My Saturday Rant

I RETURN in this post to an old horse which I have been flogging to death for some time – the lack of joined-up thinking within Scottish Rugby, particularly as it affects player development.

I was drawn back to this thorny problem by a piece I read in the Daily Telegraph, which focussed on the way the North of England – the region of Bill Beaumont, Fran Cotton, Roger Uttley to name just a trio of legends has almost become a lost land for English Rugby.

The article mentioned the successful Yorkshire Academy, which has p[roduced a stream of promising young players, all of whom have had to move away from the Broad Acres since the county does not have a club in the “Prem” - whilst, to add to the problems, Doncaster Knights, the highest-ranked Championship club, is not offering any more full-time contracts.

Basically, if a player hasn't made it by the age of 20, he is unlikely to be picked-up, there just isn't room in the system for the late developer. Now, extending the player development pathway to include Under-23 players might not be the solution, but, it just might stop a late-developing diamond from slipping through the gaps.

I always felt, one of the major flaws with Super Rugby was – they didn't make it basically an Under-23 competition. By all means allow older, more-mature players to participate, but, I feel, had there been a mandatory bias as regards fielding Under-23 players: perhaps a need to have seven of eight players within that age range on the field at any one time, then Super Rugby might have brought through youthful talent sooner.

I still maintain, Scottish Rugby has become what Scottish Football used to be – there is a huge gulf between the professional game and the amateur grass roots game and the organisation ought to reflect this.

We will continue to struggle and probably under-perform, until we get the overall management of the game correct – however, entrenched self-interest will continue to prevent this I fear.

WHILST I CONTINUE to enjoy five star treatment in a High Dependancy ward at Crosshouse Hospital, I am somewehat missing out on the latest rugby news – regardless of the sterling efforts of big David Barnes and The Offside Line team.

I had hoped to stay abreast of Friday night's Edinburgh v Bulls game at The Hive, via the BBC Sport Scotland website. I logged on, clicked on the Scottish Rugby page and found it had been taken over by BBC Wales.

The pages covered every pass, kick and set piece of the games involving the Welsh clubs, but, from The Hive, narry a word. BBC Shortbread we all know, is, if you're not a follower of the Bigot Brothers, a waste of space and their Rugby coverage, other than of Scotland or Glasgow, is a disgrace.

Of course, it might be, that Edinburgh are so bad they are doing us all a favour by not covering them.

Sean Everitt, their embattled coach continues to take flak from the fans in the BTL comments section of TOL's pages. I am not going to join in the pile-on. There are players in that squad who are simply not professional player quality and I don't think even the Sainted Rassie could produce a winning team from that player pool.

Given that the Bulls travel with the ease of Belgian wine, no team, with home advantage, should surrender a 12 point half time lead. All is not well in Murrayfield, but, fine we ken that.

NOW, I DON'T WANT those precious little divas at BBC Shortbread to think I am having a go at them and only them. Courtesy of Number Two Daughter – The Librarian – I am now enjoying free access to the excellent Press Reader app and able to pass the long days in hospital reading a wide range of newspapers and magazines.

One of my fellow inmates in our four-bed ward is a real journalist – 30-plus hard news-gathering experience with the Herald, when it was a serious and respected newspaper. He like me is disgusted with what that once esteemed organ has become.

Earlier this week I logged onto the Herald's Sport supplement. This edition was 12 pages long, with 8 of those pages devoted to the Old Firm. The single page of Rugby was little more than a cut and paste job from Glasgow Warriors.

This is unacceptable. The paper where McLaren, McMurtrie, John Downie and Brian Meek once offered forensic coverage of the game in Scotland, backed up by Glen Stirling's coverage of the grass-roots is now little more than tabloid coverage with the occasional big word – nae wonder the paper is bleeding readership.

As I have said above, big Barney and the TOL team do a fantastic job, as do the guys at Borders Rugby Radio, but, the overall coverage of Scottish rugby is not as good as it should be – and the (Un)Communications team at Murrayfield don't do as much as they should to get the many very good stories of the game out there.