Too-Many Taffs Can Spoil A Tour

SURPRISE, surprise - Warren Gatland has been named as Head Coach of the 2013 Lions Tour to Australia. Well, we saw that one coming right enough. I know he's actually a sheep worrier, but, forgive me if I only indulge in one-handed clapping; you see, I am always wary of any Lions tour in which the tour party has a predominantly Welsh or English flavour.

 

English or Welsh - to me there's not much difference really; both lots are insufferable in victory and while you never actually beat Wales - you only score more points than them - both lots are equally insufferable in defeat. Their default position after losing a game is nearly always: "You didn't play well, we played badly and the referee was against us anyway.

 

One of the downsides of professional rugby is the belief that, because the game is now professional, it needs much additional time to prepare for major events such as a Lions Tour. Sorry, I don't buy that. I feel, as with the manner in which the game has now stretched beyond its traditional 1 September to 30 April domestic season into an almost all-year-round affair at the top level, it doesn't take nine full months for a coach to prepare for what is, after all, when compared to the legendary tours of the amateur era - a ten-match sprint.

 

Doug Smith and Carwyn James in 1971 and Alun Thomas and Syd Miller in 1974 didn't have nine months to prepare for their wonderful tours, indeed, John Bevan a test winger in the 1971 tour wasn't even capped by Wales nine months before the tour started; while reserve scrum half Ray "Chico" Hopkins and Derek Quinnell were uncapped when they got on the plane for that tour.

 

I doubt if any uncapped players will go to Australia next year, but can recall how the uncapped Dickie Jeeps went from third-choice to test scrum half in a matter of weeks in 1955. Furthermore, I can guarantee that if Gatland was to name his Test XV today, it would look considerably different from the team which will take the field for the first Test next year.

 

You can over-prepare, as Clive Woodward did in the ill-fated 2005 Tour. There is a mystique about the Lions which doesn't lend itself well to "professional" sport, we must never forget this.

 

What concerns me is, the possibility that Gatland will, as Welsh coaches and captains of the Lions, have tended to do - over-load his squad with Welsh players with whom he is familiar. I know received wisdom has it that the top Welsh players are currently the top men in their positions in this country. I don't buy into this. Mindful of the belief that the Welsh are poor travellers, I don't see so-called big name Taffs who go missing at Firhill on a wet February Friday, turning-up in Sydney in June and July.

 

There isn't very much between the top players in the four Home Nations, so we don't need a squad top-heavy with foot soldiers from the Taffia.

 

 

 

CLOSER to home, Glasgow and Edinburgh produced disappointing starts to the Celtic League season at the weekend; things have to improve this weekend with round two.

 

I firmly believe Glasgow will win their inaugural match at the re-vamped Scotstoun Stadium; surely they cannot make the mistakes at home which so-bedevilled their night in Belfast, while Edinburgh simply have to improve on last-week's disappointing loss to Munster.

 

You cannot lose the league  in September, but, winning is a good habit to get into early-on in any season.

 

 

 

THE new RBS Premiership is shaping up to be a very good league indeed. All the teams are trying to play running rugby, we've had a good number of tries in the opening two rounds of matches and some intriguing match-ups.

 

Ayr and Gala produced three of the best games of last season and their top of the table clash at Netherdale on Saturday is already shaping up to be one of the games of the season, even this early.

 

It could all come down to how Ayr handle the Gala pack, something they didn't do too-well at the end of last season. If they can douse the Netherdale fires and get their quicksilver backs going forward, it should be quite a game.

 

One thing is already clear about this new, more-compact league. It will be very tight indeed, with a lot of high-scoring but close games promised. If this combination doesn't bring the crowds back to the club game, nothing will.

The Olympics Conundrum

THE success of the London Olympics has, perhaps only temporarily, set people thinking about the British approach to sport. The performances, the dignity shown, the way our medal winners genuinely cared was a world away from the self-centred, so-far-up-their-own-arses approach we have become used to from our Premiership footballers - and I regret to say, some of our rugby players.

 

How far into the new season this feeling lasts is another matter, buyt, for now, we can but hope. Which brings me to the Olympics and rugby.

 

Just as one-day and twenty20 cricket has usurped pure five-day Test Match cricket in the public's consciousness, so perhaps sevens, with Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games promotion may in time become more popular than 15-a-side rugby; particularly if the 15-a-side is a typically forward-dominated English Premiership grunt fest. We will have to wait and see on that one, but, right now, what to do about sevens is a conundrum for "the blazers".

 

The IRB International Sevens Circuit is a year-long, world-wide travelling circus, of which your average British rugby fan knows little. But this circuit will be the qualifying competition for the 2016 Rio Olympics, at which rugby will rejoin the Olympic "family".

 

The four Home Nations compete here individually, and while England, Scotland and Wales will have a wee additional multi-sport games warm-up in Glasgow 2014's Commonwealth Games, they will jump from there straight into the Rio qualifying process - how best to do this is a problem, which was addressed at a Twickenham conference last week.

 

Do they carry-on as separate entities? Or is there a case for bringing the best players together after Glasgow into a Team GB unit? With, maybe, the outside chances continuing alongside as England, Scotland and Wales.

 

What about Ireland? You ask.

 

Yes, the Irish problem. From memory, I don't recall 'Northern Ireland' featuring in the Sevens at the Delhi Commonwealth Games - maybe the Ulster provincial mandarins didn't fancy a potential argument with Dublin if they had.

 

On the face of it, I can see, as happens in boxing, most of the Ulstermen, even those with a penchant for wearing bowler hats, white gloves and orange collarettes during July, opting to play for Ireland rather than Team GB at the Olympics.

 

So, the Irish question has to be addressed. Also, I would hope, with the experience of all those Lions Tours, the Unions will, like other team sports such as basketball, hockey and volleyball, make sure that each individual union has some input into the UK rugby body which will handle the nuts and bolts of the Olympic effort and take rugby's chair within the BOA, and not, like football, leave it to the English governing body. There could be a wee seat here for Gerald Davies or Andy Irvine.

 

But, time is not on rugby's side - they have to get up to speed, and quickly. And, from a purely Scottish perspective, surely, since we invented the bloody game, there has to be a Scottish involvement, in both the playing and management side, in Rio.

 

 

 

ON another matter of international diplomacy, I see those eternal "friends" the English and French are making waves about Heineken Cup qualification. Thjey want to see the Rabo Direct Pro12 used as a straight qualifying competition, rather than, as happens now, allowing automatic qualification for the Heineken for a set number of Irish, Italian, Welsh and Scottish  teams.

 

The reasoning being, they (the English and French) have to qualify through their efforts in their domestic leagues, where relegation is a constant threat, while the Celtic and Italian teams, once they get into the Pro12, are set.

 

This overlooks the basic fact, in England and France the (club) tail wags the (internaitonal) dog, so  to speak. The FFR and RFU let the clubs set the agenda, elsewhere, the Union rules.

 

With the Amlin Cup as a safety net - rather like the Europa League in football - I see, no reason why the Pro12 shouldn't become a Heineken qualifier, with the top eight, regardless of nationality, going into that and the other four into the Amlin. It might add a wee bit of spice to the games - if such a thing is necessary.

 

However, the English and French timing is wrong - argue for change from a position of strength, not, as now, from one of weakness and under-performance. Also, in typical Anglo-Gallic style, they have started with threats - agree with us or we will start out own competition - you would have thought, after their previous brinkmanship over the Five/Six Nations some years back, and with their long memories of their arrogance being overturned on the park - Murrayfield 1990 being the prime example - the English and French might have remembered, you upset the Celtic fringe at your peril. Will they ever learn?

Let The Revels Begin

WELL, that's summer over, and a rotten one it was too. Now we can get back to reality and rugby.

 

I've had a busy week, I bribed "Management" with a turn round the Trafford Centre on Saturday morning and a free skoot round Manchester city centre in the afternoon, while I took in Sale v Glasgow. This, plus a leisurely run back up the road on Sunday, made for a pleasant weekend, which wasn't spoiled by Sale winning, disappointing though that outcome was.

 

Glasgow and Gregor Townsend will be disappointed by the result, but, pre-season games are all about ironing-out problems and I am not going to get too upset at the defeat; there were a lot of plus points from the game.

 

Then on Tuesday there was the Rabo Direct Pro12 launch in Glasgow's Riverside Museum. Between the Civic Reception on the Monday night and the launch, Glasgow City Council flung a fair bit of money at rugby, good for them, but, I rather wish they would spend more on promoting grass roots rugby within that city.

 

Nothing against the big "posh" Edinburgh schools, who have done a grand job since rugby began, but, until we've got a few more semi-house-trained "neds" totally into rugby and playing for our top clubs, we will never be able to truly compete on the world stage. Scottish rugby is still far too middle class.

 

Oncve this blog is posted, I'm off to Murrayfield for the launch of the new, slicker, slimmed-down Premiership. I must say, I am looking forward to this season, I don't think the league has ever been more wide open. Right now, while Melrose will again start as favourites, I can truly say that any one of the top ten, provided that club makes a good start, then kicks-on, could win the title. It will be dog-eat-dog all season.

 

What the game of rugby needs in Scotland is better coverage. Our newspaper sports desks are now int he hands of younger sports editors, who can see no game other than football. The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, to be fair, covers rugby the best, more power to David Ferguson's and Ian Morrison's elbows; the Herald and Sunday Herald are, in my view now so Old Firm obsessed as to be a joke, whilst BBC Scotland is even worse. I don't know what rugby can do, but rugby does not hame the impact either at Pacific Quay or in the red tops that it once had and until it gets a larger share of the available column inches, it will struggle.

 

Getting a better press has to be an SRU imperative this season.

 

However, I forecast a good, interesting season to come.

Forget wishes - find missionaries

THE SRU annual meeting has come and gone; the Wee Man from Tarbowton has stepped down as president, to be replaced by Alan Lawson - we now move on into a bright new tomorrow. At least if you buy the fluff in the latest SRU Strategic Plan.

Nothing against the plan, nothing I can fault in it, but, it does read a wee bit as a wish list - and we can all write wish lists. To be fair, this is a time of promise for Scottish Rugby, we have a young international squad, which will improve with added experience, we have some really-promising young talent coming through - but converting promise to real, tangible results, is the difficult part.

There is ambition afoot in Murrayfield, something which wasn't always evident in the old days of Buggins' turn and the alickadoos who had a fiefdom for life. Like everyone else in the body of the kirk, I have at times longed to run amok with a loaded AK47 through the corridors of power in Murrayfield; but, the feeling passes and I realise, our administrators actually do a difficult job rather well. For instance, the SRU doesn't get into half the fankles their colleagues at Twickenham trip over.

No, for me, the SRU has always been smarter than they were given credit for. So I hope they grasp the opportunity being presented them by the current difficulties in Scottish football. The round ball version of football has always ruled the roost in most areas of Scotland. Yes, rugby rules in the Borders, but the Braw Lads, Teris, Soutars, Jethart Lads and the rest have always been - well, the Dingles of the Scottish rugby village. They have their own way of doing things.

The Rangers implosion and the fall-out will not really worry them; any way, they've got their own problems and if you don't believe me - the fact that two Hawick stalwarts can leave to play for BIGGAR!!! indicates that all is not well in the land of McLaren, McLeod, Grant and Renwick - and that's a worry.

Glasgow Warriors should be going flat-out to fill the gap caused by Rangers' problems. A lot of Glasgow businesses whose principals used Rangers for marketing, pr and schmoozing purposes will be looking for somewhere to go in the new season - Warriors and Scotstoun could be that place. And if that potential new money can be channelled properly, Glasgow District and Scottish rugby could be major beneficiaries.

Warriors might also gain from extra media opportunities which are to be found. But they will have to work at this.

The clubs will also have to work harder. I do not sense the same amount of social rugby is played today as was in my day. For instance, Ayr are, on the face of it doing well; certainly their first team is, in spite of last season's disappointments. However, scratch beneath the surface and a frown appears.

When I was playing in Ayrshire rugby, Ayr fielded five XVs every Saturday, and on some, they could field six. The first XV was playing in the old unofficial championship; the second XV could beat all the other Ayrshire first teams, except Kilmarnock's; the A1 XV was the development team; the A2's was the drinking XV and the 3rd XV was for all the guys who fancied a trot around on a Saturday but either couldn't or wouldn't train.

Today, they have the first XV, playing at the top end of the Premiership, the 2nd XV, which is the rest of the squad, then the Millbrae XV, some of whom are approaching the stage of being ancient monuments and therefore uninsurable. Sure, they have an excellent mini and midi development section, but far fewer active adult playing members.

Even Cumnock, the enfants terrible of Scottish rugby, only formed 50 years ago, was, within ten years of being formed, fielding three XVs every week and on occasions four. Ayrshire rugby then was thriving - on the back of rivalries established from school days. You started playing in the First Year. Ardrossan, Ayr, Cumnock, Irvine Royal and Kilmarnock Academies, Dalry High School, Marr College, Spiers School all played rugby in all six years - by the time you reached the Sixth Year, life-long friendly rivalries had been established. Then, you left school and went to the town club - where the rivalries continued.

Ayr and Kilmarnock were that bit better, but there was nothing between the Ardrossan, Cumnock, Dalry, Irvine, Marr and Old Spierians clubs. There were also the school-boy rivalries with the Glasgow schools. Yes, Ayr and Kilmarnock Academies and to a lesser extent Marr College played Hutchie, Glasgow High School, Hillhead, Kevinside, Glasgow Academy, St Aloysius and the like, but the rest of us enjoyed taking on Shawlands Academy, Jordanhill College, Bellahouston Academy, Queen's Park, Whitehill, Hyndland and Jordanhill College School.

How many of these schools are still playing rugby? How many still have strong ties to their FP clubs? Where are today's successors to Stiffy McClure, Campbell Bone, Keir Hardie, TB Watson and the other pe teachers who encouraged and "sold" rugby to guys whose first sporting dream was to pull on a Rangers' shirt?

These are the guys whom Scottish rugby is missing today. I am all in favour of the SRU's wish list - I'd be more-impressed if the document had mentioned the crying need to recruit and train missionaries to "sell" rugby to potentially its best hope for future success - schoolboys.

John Beattie has something to say on this in his BBC blog - I'm with you on this one John boy.

Hey, I Feel Good, LIke I Know I Should

WHENEVER a Scottish team, or an individual Scottish sportsman or woman pulls off an unexpected or heartening victory, I think of Allan Wells and in particular that wonderful STV documentary in the making of which they followed him through the dark nights of training pain in Edinburgh, all the way to his gold medal at the Moscow Olympic Games.

THE memorable snippet from that is, of course, of Margot's insistent: "Come-on All-un, come-on All-un", down the 100 metres of the track to that glorious dip for victory and THE gold medal of the Olympics. But, I also liked the sequence during the big man's lap of honour; he couldn't drape himself in the Union flag, far less the Saltire, he merely jogged round, arms aloft in triumph, repeating his mantra: "Keep the heid, keep the heid".

This morning, we MUST keep the heid. Our rugby team has just completed a three test South Pacific Tour, UNBEATEN. We did this in the most-dramatic of fashions, coming from behind to beat Samoa in "dead time" after 80 minutes. Replacement Rob Harley scored the winning try, and I hope his charming mother, who does so much behind the scenes at West of Scotland, is enjoying the moment. That try may well, given the wealth of talent we have in the back five of the scrum, be the highlight of Rob's career. I hope not, he has the talent to go on to bigger and better things.

So, we have won in a very difficult place; we have clambered a place or two up the world rankings, Wee Beastie McLauchlan can now retire from public office on a high and we can look forward to the new season.

However, we cannot rest on our laurels. We must, in the great horse-racing parlance: "train-on" from here. I want to see more consistency from our two professional sides in the Rabo Direct next season; I want to see BOTH teams in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup; I want to see our administrators telling the English and French clubs to take a hike in their efforts to win more places in that competition.

I want to see us having a good Autumn Tests series, in front of bigger crowds. Losing to Tonga in Aberdeen would be unacceptable, that result has to be a given. We have beaten the Saffers before, no reason why we shouldn't do it again this year, and even allowing for their 60-0 hammering of Ireland, wouldn't it be nice if we finally beat New Zealand? Although we may have to settle for running them close this time around.

That scenario would set us up for a good Six Nations in 2013 and hopefully a bigger than of late Scottish presence in the Lions party at the end of the new season.

I see 2012-13 as a season of opportunity for Scottish Rugby. After that dire Six Nations campaign, we have learned to smile again, we sense we are going forward, let's do so. Yes, it's good to be a Scottish rugby fan this Saturday morning.

Forget the Tulips, Let's Plant Thistles

WHEN I was a boy and rugby was fun, there were set seasons. No club could play an organised 15-a-side game prior to 1 September in any season, and that season, as far as 15-a-side play was concerned, ended sharp on 30 April. Occasionally, the strict boundaries might be stretched by a week or so at ether end, for sevens tournaments, but it was domestically, an eight-month season, which allowed four months for cricket, tennis, golf or whatever. Certainly the Lions played in the summer months, but, that was to fit-in with the southern hemisphere's season.

Nowadays, rugby being professional, it is almost a 12-months-out-of-12 game. Indeed, those Glasgow and Edinburgh players not selected for the summer tour are already in training for season 2012-12, even as their club-mates prepare to take-on Fiji and Samoa in the final games of season 2011-12.

Do we now play too-much rugby? I feel we do. Even our top-flight club sides will be back in training within the fortnight, ready for their late August kick-off. I am a great believer in less-is-more. Cut-out the mundane, concentrate on the bigger games, go for quality of games over quantity, so why don't we get back to that September to April season? Just a thought like.

CONGRATULATIONS Tim Visser on his first cap. The Flying Dutchman has been a class act since joining Edinburgh, he has earned the right to wear the thistle and I wish him well. However, I hae ma doots about Sean Lineen trawling the world looking for potential future Scotland caps. I'd far rather the SRU was sorting-out the mess which is Scottish domestic rugby. I'd rather see a means in place whereby some kid from Possil, or Muirhouse, or the Raploch or any one of the many "sink" schemes in Scotland, attending a bog-standard comprehensive could be discovered and turned into a Scotland cap.

For too long we have relied on the same old schools as our domestic breeding grounds - nothing against the many fine Watsonians (the Hastings brothers), Herioters (Ken Scotland, Andy Irvine, the Milnes) or Academicals (Beattie Snr and Jnr, Arneil etc, Munro) be they Glasgow, Edinburgh or Kelvinside ones, who have worn the thistle, but until we see the first cap heading for an FP of a local authority comprehensive where there are few, if any, sporting outlets, we have failed to properly sell or organise rugby. We have a small enough talent pool that we can allow any youngster to slip through the net.

LAST week, Scotland beat Australia, who in turn beat Wales, while the All Blacks and Saffers did for Ireland and England. So, right now, we are top of the NH heap - scary, isn't it? I confidently predict disaster against Fiji and Samoa - it's the Scotland way.

Strewth - those Bloody Jocks Beat Us

JINGS crivvens, help ma Boab - we finally managed to win an international. Great timing too, Management and I are due off visiting family in friends in Australasia later this year, so it will be nice to be able to remind our Aussie friends that they lost to Scotland.

But, this is Scotland - I fear for us in the other two internationals, you know, the ones we ought to win, later in the tour. But, that's maybe a Scottish attitude, albeit one reared and supported by long experience of the two steps forward, one step back, progress of Scottish sports teams of almost any discipline.

We're not there yet, but, who knows - ach, let's enjoy the moment.

I CANNOT help but reflect, after the heroics in Argentina, now the win in Newcastle, maybe there is something to be said for a move to summer rugby. If nothing else, we could have a world-wide season of roughly-equal duration, were the Northern Hemisphere nations to switch to a season which equated with that in the Southern Hemisphere.

By putting rugby into the football close season, we just might be able to heighten the game's profile, while all those coaches and pundits who have advocated such a switch, and pointed out the beneicial effects this would have on our players' skills levels and handling ability might indeed, have been correct.

PLENTY of early movement among players in the club game, with Ayr gaining a right handful of new players from relegated Glasgow Hawks. The amount of movement remains to be fully accounted-for by the kick-off in late August, but, I am starting to see a club hierarchy develop in Scotland which (finally) has little to do with the old schools system which ruled for so long - and, that is no bad thing.