If You Know Their History - You Will Care

I FOUND MYSELF in distinguished company on Facebook, on Tuesday. Former Herald Rugby Honcho Derek Douglas, that man of many by lines in assorted papers: Alasdair Reid; Hawick's finest – John “Pundy” Thorburn, of the Bill McLaren Foundation, the esteemed David Ferguson and I had all commented on a post which Douglas had put up – Jody Harrison's Herald profile of archivist Laura Tinch, the lady charged with bringing order out of the chaos of how badly the SRU has mis-handled the artefacts of its 150 year history.

For the benefit of those who thought Rugby Union was invented when the game went open in 1995 it didn't. Over the years, the SRU had gathered quite a collection of memorabilia – trophies, old caps, old strips and other equipment, programmes, minute books, artefacts presented to or donated by touring teams, you name it, they had it.

These were lovingly tended by John Davidson; the great Adam Robson was a firm supporter of a Museum, then Mike O'Reilly battled to keep the dream alive, before the entire collection was moth-balled, more than a decade ago, with vague promises of a re-opened, enlarged and enhanced Museum to come – Aye Right!

It became an annual cameo in the Union's AGM, for George Russell of Moray House RFC to ask what was happening about the Museum, and for TCD to find some way to punt the question into the long grass.

Hopefully, with the timing of the Harrison piece, and the support of some of us who still care – some club delegate will pick-up the challenge and bring the disgraceful lack of a Museum up at this year's AGM.

Here's a thought. We have a woman – Jody Harrison – giving the issue the oxygen of publicity. We have another woman – Laura Tinch – doing the hard yards of cataloguing and organising the existing collection. And we have a third woman – incoming SRU President Hazel Swankie – taking charge; if three Scotswomen cannot get the Museum off the To Do list and actually built – then I fear we are well and truly fucked.

A properly established Museum could be a money-spinner around Murrayfield Tours etc. John McGuigan and Alex Williamson have repeated been quoted on the Union having to better monetise the Murrayfield Campus.

At the other end of the M8 the SFA does rather well out of visitors to the Hampden Museum, the SRU has as interesting a history as their hooligan cousins, so surely a Murrayfield Museum could be a money spinner.

As Kevin Costner didn't quite say in Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come,” but, he just might be right.

I UNDERSTAND the Go Fund Me appeal to raise money for Gavin Lowe to have his hip replacement surgery raised even more money than was actually required. I am delighted with this success. Gavin is one of the good guys and I sincerely hope he can quickly have the surgery and be able to get on with the rest of his life.

The fact he and his former Sevens team mates had to go down this road, however, does the image of the SRU and Great Britain Sevens no good at all. The Bufties who so mis-managed things that this was necessary really ought to take a long look at themselves.

PERHAPS THE biggest debate this week, as we await the latest game of  Toony Tombola pre-Argentina, is to drop or not to drop Blair Kinghorn. Given his form among the other Galacticos at Toulouse, Kinghorn's ought to be one of the first names on the team sheet. But, that said, his effort to stop Damien McKenzie was, for a club, far-less an international full-back, embarrassing.

That's maybe the thing with Scottish Rugby, we have so few players and clubs, guys get capped while beind deficient in the basics. You might expect a player with Kinghorn's tally of caps to be able to do the basics of his jobs, which, for a full-back means bringing-off that try-saving tackle.

Now, back in the Amateur days, when even the top players were having to balance playing top-flight Rugby with the day job, you might be inclined to forgive the odd missed tackles. However, back then, before we adopted the Rugby League mantra of: “it doesn't matter how you do it – just stop them” which has ushered in some pretty unpleasant assaults on attacking players, being able to tackle properly was a big thing – we didn't have many internationalists who couldn't bring down an opponent using the correct technique.

One of the finest try-saving tackles I ever saw was one Gordon Brown pulled off on the flying David Duckham in the 1971 Centenary International at Murrayfield. If a big lump like Broon could tackle correctly – what's Kinghorn's excuse.

But, perhaps more tellingly, what have all those club coaches and defence coaches been doing all these years of his professional career – that he is still unable, under pressure, to tackle properly?

If a professional golfer is struggling on the greens, or in the bunkers, he goes onto the practice area, with his coach, and they go through the motions until they have worked-out the problem and sorted it. Might we not expect the same level of preparation and discipline from professional Rugby players?