I CANNOT REMEMBER who it was, my increasingly suspect memory tells me it was Yugoslavia; but there is the legend of how, back last century, the Head Coach of a European country's football team, absultely pig sick of criticism from his nation's “Fans Wwith Typewriters” challenged them: they coul have first dibs on the nation's players for a game – Their Selection v His, to prove who knew most about picking international teams.
I believe - but this could be another variation on 'The Liberty Valance Rule' – when the truth disproves the legend, print the legend – the Head Coach's team won convincingly.
I publish this legend in the wake of Gregor Townsend ignoring truck-loads of advice from the fans with lap-tops whose natural habitat is the Bill McLaren Gallery at Murrayfield. The Intelligence Corps of the Rugby Division of the Tartan Army, almost to a man, wanted to see the long-established boiler-house pairing in the national team of Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray broken-up, after their disappointing outing against the Irish.
Toony has kept the pairing intact for Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash, at Twickenham. He named the following match-day squad at lunch-time on Thursday:
Kyle Rowe fills the vacancy caused by Dfarcy Graham's head injury during the Irish match. However, to the relief of the entire nation, Co-Captain Finn Russell, who was involved in the incident which saw Darcy incapacitated and who failed his Head Injury Assessmen during the game, has gone through the Concussoion Protocols and is fit to play.
In another change, Pierre Schoeman and Rory Sutherland swap the numbers 1 and 17 jerseys, reversing their status for the Irish game, with Schoeman starting this time.
The Head Coach has delivered a vote of confidence to the team, following the last international, let's hope he's got it right.
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