Rugby - Whit's That?

THOSE OF US, forced to toil unheralded at the unfashionable erse end of the newspaper industry have long found it incongrous that for all Glasgow and Scotland's obsession with Fitba, these many years past, our wee nation's greatest sporting triumphs have come away from the Beautiful Game: think Andy Murray, Chris Hoy, Eilish McColgan and a host of Great Scots who have prospered across the entire sporting spectrum. While GSTK has droned on, and occasonally Flower of Scotland has played, they have stood on the top step of the podium, modestly acknowledging their success.

Meanwhile, in the arena in which allegedly, most Scots want to see us on top of the pile – the Fitba park – our best hope of enjoying that winning feeling comes via Scotland's other national side: ABE – Anyone But England; with our most-raucous parties following that moment when They crash out of a major tournament.

In this Year of Our Lord 2026, in spite of the sterling efforts of The Sainted Martin and Der Neue in der Stadt our two leading Football clubs are racing downwards in an effort to see which outfit can be as much use in Europe as a British three-point plug. Perhaps a change of names to something like Yellowstone FC and Four Sixes FC is called for for these “Cowboy Outfits”.

Meanwhile, across the city, there is a massive success story happening, as Glasgow Warriors thrive in Europe: played 3, won 3 in the Investec Champions Cup to top their qualifying group with one game to play.

That third victory, like the two previous with the added bonus of a four-try point was all the more-meritorious for coming in Parc de Sport Marcle Michelin in Clermont Ferrand, home of French giants ASM Clermont Auvergne – one of the great fortresses of European sport. It perhaps wakened-up wider Scotland to the fact, they are building something special out at Scotstoun Stadium.

Warrior's pragmatic South African Coach Franco Smith has a motto: Trust the system and on Saturday, even when their French hosts stormed back from a 7-26 half-time deficit to trail by a mere five points, and they were reduced to 13 players via yellow cards, Warriors believed in the system and got the result they needed.

Rugby Union folklore has it: Forwards win games – backs decide by how much. This was a classic example of this: the occasionally-maligned Warriors pack repulsing everything the French threw at them, before laying the ground work for the victory.

Few of the Glasgow forwards, not even the world-class tight-head prop Zander Fagerson are ever mentioned in dispatches when it comes to arguing over the great forwards of the modern game, but, quietly, effectively, they go about their business, making the bullets for an at times devastating back division to flourish.

The lesson for the two Football clubs from this latest example of Warriors' excellence comes in the personnel used. While they have gone down the route of buying exotic non-Scots from all over the world, the Warriors' squad has a distinctly tartan tinge: 20 of the 23-strong match-day squad are Scotland-qualified. Compare that with the two Old Firm squads, who have narry a Scot between them.

The Glasgow squad includes the bulk of the current Scotland national squad, while Edinburgh also has a high percentage of their squad in the national side. Imagine how good our top sides might be, if we had more Scots and fewer badge-kissing mercenaries in their ranks.

Of course, professional sport is a results-driven business, so the pressure is on Warriors to keep producing results such as the one in France, maintain the feel-good factor and give us something tangible, such as a trophy, to celebrate.