bench are still apprentices rather than journeymen; we gifted the opposition two interception tries – which to be fair they took well – but we still won, against a team determined to give us a real fright.

We definitely must start taking A games more seriously, put a plan in process aimed at giving our fringe players more experience at this level, to further deepen our talent pool.

The pick for me – Freddy Douglas (what a future this kid could have), Euan Johnston, Tom Dodd and D'Arcy Rae in the pack, both scrum-halves – that break from Ben Afshar was class; Ross Thompson, Mosese Tuipulotu, Matt Currie and Aaron Reid. OK, we didn't get the big win we hoped for, but, a win is a win is a win.

Another point re A team games. Back in the Amateur Era, Scotland B and Scotland A games were taken round the country, to club grounds. I know the SRU have spent a fair bit of cash on the Murrayfield campus, building The Hive wasn't cheap, so the SRU are naturally keen to utilise that stadium as much as possible.

I also accept, the horrible weather was a factor, but, surely there is a case for taking these A games – if they are going to become more-common, round the bigger club grounds. And, as I have said before, set the admission prices properly and try to attract our kids to turn out and watch them.

Scotland games do not necessarily have to always be held at HQ.

JINGS, CRIVVENS, HELD MA BOAB – but, on Sunday, Scotland won a “Must Win” game against a Southern Hemisphere heavyweight. OK, this was a win for a settled Scotland team against an Australian one which is still developing; but, this was a win over a team which has already won in both London and Cardiff, so we have to be happy.

We left a few points out there, but still scored four tries; we made a few mistakes along the way, but still posted a comfortable win – reasons to be cheerful.

Our defence, emphasised in particular by that last-gasp set on the Scottish line as the game edged into Time Added On, was again first-class. We showed our usual range of attacking options and we now have a settled squad, who like to play together.

Pre-match, I reckoned Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie both needed big games, to answer some questions – both stood up to be counted, as did Scott Cummings after that unfortunate red card against South Africa. Zander Fagerson – if selector bias doesn't enter the equation, has surely secured the Lions' number three shirt, with one or two others definitely throwing their hat into Andy Farrell's ring of recognition.

It wasn't perfect. We definitely, for me, need to recruit a top-class line-out coach, we made too-many handling errors, but, we showed, when we click, we will give anyone a game.

Refereeing was again a point of controversy this weekend, but I felt the team at Murrayfield were good, yes, even if only via the “stopped clock rule” - Andy Brace. Mind you, and this is no criticism or Chris Busby, merely a reflection on some of the absurdities of Rugby Union's Laws – can one of my refereeing friends please explain this.

When a pack attempts to drive a maul over the try line from a short-range line-out, if the defending side bringd down the advancing maul, at the very least, the attacking side gets another penalty; more often than not, they get a Penalty Try.

Well, in the Australian game, Blair Kinghorn took the ball into contact and stayed on his feet; a couple of Scots piled-in behind him, a maul was formed which the Scots drove forward for about ten metres before the Wallabies got numbers there to halt their progress. The Australians took the maul to ground, and were rewarded with the put-in at a scrum.

I am sorry, but, I don't see the difference between that maul, which took place between half-way and the Australian 22, and a maul from a five-metre line-out. As I have been saying for yonks, the game's law book badly needs being re-written.

TWENTY MINUTES to go at the Cabbage Patch, before the game between Them and Japan, and Wee Austin is spitting the dummy and chucking the toys out of the pram with gay abandon as he rips into Their Coach, squad and entire system.

I don't care enough about Them to wait for the final whistle, then post, so let's just say, while I hope Wee Eddie can work his magic and send them into even-deeper despair, I fear They might win – in which case the same wee Austin and his media mates will have them once again as world-beaters and be demanding that 35 of them go to Australia with the Lions next Summer.

 

Week-End Round-Up Part One

I HAVE long been a believer in the adage, which I first heard delivered by a very-famous Scottish referee – Scotland will never get a square deal around decisions, until we have two or three referees on the International Panel. The belief for this is that, referees from other countries can harshly penalise Scotland, safe in the knowledge, there isn't a Scottish referee around who could make the same iffy call against their country.

Now, that notion might be total nonsense, but, when you see Scott Cummings getting a red card and a one game suspension for something, then you see Argentina's Julián Montoya getting away with what seemed, from the TV pictures, to be a worse infraction than the Cummings one, with merely a yellow card, you wonder.

I am not criticising the referees in Paris on Friday night; I felt they did a sterling job, but, as is so-often the case, the officiating team was a multi-national one: English referee Luke Pearce, Italian Andrea Piardi and South African Morne Ferreira as Assistant Referees, Englishman Ian Tempest as TMO with Ireland's Ollie Hodges as the FPRO in the bunker.

In football, they tend to go with single nation officiating teams, I feel it would make things easier for the officials if this single nation approach was introduced in Rugby Union. That said the biggest problem Rugby Union has around refereeing today is, the Laws are now so opaque things will only improve with a total overhaul of them. When, as happens today, match officials are told to: “Penalise the offence which has the most material affect on the game”, because he has so-many potential infringements to choose from at every breakdown – then we've got a game in-crisis.

Friday night's international was “A game of two halves”, with France's impressive half-time lead being reined-in as the Pumas again showed themselves to be “a second-half team”. It was a thoroughly-entertaining match, which I enjoyed immensely.

Several Argentinian commenters on social media were convinced Pearce was re-playing “The Malvinas War” as he penalised and carded the men in the blue and white hoops. But lads, he wasn't the guy giving away cheap and obvious penalties.

THERE WAS even-more “The Referee was shite and a Homer” on social media after Ireland's fairly straight-forward big win over Fiji. In this case, the referee getting pelters was oor ain more-than-capable Hollie Davidson. To their shame (not that they probably do shame) many of Hollie's critics were primarily criticising her because: “A woman should not be refereeing a Men's match”.

 

Help - she's a woman, we cannot have this
 

Clearly our game still has something of a mysogony problem, because, Hollie is an excellent referee, who controlled a difficult game well. I felt one or two of the Fijians were none too happy having to do what a woman told them, which she had to do often, since their discipline was again more than a bit iffy.

Most of the social media criticism, I feel, comes down to the fact – she's a woman. Not that long ago, she brandished a red card in the Women's World Cup final and nobody batted an eyelid. She gives yellow cards in a Men's game and gets pelters. Men, the intellectually weaker sex.

The Fijian yellow cards and soft penalties undid them totally, helping the Irish to win. You had to feel for Mick Byrne, Fiji's Coach, who was frequently seen in television reaction shots from the coaching box, shaking his head in disbelief at one or two of the duff decisions made by his men.

I PASSED on Wales v South Africa – since the final result was always going to be a case of how big would the Saffa's win be. Instead, I took-in the Scotland A v Chile game – a match I will cover in my next post.

South Africa, needless to say, won easily. There is no sign of an early end to the Welsh woes.

MY BELIEF IN Scottish Independence as a necessity frequently gets me into bother with the large “We're British first, Scottish second” faction of “90 minute patriots” within the Scottish Rugby Union family. Well, here's something for these “North Britons” to reflect on.

The Guardian brands itself thus: “The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London.”

Aye Right! Both teams for Saturday's international at Scottish Gas Murrayfield were announced on Friday afternoon. The paper did a lengthy piece on the Australia team, but totally failed to even mention the Scotland one. So much for being “British” - or is it the old story of Britain meaning England.

Something for the “House Jocks” in the body of the Kirk to consider.

FINALLY – the arrival of Storm Bert this weekend had me all nostalgic. It was quite like old times, since I used to reckon we would get the first real snows of winter about now, just in time for me and like-minded idiots to go off and marshal in Kirroughtree and Glen Trool Forests for the RAC Rally of Great Britain. We were always guaranteed an interesting drive through the snow over the Nick of the Balloch en route.

This weekend, it was my two youngest daughters and their four Setters, going off at 3am on Saturday, heading for Newark and the Setter and Pointer Show. The A66 was already closed, so they had to go via the M62, but, thanks to sterling work of the gritter and snow plough teams, they got there in time.

Then I read about these soft rugby players calling-off club games. Pussies, the lot of them.

Our Team Can Derail Wallabies' Grand Slam Dream

GIVEN SOME of the attacking rugby they have played in the first two matches of their Tour, admittedly games against the two poorest nations in these islands, the Wallabies will stretch us at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on Sunday.

We all know Joe Schmidt is an excellent coach and, after a rough start, he is starting to get some results out of the men in gold and green. But Scotland too is still a developing team and the chosen Scotland squad is arguably the strongest available to Gregor Townsend.

The team is:

Two of the Scots in particular, lock Grant Gilchrist and flanker Jamie Ritchie are definitely in need of big games, since there are younger players definitely not pushing for their hitherto almost certain places, while it is very-interesting to see Tom Jordan's greater versatility has pushed him past Adam Hastings in the pecking order behind The Gallus One.

It will not be easy, but, this is a team capable of getting us a win.

I DON'T KNOW who had the notion of flying the Tuipoluto Brothers' grannie in from Australia for the weekend, but I suspect the move more-likely came from national sponsors Skyscanner than from that largely brain-dead area of Scottish Gas Murrayfield inhabited by Buddy and the Elves in the SRU Communications department. Whoever had the idea – genius, getting the game a much-needed boost of publicity, and what a great advertisement for Scottish womanhood Mrs Jacqueline Thomson has turned out to be.

Let's hope Jacqueline can be a lucky charm for her “wee boys” - both of whom tower over her, in the two games this weekend.

THE NEED to cover other items has meant I have been somewhat tardy in paying tribute to Derrick Grant, who has died, aged 86. Back in 1985 I took something of a punt and agreed to provide freelance cover for a Scotland XV tour to North America. Bill McMurtrie was the only other press man on the voyage to Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Seattle, Edmonton and Calgary – he was covering for the Herald and Evening Times, I was there for everyone else, but, primarily The Scotsman.

Apart from Bill, I only knew wee Roy McDougall, one of the SRU “blazers” and a couple of the players, but Derrick, Assistant Coach to Colin Telfer, was one of the first to reach out to me and make me welcome, over morning coffee in Victoria, on Vancouver Island.

He also did a lot to get the tour back on track after the shock loss to British Columbia in Match Two and I have never forgotten his kindness. Derrick, of course, was a fantastic player - British Lion, a Hawick, South of Scotland and Scotland legend, and perhaps, if it is possible, an even better coach.

He was also a complete gentleman and his passing will leave a huge gap in Hawick. My most-sincere condolences to both his immediate family and the wider Rugby Union family in Hawick, at this sad time.

It really has been a week of bad news in Hawick, with the passing of Norman Davidson, a Teri, who won his seven Scotland caps out of Edinburgh University in the early 1950s. Fly-half Norman died, aged 93, in New Zealand, where he had lived for a number of years.

THOSE OF US who are critical of the SRU's player development programme, such as they have one, got further ammunition this week, with the announcement of a short-term deal for former Scotland cap Damien Hoyland, who has rejoined Edinburgh on a short-term deal, after a season in the USA.

The 30-year-old, who has won five Scotland caps, and played over 100 games for Edinburgh has been brought back due to the capital club's injury crisis which has left them short of back three cover.

His re-signing is perhaps proof, in professional team sports in Scotland, “”The Alan Hansen Rule” is Gospel, and tried and tested journeymen such as Hoyland get signed before younger, unpolished diamonds, who may, or may-not make the grade. Good luck to Damien, but, a risky signing, this is not – and, at least he's Scottish.

FINALLY – if you think we have problems up here, with the financial basket case which is the SRU, spare a thought for the Neighbours. In the Guardian this week, former RFU CEO Francis Baron is forecasting, Twickenham is set for a decade of further losses; the RFU is also forecast to be about to post a £30 million-plus loss for last year, with no sign of any improvement any time soon.

Pessimists, or True Scots, might point-out, if that figure is correct, the RFU is – pro-rata – in a somewhat better position that the SRU, but, I leave that argument to the economists and accountants.

What is clear is, unless the game in the British Isles, gets a grip on its finances, we may as well appoint Private James Frazer as head of World Rugby.

Looking Forward To Another Busy Weekend

THERE WAS an early start to the new week when, on Monday, Pete Horne announced the Scotland A team, which will entertain Chile, at The Hive on Saturday.

It may only be classed as an A game, but Pete still has the luxury of picking 13 full caps for the match, which demonstrates the squad depth with which Gregor Townsend is now operating. The team is:

While the starting XV consists largely of the tried and tested, it is good to see Martshall Sykes' rumbustious form for Edinburgh this season recognised; he and French-based Euan Johnston will form the sort of hard-grafting boilerhouse pairing we need.

I think too, Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt will be closely watching how our back row goes in the game.

In the backs, the fact that Aaron Reed is getting a run-out at full-back, while Matt Currie is on the wing, emphasises, while we have strength-in-depth in some areas, we are a bit short in back three players able to step up.

It is not a surprise to see the younger Tuipulotu being blooded in the centre, alongside Captain Stafford McDowall while, on the bench, the meteoric rise of young lock Jare Oguntibeju continues apace.

It will not be an easy game, but I reckon this squad is more than capable of producing a positive result, to set the big team up nicely for Sunday's challenge of Australia.

BACK IN THE DAY, I was heavily involved in Scottish Basketball, at a time when it was big. Our wee club, in order to compete at the sharp end of the Scottish League, had to import a couple of American players each year. Some of these were good guys, one or two met the alternative Chewin the Fat description but, they added colour and pizzaz to the game.

Generally, the Scottish clubs imported big centres – we had small ball handlers all over the shop, one or two reasonably-sized “leapers”, but, you don't get many guys six foot eight or taller in Scotland, and those we did have tended to be like skelfs, while the American imports were generally built like brick shit houses.

We discovered that this wasn't all down to genetics, one or two had been built-up by their college Strength and Conditioning teams (back then we had to look-up S&C, it was an unknown science over here).

Today, even the more-forward-thinking of our Arnold Clark Premiership clubs have S&C specialists in their back-room teams and our players have got the message of the need to prepare properly. But, I wonder if we are doing it right.

OK, we see lots of film and video footage of our professional players pumping iron, but, I have to again ask: are we doing it right? Because I sometimes feel, our big men up front don't make the same dent in the opposition's defensive line of players from elsewhere and, as I have been saying for some time, Scotland's MAC (Metres After Contact) figures seem down on – in particular – those of the Southern Hemisphere nations.

Another area in which I feel we are lacking, is in bulking-up our props. Sure. We have a long and proud history of technically-superb, and very-strong wee men, who could get underneath bigger props and make life difficult for them – guys such as Hughie McLeod, Ian McLuchlan, David Sole and Tom Smith come to mind.

But we have never, Mattie Proudfoot (a South African import) apart, produced the sort of “whales” - 20 stones-plus individuals seen in the colours of other nations. Against this, we have produced some big, highly-mobile props, such as the legendary ABC – Sandy Carmichael.

The first time I set eyes on Sandy, in a transport cafe at Harthill, while he was working on the M8 motorway, I was suitably impressed. Back then, because at six foot three he was a lot bigger than every other Scottish prop, in fact, either Bill McLaren or Brian Meek, suggested in a newspaper column, that the SRU ought to be looking seriously at converting one or two of the many six foot three inch second rows we had at the time, into props.

Maybe today, half a century or more later, we should re-examine that suggestion with some of the many six foot four or five locks we seem to have. Get them into an organsied S&C programme, bulk them and power them up, and we would in time have the pack we need to take-on the bigger nations.

I appreciate we've had S&C programmes before, which saw Under-2o players spending a lot of time in the gym, to the detriment of the playing time we got. We don't have the numbers, so, we have to be a lot smarter than we have hitherto been in our player development programme.

 

Good News For The Good Guys - Mostly

THE THIRD of the four November International Weekends got off to an entertaining start with Ireland narrowly beating Argentina in the Aviva on Friday night. The biggest thing I took from the match was, until World Rugby gets serious about totally re-drafting the Laws, with regard to player safety and obeying the Laws, the game will continue its drift towards total anarchy.

I thought New Zealand referee Paul Williams handled the game well, and he and TMO Richard Kelly got the big calls right, but, still, the first social media comment I saw post-match was from an Argentinian, describing him as Ireland's best player.

Haven't the players and coaches, far less the more-myopic fans realised, player safety is now paramount, and if your players are not squeaky-clean in the tackle, yellow cards and bunker reviews will follow.

Argentina put up a good fight, but Ireland had just enough to stay ahead of them, even with the newer faces they eased into their squad. It was also a good game to watch.

Pre-match, I watched the TNT Sport warm-up programmes. All I can say is, please, keep Joe Marler off our screens. He isn't funny, he adds nothing to our knowledge of the game and he will never have the tactical insights which allow Austin Healy to get away with his nonsense. Also, I believe Craig Doyle has passed his sell-by date.

I AM NOT going to be too-harsh on Scotland, for conceding those tries to Portugal, at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on Saturday. I have been following the national team for long enough to be well aware, there is always more of a fall-off in quality in Scotland teams than in any other of the Tier One Nations – once we leave out our big names in favour of alternatives. It stands to reason, we have fewer class acts to pick from.

However, while the game was scrappy at times, we did score nine tries and got one or two younger players a touch of international rugby. It was a good exercise for Gregor Townsend and his team, with lessons learned.

For me, the biggest lesson was – it's an old Rugby Union truism: “Forwards win matches, backs decide by how much.” And that's Scotland's problem – we have the backs who can add points to any win, but, we lack the number and quality of forwards to get us over the line against the bigger teams.

Right now, as this game showed, we don't have the propping strength we need to get into the top five nations. Our forwards' MAC figures – Meters After Contact is probably the lowest among the Tier One nations – we need to improve this facet of the game. Yes, our pack is in transition, which could well be a problem come the Guinness Six Nations.

However, a 59-21 scoreline is not to be sneezed at, but, I expect to see more of the big guns back for Australia and the bulk of this weekend's winning team sent out to face Chile in the A International.

And that's another lesson which I think we have learned this November, we need to be playing more A games, to give our fringe players the exposure they need before they can push for a place against the bigger guns.

Finally on this game, the Japanese referee: Takehito Namekawa played a blinder.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE weekend was surely Them losing again, making it five defeats in a row for the self-styled Rugby Union Master Race; and with three of those losses coming at home, the natives are not happy. Me, given my motto is ABE – I loved it, in particular I loved the obvious distress bordering on outrage from the myopic team at TNT Sports.

Maybe, if they employed professional Rugby Union journalists who knew what they were commenting on, other than Former Player Personalities, the penny might drop – The Gallagher Premiership is not as good as you make it out to be, and neither are most of the England squad.

Without being as good as they can be, they made a lot of unusual unforced errors, for instance, South Africa played by far the greater share of the Rugby, had the players with the X factor and really, they ought to have won by a greater margin.

For instance, I hope our younger Scottish locks are shown video of the many good things Eben Etzebeth and RG Snymon did during the game. Pieter Stef du Toit was again exceptional, and, they had Grant Williams and Man of the Match Cheslin Kolbe, who was sensational.

Disappointments – Ellis Genge once again showed, he cannot scrum to save his life, while Andrew Brace was as poor as I suspected he would be. Then, post-game, Ugo Monye came-up with the stupidest, snideist comment I have heard for a long time, further confirming, he is merely a larger, blacker, less-intelligent version of Austin Healy.

Bad news for England and Steve Borthwick, next-up is Japan, coached by Eddie Jones.

FINALLY, A LONG Saturday of Rugby-watching ended with a Paris Firecracker, as France just held off New Zealand, 30-29. This match was everything we expected it to be, a genuine heavyweight clash, which in the end was (just) won by the superior boot of Thomas Ramos.

If I was selecting the French team, in the absence of Romain Ntamack, I'd have Matthieu Jalibert at ten. That view is shared by Mr Jalibert, who spat the dummy when Fabien Galthié wanted him on the bench, with Ramos at ten.

Since International Rugby Union is a results-driven business, nul point, to Jalibert.

The game was in doubt right to the end, it was terrific entertainment and, on this form, France will take some holding come the Six Nations.

ITALY v GEORGIA was the weekend game in which I had the least interest, since I didn't have a dog in the fight. It didn't help either that Claire Thomas was on commentary. I know, as the father of four daughters I am duty-bound to stand-up for women in sport, but, Ms Thomas really is an annoying commentator.

She delivers word salads which bear no relation to the game she is commentating on. Any way, fair play to Italy for a terrific comeback to snatch victory. The Georgians again showed, they are getting there – if there is a place in the Six Nations, producing some tremendous rugby and giving the Italians a really hard game.

THE FINAL GAME of the weekend was Wales v Australia, which finished 52-20 to the Wallabies.

I felt at some times during the game, New Zealand referee James Doleman was doing his level best to personally end Wales's long run of losses. He was, to me, very-inconsistent, OK – the red card to Australia's Samu Kerevi was down to another Kiwi – FPRO Richard Kelly, and I have no complaints about it.

However, when the Welsh scrum-half dived in to take out his opposite number, clearly hitting him with a shoulder to the chin, and it was deemed to be only worthy of a penalty against Wales, or when he saw nothing wrong with a borderline high hit on Wales' Christ Tshiunza – well you have to question the referee's consistency. Mind you, the Wallaby nine was Nick White – the crabbit, annoying, unlikeable scrummie's scrummie - so maybe Doleman felt he had had it coming.

This game did produce, for me, the try of the weekend, Wallabies' lock Nick Frost – all six foot eight and 19 stones of him, galloping home from just inside his own half – a high point of the weekend for all of us old Front Five Donkeys who were watching.

Australia are building well for the challenges to come, such as next Summer's British and Irish Lions Tour, while Wales are in deep, deep, doo-dah, after this 11^th straight loss. I should feel sorry for Warren Gatland, having to make bricks without straw, but, given how he only picked Scots for the Lions when he had no other option, na, no sympathy whatsoever.