At Last, Some Welcome Good News Around Super6

THE FOSROC SUPER6 competition is the bastard child of Scottish Rugby. Largely unloved, despised by many, but, I remain convinced this is the future of performance rugby in Scotland.

In my view, the great brains of the BT Murrayfield Junta have done their level best to spoil a very-good original concept. Of course, Covid-19 has not helped, however, I again suggest, if S6 gets a fair crack of the whip, it will win over the doubters – those who have wished it ill from the start will never be turned.

Of late, it has been all bad news for S6, with players, naturally fed-up at not getting game time, chucking it in. We have had stories of desertions at at least three of the six franchises, with lurid suggestions at least one is on dangerously-rocky financial ground.

Just this week, there have been suggestions that Cammy Fenton signing for Heriot's, following his departure from Edinburgh was a signal of the end of civilisation as we know it.

 

 

Glen Tippet, Jim Kirkwood of Allanvale and Blair Macpherson at the Allanvale strip launch

picture by George McMillan

Time for some good news, which came today, with the unveiling of a new main shirt sponsor by Ayrshire Bulls. Glen Tippet was like the cat that got the cream today, at High Noon, when he revealed Allanvale Developments as the new shirt sponsors, in a big money, three-year deal

Allanvale recently purchased the historic Auchincruive Estate, the former Scottish Agricultural Collegte site just outside Ayr. The estate's centrepiece is the Robert Adam-designed Oswald House and Allanvale has ambitious plans to develop the 300-year-old estate.

Allanvale Managing Director Jim Kirkwood said: “Ayrshire Bulls have a high profile, and are well-integrated into the Ayrshire community. We are looking to support that and for Allanvale to become as much a part of the club as we can be in the years ahead.”

Glen Tippet said: “We are delighted to welcome Jim and Allanvale into our growing family of sponsors and partners. The success of Ayr Rugby has always been built on strong local community partnerships that help us through. Having Allanvale, another local brand, onboard with us reinforces the support we have in our local community – we couldn’t be happier.

“The Ayrshire Bulls is a key part of Ayr Rugby and is the stepping stone for those players who want to progress onto professional rugby. Just like the other FOSROC Super6 teams we are preparing well for the Sprint Series and looking forward to getting back playing.

“When the time is right, I look forward to welcoming Jim and the Allanvale team to Millbrae.”

TO RETURN to Cammy Fenton's switch from Murrayfield to Goldenacre; I have seen one or two clubmen less than happy with this move. Yet, such moves have been going-on in football for years.

If you go down the team rosters of many of Scotland's so-called “diddy” teams, i.e. any team which isn't one or other of the Bigot Brothers or one of the provincial full-time teams, you will find almost every club has at least one, often more, player who started off with one of the big boys and didn't make the grade.

Not every player can cut it as a full-time pro, and I honestly believe, in the coming years, we will see more players stepping down from our two full-time PRO14 teams to strut their stuff in S6.

I do not consider this to be a bad move. One of the purposes of S6 is to be a bridging level, between the club game and the full-time one. Players such as Cammy Fenton will be able to guide younger players in what will be expected of them with Edinburgh and Glasgow. They can set standards and lead by example.

The trick will be in getting the balance right. Too many former full-time professionals and an S6 team might be winning everything, but, not developing young players. Too few, they might become cannon fodder, the trick will be in getting the right players coming down to gel with the right players coming up – and that will not be easy.

Professional rugby is a very-expensive game, and, in the current climate, and more-so as we emerge from the Covid nightmare, whenever that might be, semi-professional rugby looks to me to be about to become more important.

I SEE there is talk of rugby in England, at club level, not resuming until 2021. I can see this also becoming the norm up here.

The clubs may be training and planning with a view to resuming on 31 October, Ah hae ma doots aboot this, particularly after this week's hardening of the rules as to what we can and cannot do.

Suppose we miss the 31 October mark, every week thereafter takes us closer to Christmas, factor-in those international and professional games which will be played, and I can well see the restart date being put back further and further.

Then, suppose we get hit by a bad case of winter 'flu, or a worse spike in Covid cases. Well, I certainly hope we can see rugby at club level this year, but, I am not holding my breath on this.

TOMORROW is European semi-final day. (OK, strictly speaking, it starts tonight) but, while our two big clubs are again outside looking-in, we have enough Scottish interest in tomorrow's two big games, live on BT Sport.

Racing 92 v Saracens will see Finn Russell looking to bedazzle and torment a Saracens squad likely to include Duncan Taylor, Sean Maitland, Tim Swinson and Callum Hunter-Hill.

Then, when Exeter Chiefs go toe-to-toe with Toulouse, we will see Stuart Hogg, Jonny Gray, Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne in action. Certainly plenty of Scottish interest there.

We should not forget, oor ain Mike Adamson has the whistle in the final semi-final of the weekend, the Challenge Cup clash between Toulon and Leicester Tigers, who should have Matt Scott and Jake Kerr in their squad.

I Think We Need To Find Our European Heads Next Season

EUROPEAN Rugby returned at the weekend, with Scotland, as usual, on the outside looking in.

OK pedants, Edinburgh had a team on the park against Bordeaux Begles, but, they weren't really involved, I had lost interest long before the end, since it was obvious they were going out of the competition.

I am well aware, Scottish rugby has massive problems, beyond the need to get over Covid-19, but, I would suggest, as a matter of urgency, the SRU hires a top-quality sports psychologist, to go to work on the top two or three inches of their full-time professional players.

Physically, they are there, mentally, Ah hae ma doots. This failing needs sorting as a matter of urgency. Under Richard Cockerill, Edinburgh has developed the handy habit of getting into the knock-out phase in their competitions, but, something else needs to happen before they are genuine contenders.

WHAT WAS encouraging was the form of some of our guys who have taken the big money and left the SRU fort. Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray all performed impressively at the weekend, with Sam Skinner coming off the Exeter bench to good effect as well. Elsewhere, Duncan Taylor, Tim Swinson and on meagre rations, Sean Maitland all performed well for Saracens, for whom Callum Hunter-Hill again did well when he replaced Swinson.

Rory Hutchinson was again a major player for Northampton Saints, and, if Fraser Dingwall is not already committed to England, Jim Mallinder should be having a word or three in his ear.

Speaking of Saints, I had to feel for Gordy Reid, had the pandemic not struck, he could well have been lining-up for them against Exeter.

I HAD an interesting obituary to write last week, on the man who, on his death, forfeited the status of being Scotland's oldest living rugby internationalist. He was Logie Bruce-Lockhart of London Scottish.

 

Logie Bruce-Lockhart

The Bruce-Lockhart family has achieved much in Scottish rugby; Logie's dad Rufus was capped either side of World War I. Elder brother Rab was capped just before WWI and Logie himself won five caps between 1948 and 1953. Logie captained London Scottish, the club all three served, with Logie having a lengthy spell as captain.

Logie's grand-father, from Beith, was Headmaster at Speirs School – where Dave Shedden later learned the game, before hedaing to England. Rufus taught at Rugby and was Headmaster at Sedbergh, where Logie was Head Boy, before maintaining the family tradition of Headships at Gresham School in Norfolk. While his son Bede, a Scotland B cap, maintained the family connection with Scottish.

Rab was a Headmaster in New Zealand, before his final post, as Head at Loretto. John, another of Logie's brothers, was a distinguished diplomat and spy, then a successful businessman, while Patrick his third brother was an international fencer and a successful obstetrician. The wider Bruce-Lockhart family has its own page on Wikipedia and they are certainly a gifted lot.

Logie, a double Blue at Cambridge, where he also won a squash Blue, and obtained a double First in Modern Languages was widely regarded as the most-gifted Scottish stand-off of his time, but, was perhaps a wee bit too-much of a loose cannon for the Scottish selectors. He also suffered from the selectorial malaise of the many defeats at that time.

LBL put much into his 98 years, he truly was one of the best of his Golden Generation. I particularly liked the tale of how, as a Life Guards officer, in Hamburg on VE-Night, he requisitioned the contents of a Dutch barge in the harbour – fine wines and brandy – for the use of his troops in celebrating the end of hostilities in Europe.

Equally interesting was the story of how, joining the Glasgow to London train at Oxenholme in 1944, returning from some leave with his parents at Sedburgh, his knowledge of the poetry of Rupert Brooke, so entranced a young lady, Josephine Agnew, whom he met on the train, within weeks he had turned their brief encounter into a 64-year marriage. They broke the mould after LBL.

I AM WORKING on a couple of historical pieces at the moment. The research involves looking through The Glasgow Herald and Scotsman archives on the Google News pages. This can make for a fascinating day's browsing.

Some of the stuff they covered back in the day – District Courts, local council meetings, the daily routine of the gentry – fascinating. However, it is the sports coverage which really hits home as to how far we have fallen.

I have said this before, but, back in the 1960s and early 1970s, nobody farted anywhere in Scottish rugby but Bill McMurtrie, John Downie and Glen Stirling, Norman Mair and Reg Prophet, and the young whipper-snapper, Bill Lothian knew about it. Rugby had a media presence the game can only dream about today.

The variety of rugby coverage back in the day is also interesting. I looked up the Herald editions for the third Monday in September in 1960 and 1970. In 1960, for instance: the paper covered the opening of West of Scotland's new ground at Burnbrae, between West and Glasgow High School FP; there was also a picture of the opening of the extended grandstand at Hughenden and reports on the games between Hihhhead HSFP and Glasgow Accies and Edinburgh Accies and Kelvinside Accies.

There was a report on Selkirk winning their own Sevens and a report on the school match between Glasgow Academy and Hillhead High School. The comprehensive results section included details of six schools games and 39 club matches.

The sports pages included items on athletics, billiards, bowls, boxing, bridge, cricket, cross-country running, football (NO MENTION OF CELTIC AND RANGERS, OTHER THAN THEIR RESULTS) golf, hockey (mens and women's), rowing, show jumping,swimming, tennis and yachting.

In 1970, the rugby coverage comprised: a report of Watsonians' 16-13 win over Jordanhill College, one on Glasgow Accies beating Hillhead HSFP 35-15 and a report on Gala beating Queen's University to win the Selkirk Sevens.

The schools report was on Glasgow High School beating Kelvinside Academy 12-0, while there was also a report on the Jordanhill College School Jubilee Sevens, won by St Aloysius, who beat Greenock Academy in the final.

There were club selections, at the start of a busy week of matches, including some Glasgow & District Knock-Out Cup games. There was also the announcement of the St Andrew's University squad to play in a universities tournament in Rotterdam and a short report on Ireland losing to their hosts in Argentina. The usual comprehensive results service was also there.

As a decade previously, the sports pages covered a few other sports, including a lengthy report on the America's Cup races in the USA.

Pardon the indulgence here, but, the page also included the announcement of the Ayrshire team to face Renfrewshire later that week at Kilmarnock. Here are 15 names to savour for my Ayrshire readers. The team was: Niven Rose, Sandy Innes (both Dalry HSFP), DB Jackson (Kilmarnock), D McAlpine (Old Spierians), Stewart Hay (Ayr), Jimmy Mitchell (Cumnock), Iain Gillespie (Kilmarnock); Jock Craig (Ayr), Dickie Allen (Kilmarnock, Captain), Jim McGuffie, Billy Cuthbertson (both Marr), Jim Montgomery (Ayr), Jimmy Gibson (Kilmarnock), S Nichol (Marr), John McHarg (Irvine). That's a bloody good team.

Any way. Rugby no longer gets that sort of mainstream media coverage, it's up to the clubs, I feel, to plug the gap themselves. On which subject, I this week welcomed edition three of the new Glasgow Hawks online magazine - Hawks Onside, another great effort by Editor Alasdair Graham and the team. Keep it up lads.

 

I might suggest, this is an idea other clubs could copy.

Well Done Colin Rigby, as Transparency Strikes Murrayfield

SUMMER Rugby is coming to Scotland. It appears the FOSROC Super6 season, assuming we ever get back to playing rugby below full-time professional level, in internationals or the PRO14, will run from April until November.

However, this year only, the SRU are planning to run a short, sharp “S6Sprint” tournament, in the five weeks up until Christmas 2020.

The report specifically mentions “two championships.” The actual Super6 competition, which will run over 12 weeks, starting after the 2021 Six Nations is one competition. We can only assume the cross-border competition with the Welsh clubs is planned as the second.

 

This is one of the items discussed at the last SRU Council meeting, held on 10 September. A copy of the report on that meeting, distributed by new Vice President Colin Rigby has come into my possession, courtesy of a friendly club official. It appears, however, that not every club may have received a copy of Colin's welcome initiative – how widely to distribute it was left to the individual Council members and, for some, old habits die hard.

 

Colin Rigby
 

However, I welcome this rare show of transparency from within BT Murrayfield. It is an early indication of the elected officials flexing their muscles and hopefully doing a Boris and taking back control from the ruling junta.

Putting this report out is a good start from Colin Rigby. He and new President Ian Barr both made poromises about standing-up for the Clubs and keeping them abreast, within reason, of what is going on inside the Big Top. This is an excellent start, keep it up lads.

Among the interesting items, I note the second part of the agm, for which no date has yet been fixed COULD, as I have previously suggested, be held inside the main bowl at Murrayfield. This is one of the possible scenarios being looked at.

I found the figures around participation in part one of the agm interestingt. I have heard over the years, club reps saying they would turn up at the annual meeting and get the feeling, they were there to be talked to, rather than having input. It seems, meeting by whatever online method they used this year, gave some a greater feeling of involvement. Maybe this should be looked at and built on.

We all hear lip service to the mantra: “The clubs are the union,” hopefully, after this year, they will feel this more.

The controversial matter of playing numbers was also raised at the meeting. However, this figure is not as yet being put out into the public domain. This is one number we all want to learn, let's hope we get it soon, so we can see just how bad the situation is – because the current pandemic is not helping.

Good to see some Council members specifically asking about “players” who have played five or fewer games, this counting of peripheral players has long been a moot point with some.

Another interesting point to arise is, the SR|U is looking at a specific project to address the long-standing and thorny issue of “player drop off” within the 17 to 21 age group, to see if this brawn drain can be halted and player numbers increased.

Also, beavering away in the background, we learn that the various referee societies are actively looking at ways of increasing our referee numbers. This work is ongoing and hopefully will enter the public domain soon.

The report, while generally positive, does have some bad news. For instance, because of what are termed “budget savings” there will be no national age group rugby below Under-20 level. The Regional Academy programme is also on hold, although those players who have been selected are aware of their selection. Any return to action will be tied-in to a general return to club rugby.

The report also highlights matters on governance, with Gavin MacColl QC accepting the role as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Governance. The Council has approved the members of what is a new team, charged with reporting by May, 2021, so the report can go before the 2021 agm – subject to the group's terms of reference being approved by the Council.

Vice President Rigby will establish a working party to review and recommend on payment or non-payment of Premiership players and the position of paid plaeyrs with regard to playing in reserve team rugby. This working party will also look into the utilisation/non-utilisation of Super6 players in the Premiership. It is hoped this working party will conclude its investigations by the end of January.

One thing that is clear from the report, is that even in lockdown, work has been ongoing within BTM, with a view to Scottish Rugby coming out of the current pandemic able to not just survive, but to flourish.

RIGHT, that's the generally positive stuff. Sadly, it is not all good news, with the revelation of what can only be called sheer stupidity by some of the younger element around Edinburgh Rugby and a Covid-19 outbreak.

Speaking as one of the Auld Yins whose life has been seriously interrupted by having to remain indoors and take greater care of myself during the pandemic, I wonder how they could have been so-stupid; then I recall some of the daft things I did in my youth.

Still, after this, rugby players have lost what remaining moral high ground they still had over footballers. But, I will say this, this is not the first time Academy or Under-20 players have over-stepped the mark of late, maybe some of the supposed supervisors/leaders around the programme were given a guid boot up the bahookie, to be passed on down the line to the players.

Rugby IS Coming Back - Maybes Aye, Maybes Naw

SO, THE high heid yins of Rugby have cobbled together a schedule for the Autumn Cup internationals – sort of. Well, let's wait and see what happens.

Apparently, the games will mainly be on Amazon Prime, which means I am going to have to be nice to the daughter with the Prime account, if I am going to be able to watch Scotland – we are not, it seems, an attractive enough proposition for Channel 4.

I could always try applying to The Junta for a press pass for the home games, but, in all honesty, I think there is more chance of Owen Farrell making a low, legal tackle, than there is of the SRU allocating me a press pass.

IT SEEMS we are moving to Phase Four of the Scottish Governments return to normal road map – whatever the new normal will look like. Pardon the pessimism, but, Ah hae ma doots about us making the new presumptive date of 31 October, for a return to play.

With the spike in Coronavirus cases in North and South Lanarkshire, plus the ongoing constraints in Greater Glasgow, it will be hard for a lot of clubs to restart.

Given your average 2^nd XV player wears his IQ on his back, can you really see them sticking to the rules – even if they know what the rules are, any given weekend.

We can hope, but, I still think it more-likely to be early next year before we see anything like “normal” again.

IT DOES look increasingly like any return to club rugby will be on a Regional basis. If this is the case, count me in. I firmly believe, with the increasing costs of even semi-professional sport, plus any restrictions which may follow after the government gets Coronavirus under control (elimination will only happen with a vaccine, and that's up to two years away), regionalisation makes sense.

I have long argued, four National Leagues are at least two too-many. Going with Super6, which would be better as Super8 or Super10, plus one other truly “National” league, under-pinned by Regional Leagues, to me makes more economic sense for Scottish Rugby.

That way, there would be somewhere for the more-talented players to go, while the guys who simply wanted to run around on a Saturday afternoon to work up a thirst would be better catered-to via more-local competitions – rather akin to the way football works.

Coronavirus just might help bring this about. And,we could then re-introduce Regional representative teams (we are seemingly not allowed to use the District word ever again), as a means of identifying the play-for-fun club players who could step up to the paid ranks.

But, for this to happen, we would have to overcome a few vested interests, which will not be easy.

I HAVE taken some comfort, when watching the Gallagher Premiership matches on BT Sport, by seeing so many relatively unsung Scottish players strutting their stuff.

Ignore the considerable performances being put in by our bigger names – Hoggy, Jonny Gray etc., I have been struck by the contributions of the likes of Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Callum Hunter-Hill, and now Robin “Bomber” Hislop, who came off the bench to good effect for Saracens in midweek.

The common theme for these three, and for others is, they were deemed surplus to requirements by whoever has the shout on players at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Of course, with only two full-time, professional teams in Scotland, both owned by the SRU, hard choices have to be made around contracts. So, why do I feel, they are keeping-on some numpties and letting some good guys go?

Speaking of which, my old mate Alan “Pigeon” Tait, didn't miss the target and hit the wall in a wee printed outburst this week. Pigeon has forgotten more about rugby than some current wearers of the splendid official SRU Harris Tweed jackets – the 21^st century “blazer” ever learned. However, he has been deemed surplus to requirements. Maybe went to the wrong school.

One wonders, and hopes, the likes of Adam Ashe and Rozzer Hughes can prove the SRU's alleged talent spotters wrong.

And, while I am on the subject of departures, good luck to Steven Longwell with Old Glory. I have a lot of time for big Steven.

IS ANYONE really surprised that Owen Farrell's suspension for that assault on an opponent was punished with a short-enough sentence to allow him to be available for England's return to international rugby.

After all, those of us who can remember far enough back, to the evening when the esteemed Chairman of the SRU tried his best to convert the Calcutta Cup to the Calcutta Plate. JJ was positively hammered,while his partner-in-crime, PC Dean Richards, escaped with a mild slap on the wrist. England expects its top players to get away with murder.

Edinburgh Lost, And I For One Was Not Surprised

HANDS UP everyone who, like me, was just waiting for that late Edinburgh collapse on Saturday night, and Ulster's near-inevitable progression into the Guinness PRO14 Grand Final, against Leinster.

If you have sat in as many press boxes as I have, in so-many different sports, Saturday night's outcome would not have come as a surprise. It is a sporting truism, right across the board – if you don' put points on the board when you are on top, invariably that failure comes back to bite you.

When Ulster began to cut into Edinburgh's 12 point lead, I saw the writing on the wall. The home side had had their chance to put clear water between them and their visitors; they hadn't done this. Images of Karen Dunbar's well-brought-up Kelvinside lady began to swim before me at that point.

The sad fact is, throughout the Open Rugby era, on all but a handful of occasions, top Scottish sides have crumbled and/or under-performed in the really big matches. When the chips are down, in the must-win games, we have this long tradition of not winning.

Scots can win in other sports – Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart on the motor-racing circuits; Andy Murray on the tennis courts; Chris Hoy in a velodrome; David Wilkie in a swimming pool; the likes of Eric Brown, Bernard Gallacher, Brian Barnes, Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance and Colin Montgomerie in the Ryder Cup, golf's most-intense competition.

However, in team sports – we seldom have enough truly World-class components to the team to consistently challenge at the very-top level.

Team-building is more an art than a science. But, there are certain rules which have to be obeyed. Let's look at the two sides from these islands to have won World Cups – the 1966 football and 2003 rugby England teams.

The Boys of '66 stuck to the received wisdom of building a successful, winning football team. They had a rock-solid central core: Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and, although he missed the final – Jimmy Greaves. These four players were arguably the best in their positions in the world. They were augmented by some pretty special lesser figures: Ray Wilson was arguably the best full back on the planet. If you wanted a man-marking job done, few could do it as well as Nobby Stiles, Allan Ball and Martin Peters could stretch teams down the flanks, and, even though being knighted for scoring two goals in the final must make him the luckiest knight ever, Geoff Hurst did a cracking job as stand-in for Greaves.

Then look at the 2003 rugby team. Jason Robinson in the back three, the centre pairing, Jonny Wilkinson at stand-off, Steven Thompson at hooker, captain Martin Johnson at lock and a superb back row – that was the hard, solid spine of that team, backed-up by other players at the top of their game.

 

Look at the Scotland football team which stands abune them a' – the Lisbon Lions: Ronnie Simpson, as good a Scottish goalkeeper as we have had; Billy McNeill at centre-half, the Murdoch/Auld midfield axis, and the under-rated Stevie Chalmers on point. Add ther threat down the flanks of Craig and Gemmell, backing up Bobby Lennox and the genius that was wee Jinky and you had a very-special team.

But, the think about these three great teams is, their success was never built on. And, to my mind, for as long as the big clubs in both Scotland and England persist with this nonsense of buying ready-made players, with little connection to the domestic game – they never will.

We keep being told, never again will we see 11 Scotsmen, all born and raised within an hour of the club's ground, doing what the Lions did and conquering Europe. That's shite, it can be done, and I hope to live long enough to see it done again.

 

Certainly, Glasgow won the PRO12, as it then was, back in 2015. Not a pan-European competition, but, still a fine win. That team had a strong central spine: Hoggy, Finn Russell, Leone Nakarawa and Josh Strauss, and, 12 of the 15 were Scotland-qualified.

 

Man for man, put that team up against last night's Edinburgh XV, and the composite XV would not contain many Edinburgh players.

 

Glasgow's 2015 PRO12 winners
 

But, what has this history lesson got to do with Edinburgh losing? I head you ask. Simple really, look at the Edinburgh side – it lacks a strong spine.

Look at the spine of the Edinburgh side: Blair Kinghorn, only 23, still developing. The centres, Injury has blunted Mark Bennett's cutting edge, still a good player, but, not as good as he threatened to be before the injuries hit. The half-backs, please, for me, they are not even the best half-backs at Edinburgh. In the pack, Stuart McInally is good for about an hour, then he runs out of steam, ditto Grant Gilchrist, who has never lived up to the hype. Yes, they have a good back row, but, the balance is not there, and, most-crucially for me, they do not have enough leaders in their leadership group.

Edinburgh have two cracking wingers, but, they cannot get them the ball in threatening positions often enough. They lack a gain line-bursting ball carrier – if Bill Mata is stopped early enough, but, most-crucially, they lack midfield guile.

The trouble is, we lack a proper development system in Scotland. OK, we lack money, but, more-importantly, I think we lack a definite plan for developing our elite players. We are not exposing our young players to a strong enough level of competition and, for me, once our young players get a full-time professional contract, they are not worked hard enough, given enough encouragement and challenged enough.

As I have said before, I have a notion that Super6 will be a key facet of any improvement in Scottish rugby and a great tool in player development. Frankly, from the get-go, S6 has been badly handled by the SRU and, we will never know how good, or how fit for purpose it is, until they get a full season under its belt.

The set-up was hurried and bungled; Coronavirus then intervened. Already, we hear of at least one of the six franchises is in deep doo-dah, with players and sponsors abandoning ship. S6 has serious problems to overcome.

Post-Coronavirus, I don't see the longed-for third professional team happening any time soon. The future for performance rugby in Scotland looks grim.

Then there is the ordinary, grass-roots club game. OK, the end of October is now being flashed-up as a possible restart date. I would like to think this will happen, but, Ah hae ma doots.

A second wave of the virus is I would say, more probable than possible, which will put things back for a few weeks, maybe into 2021, and I can honestly see a lot of less-than-dedicated players drifting away.

Edinburgh's defeat was, I feel, symptomatic of the overall state of Scottish rugby.