A Short Friday Afternoon Rant

NOTHING QUITE sums-up the oft-heard comment about the current Murrayfield Junta: “they couldnae run a menauge” than the announcement of the Season 2025-26 Professional Player Draft. The deck crew on the RMS Titanic did more useful work shuffling the deck chairs than the no doubt considerable hours which were spent on this pointless exercise.

I could well be persuaded to leave my hill-top fort for the fleshpots of Alloway, to see Ayr field a back division of: Ollie Smith, Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, Josh McKay; Adam Hastings and AN Other but, that aint gonna happen. Mind you, their squad does seem a bit top-heavy with hookers. It's a nonsense. Even if one was coming back from injury, I doubt if Franco Smith would be too keen to risk one of his big names in an Arnold Clark Premiership match.

OK, I accept the Academy players and some of the fringe guys will no doubt see Premiership action across the ten clubs, but, here again, with the higher level of professionalism we are now seeing from Premiership Coaches – how willing will they be to disrupt their squads to fit-in someone from either of the two BKT United Rugby Championship rosters?

Then, you find me wondering if the old attitude, wonderfully summed-up by a classic Peter Wrightism – from his days as Selkirk Coach: “Aye, Edinburgh are quite happy to let you have one of their players, provided he is returned, fit enough to hold a tackle bag on the Monday.” Has that attitude died, or does it live-on around The Hive or Scotstoun?

Diversion Alert: [Regular readers of this pish will be aware of my love for American sports documentaries and movies. In the movie genre, perhaps the greatest is Bull Durham, the baseball movie in which above the title star Kevin Costner eventually gets the girl – the wonderful Susan Sarandon – while in real life, co-star Timothy Robbins actually won her hand.]

How it works in Americal sport in. There, you have real life versions of Costner's “Crash” Davis character guiding raw talent such as Robbins' “Nuke” Laloosh as the young pitcher learns his craft, ready to go upstairs to “The Big Show”.

If we had that sort of organised player pathway in Scottish Rugby, well, the Professional Draft might mean something – hell, it might even work and we could have:

1. Scotland winning a Grand Slam

2. Glasgow winning the Champions Cup

3. Edinburgh winning the Challenge Cup

4. The pair meeting in the URC Grand Final

And you can all have a pint of what I'm on to come up with that last wee bit of nonsense.

But, things working properly would need:

• Some rational thought being given to the overall governance of the Scottish Rugby Union

• Root and branch reform of the whole edifice

• Talented and commited individuals in key roles at Murrayfield

• The various leagues being run by the clubs rather than faceless Murrayfield apparatchiks

• A division between the professional and semi-professional leagues and the amateur grass-roots game

• More power devolved to the clubs

• Better selling of this wonderful game to the public

I am not, however, holding my breath and expecting any of the above to happen in my lifetime.

Scotland – here's tae us – wha's like us?

You look at Scottish Rugby and wonder, why would anyone want to be like us.