We Are Still Getting Elite Player Development Wrong

CLUB FAN, one of the more-faithful and ready to engage followers of this blog picked-up on my distress following the Under-20s loss to Wales on Friday night.

He and I both felt the lack of game time given to the Scotland team was evident and a definite factor in our abject loss. So, what do we do about it?

The Fosroc Super6 was supposed to be a means of getting our younger players more game time, and bridge the gap between the club game and the professional one. The S6 clubs are indirectly managed by the SRU's Performance Department, so you might expect S6 players to be the favoured option for the likes of the Scotland Under-20 team.

A check of the Under-20 squad, however, shows this is far from the case. The official SRU website lists 33 players in the current U-20 squad, the break-down of where they play their rugby, however, shows:

• Super6 players 12 (4 Stirling County, 3 Boroughmuir Bears, 2 Heriot's, 1 Ayrshire Bulls, Southern Knights, Watsonians)

• Premiership players 5 (3 GHA, 1 Glasgow Hawks, 1 Marr)

• English Universities 7 (Durham 3, Exeter 2, Newcastle 2)

• English clubs 6 (Ealing Trailfinders 4, Leicester Tigers 1, Newcastle Falcons 1)

• French clubs 1 (Montpellier)

• Scottish Universities 1 (Strathclyde)

• Scottish Schools 1 (Strathallan)

Few of the 12 S6 players are first-choices for their clubs, most have to be content with game time off the bench. Is there, perhaps, a case for insisting on minimum game time for the U-20 players, particularly those who are “Full-Time Academy Players?”

Given the SRU's central funding to the S6 franchises, this might be one of the offsets to be considered. As has been mentioned in btl comments on the blog – the S6 franchises want to win the competition, hence some recruitment of Non-Scottish Qualified players.

Given the player development aspect of the S6 project, could there also be a requirement to have a certain percentage of any match-day squad Scotland Qualified?

It could also be argued, that the seven U-20 squad members who play in the British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) competitions are playing at a level of rugby which is at least as-good, if not better than S6, perhaps a partnership between the SRU and our top universities could see more players having the chance to compete at a higher level.

I would also argue that the six players from full-time English sides, plus Montpellier's Robbie McClintock are playing at a higher level than the S6 guys. We need to see more players playing at a higher level. But, how do we achieve this?

Various commenters – the hard core who do not want S6 under any circumstances – keep claiming the answer is to do away with S6, spend more money on the clubs and wait for results.

This is Pish! Every chain fails at its weakest link – with S6 there is a minimum standard; that cannot be said of the Premiership. As I keep saying, S6 is a work in progress. At least give it a chance over the intended five-year project, then, re-assess.

Super8 or perhaps even Super10, is, I am certain, the long-term answer. Ten well-funded clubs, singing off the same hymn sheet and attracting most of the best-available young Scottish talent, working under our best coaches, feeding into three full-time Scottish sides in the URC, that's the long-term answer.

Going back to the uncertainties of the Premiership and even Inter-District games, that will not work in the 21^st century.

But, on the road there, and that road will be a long and probably winding one – we need to start by getting our best young talent playing more-often.

For instance, there is one young Academy forward I know of; he's a bloody big lump of the size we seldom produce, who is full-time with one of our two pro sides. He is also supposedly on the books of one of the S6 franchises – for whom he has never crossed the whitewash.

I asked one of the high heid yins of his franchise why he wasn't getting any game time – apparently the pro side felt he was better-off training with them. He has, needless to say, never yet got on the field.

That's the problem, somebody has decided he is better-off in the gym, or holding a tackle bag. I say he'd be better-off playing – he needs time on the grass. Some of the decisions being made by the SRU apparatchiks do not make sense.

BACK IN June 1963 the Scotland football team was in a good place. We had had an unbeaten season in the Home Internationals, winning the championship and capping that off with a first Wembley win in over a decade – playing with ten men for 85 minutes.

We had then been miles ahead of a good Austrian side, 4-1 up, when the visitors to Hampden decided they would kick us off the park, so the referee abandoned the game.

We then set off on an end-of-season mini European tour, where we were expected to roll over Norway and the Republic of Ireland, before tackling Spain, one of the continents giants, in the Bernabeu.

With only ten minutes left against the Norwegians, in Bergen, we were leading 3-2, courtesy of a Denis Law hat-trick. We then lost skipper Dave Mackay to injury and, in the final ten minutes, Norway scored twice to win 4-3.

The travelling “fans with typewriters” of the Scottish Football Writers Association took this loss with the calmness which was their watchword. They went into “sack the lot” mode, led by “The Voice of Football,” John Mackenzie of the Scottish Daily Express. He wanted The Lawman dropped and immediately sent home. FFS, the guy had just scored a hat-trick, how could it be his fault we had lost?

Any way, on the party travelled to Dublin's Dalymount Park and a seemingly concrete pitch, where a bad bounce at a corner deceived debutant goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence of Liverpool.

By now, Mackenzie had gone nuclear in his disdain for the party. He demanded the squad return home immediately and call-off what was sure to be a hammering in Madrid. Scotland was embarrassed enough, nothing good could come of playing that last match.

Thankfully, the SFA's high heid yins held their nerve, we went to Madrid, lost a goal in eight minutes, on our way to a 6-2 win, over a team which would, a year later, be crowned European Champions.

That's the Scottish way of doing things, so, keeping this story in mind, I trust those calling, after Cardiff, for the heads of Messrs Russell and Hogg will shut up and see what happens next.

Following Scotland has long been a case of two steps forward, one step back, half a step to the side, then onward again. I don't see this pattern changing any time soon.

I Can See Disaster For Scotland Coming Early

THIS IS my 65^th year as a Tartan Army foot soldier. I have gone from hero-worshipping Geordie Young, Gordon Smith and Lawrie Reilly in football, Ken Scotland, Arthur Smith and Hugh McLeod in rugby to enjoying watching John McGinn, Billy Gilmour and Craig Gordon with the round ball and Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Mark Bennett with the oval one.

Another thing I have learned over my many years being let-down by our national teams failing to match my over-expectations of them is to see, early-on, Disaster For Scotland coming out of left field.

That familiar foreboding struck early on Friday night as I watched the Scotland Under-20s taking on Wales in Colwyn Bay. I actually gave-up on the uber-irritating pro-Wales commentary after half an hour. It hadn't helped that the S4C's Welsh language commentary was coming across the English language iplayer link.

But, even then, with the amount of possession we had had, Scotland should have been at least three tries up, but, they kept butchering great positions and opportunities; while the way, just about the only time he touched the ball, the Welsh 13 cut through our defence like a knife through butter – I just knew, this will not end well.

I then switched to BBC Radio Shortbread, where not even the enthusiasm of talking heads Colin Grigor and Pete Horne, and match caller Paul Mitchell could hide the fact, Glasgow Warriors were making heavy weather of beating Munster. Mind you, even the ultra-fair-minded Grigor was growing exasperated at an Italian referee who appeared to be well out of his depth – so I don't think that helped.

At least, Glasgow won – then Friday night got better, when news came through from Italy of the Italian Under-20s beating England 6-0.

A late night Facebook message from one of the leading Moss Troopers found me agreeing with his message. The Under-20 game had been a tough watch and we really need to get our promising kids playing more rugby. Our team appeared to lack game intelligence – a commodity you only accrue from time on the grass.

IF FRIDAY night was disappointing, Saturday afternoon was torture. I've had enough experience of us losing in Wales, it's a fairly-normal bi-annual occurrence, but, I thought we had a real chance on Saturday against a not very good Welsh squad.

But, if we only scored seven out of ten in beating England, then we were maybe only worth five out of ten in losing to Wales. We seldom breached the gain line on the attack; we made too-many unforced errors and we gave away dumb penalties at dumb times.

I accept Chris Harris is a wonderful defensive centre, but, I want to see a bit more attacking flair from my 13. I still reckon, and I admit my bias in looking at him, although injuries have blunted his pace, Mark Bennett, still runs the best attacking lines of any Scottish centre. If Marko's days as a first-choice are gone, then I would like to see Redpath at 12, with Tuipulotu or Rory Hutchison at 13, to address our lack of midfield threat.

When he first burst onto the scene, we hailed Jonny Gray as a future British and Irish Lion. The 2017 New Zealand Tour perhaps came too soon for him, and we assumed, he would be a shoo-in for the 2021 South African Tour. He didn't get picked. In fact, I fear he has gone backwards since leaving Glasgow for Exeter. He was largely anonymous on Saturday, as were too many of our pack.

We have a forwards squad of nice, competent boys – we lack one or two hard-nosed international beasts and, until we unearth these rarities, I am afraid in the modern game, we are going nowhere.

Could Guinness Six Nations 2022 turn out to be yet another massive Disaster for Scotland? I'm worried now. That's the gloomy stuff, but, for the neutral, it was a most-entertaining game which could well have gone either way – Wales just made fewer mistakes and took their chances better.

But, if we cannot beat that lot, we're in bother, because I don't think the Welsh team which beat us is as good as the England one we beat. We still have to face the two strongest teams in the competition, and go to Rome. I am one Scotsman with a grievance whom you couldn't mistake for a ray of sunshine today.

Gregor Townsend now has a couple of weeks in which to re-set his squad; a lot of hard work will need to be done before we welcome the French to BT Murrayfield.

REVIEWING France's victory over Ireland in Paris, a line of Robert Burns' came to mind: “And forward tho' Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.” I can see some big problems coming down the road to meet us.

The game in Cardiff was enjoyable, but, the heavyweight clash in Paris was at a higher level of intensity, physicality and skill. We will have to improve greatly from what we have shown in the two games this far if we are to compete with these two sides. Even that may not be enough. We will I feel, also need them to have a bad day at the office if we are to sneak wins over them.

To make it worse, if we play in Rome, the way we played in Cardiff, we could be in bother. I am a tad depressed – again.

SO MUCH for Italy maybe shocking England in Rome this afternoon. Eddie Jones' changes worked, England played a lot better than they had at BT Murrayfield. They got a boost from a fast start and an early score, after which, they never let Italy get a grip of the game.

Significantly, Maro Itoje, who was largely anonymous at Murrayfield, was more like his usual self in England's win. Mind you, worryingly for us, looking ahead to our visit to the Eternal City. I thought the Italian scrum asked more-difficult questions of the England eight than we had.

England were well worth their victory, which enabled Sir Clive Woodward and the other talking heads to be even-more annoying than they usually are – and encouraged me to switch channels right on the final whistle.

FINALLY, as if the weekend wasn't bad enough for Scotland and our leaders at BT Murrayfield, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Austin Gilgronis beat Old Glory, our subsidiary team in the USA, 57-12, as the new season of Major League Rugby got under way. In Scotland – it never rains but it pours.

This Squad Can Get The Job Done

 

WE ALWAYS knew Gregor Townsend would be forced to make changes for Saturday's meeting with Wales, in Cardiff. Jamie Ritchie's injury meant he would be out, but, I don't think many Scots would have forecast the make-up of the starting XV and the bench, which is:

Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally, Wilem Nel, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Sam Skinner, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson; Ali Price, Finn Russell' Duhan van der Merwe, Sione Tuipulotu, Chris Harris, Darcy Graham; Stuart Hogg (Captain). Replacements: George Turner, Rory Sutherland, Zander Fagerson, Magnus Bradbury, Rory Darge; Ben White, Blair Kinghorn, Cameron Redpath.

So, he has gone with Sam Skinner as Ritchie's replacement, and signalled a probable first cap, off the bench, for Glasgow Warriors' Rory Darge. He has also reversed his front row options, last week's replacements starting the game, while Cameron Redpath returns following his year-long injury absence, getting the number 23 shirt, with Sam Johnston dropping out of the match-day 23.

Of course, a wounded Wales, with home field advantage, will be a difficult side to overcome, however, a rare Cardiff victory is definitely not beyond the chosen 23.

GIVEN the population sizes, and, since the game went open, the relative budgets of the two ruling unions, maybe Eddie Jones was being a tad conservative when he suggested on Tuesday that England should beat Scotland 95% of the time. The statistical actuality of the figure is that England has won 54% of the games between the two nations since hostilities commenced in 1871 – a figure which reflects better on Scotland than its much-larger neighbour.

But, England always expects; although you might think, any nation with a modicum of self-knowledge would, lang syne, have realised: “The Sweaties aren't just going to roll over and let us win.”

Any way, that's the self-declared Master Race put back in their box for another 12 months, Scotland now moves on to greater challenges.

There has been much paper talk this week about the future look of the Guinness Six Nations, particularly with Italy having slumped to their 33^rd straight tournament defeat in Paris on Sunday. There has been speculation as to whether we are on the verge of a Seven Nations, or even an Eight Nations – with Georgia and South Africa the likelier nations to be invited to the party.

I suspect, if CVC, the Luxembourg-based hedge fund which owns a significant chunk of the tournament has its way, Cape Town or Jo'burg will perhaps replace Rome or Paris as the away trip of choice for the wives of our rugby leaders. As a quid pro quo of letting South Africa become the seventh nation, we might see an annual promotion/relegation play-off between the side finishing bottom of the table and whichever nation wins the Rugby Europe Championship, which will then become a second division in northern hemisphere rugby.

Next season, or is it planned for the following season? The South African teams in the United Rugby Championship will begin to play in the Heineken and Challenge Cups, so, The Rainbow Nation's integration into northern hemisphere rugby is now a fact.

How the Six Nations develops is now a live issue, things are going to become very interesting along Rugby Union's corridors of power over the next two or three seasons. I suspect, what transpires between now and the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final will be one of the more-interesting periods in the game's history.

However, this integration of South Africa into the northern hemisphere has huge implications for the world game. Australia v New Zealand will always sell. The southern hemisphere's annual jousts “across the ditch”, as they refer to the Tasman Sea – like England v Anyone, will always garner interest. However, because of what has gone before, not having the South Africans to go against regularly will hurt New Zealand.

Economic reality will always hold back the Pacific Island nations. Just as the High Road to England has, since 1707, been: “The noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees,” so too, the sail or flight to Australia or New Zealand, or a contract with a northern hemisphere club are the golden tickets for ambitious or talented Pacific Islanders.

The northern hemisphere is also now recruiting more and more Argentinians, and World Rugby needs to seriously look at bridging the gap between the first and lower tier nations. Take their cue from football, or maybe better-still, golf, to make their sport a truly world one.

Using the current FIFA rankings, we find the top 50 nations playing the game distributed thus:

26 European nations

9 South American

7 African

5 Asian and Far East

3 North American

Rugby's top 50 looks like this:

21 European nations

9 African

6 Asian

6 South American

5 Pacific Island nations (including Australia and New Zealand)

3 North American

Not a lot of difference really, except, in Rugby Union, the top Tier One nations are making damned sure they have control of the game. Money talks in football – it positively screams in Rugby Union. Until the grip of the top nations is broken, the game will never become as universally popular and relevant as it could be.

FIFA used to be an “old boys club” of mainly European nations, who looked after each other. However, the likes of old Jules Rimet and Sir Stanley Rous, were perhaps guilty of treating the non-European nations as lesser beings and they paid the price when João Havelange of Brazil got the lesser nations organised and broke the grip of the European old guard.

Who will be Rugby's Havelange? Change will happen, the question is – when?

Will World Rugby Ever Bite The Bullet And Sort-Out The Scrum?

OUR heart rates back to normal, with the Saturday Night Fever declining, we ought perhaps to look at the wider implications of weekend one of the Guinness Six Nations.

I begin this with a reference to a Facebook post which I spotted on Sunday. This was a video clip, headed: “This is what you call a dominant scrum.” It showed a definite coarse rugby pack shoving their opponents all the way back from half-way, to score a push-over try.

It had to be a lowly-ranked, grass-roots game, because, at the professional level, once they were forced to engage reverse gear, the pack being dominated would have gone to ground, reckoning it better to concede a penalty than be forced all the way back and concede a try.

I still recall, as a 15-year-old hooker, having the effrontery to nick a tight-head strike (remember them), against the venerable Sam Muff, of Ayr's veterans-only A2 XV, as a prelude to our pack marching the Ayr eight all the way from the centre spot to over their own line. Sam, these many years now playing in the Heavenly XV, was the Godfather to us younger Ayrshire hookers and he proceeded to give me a masterclass in the dark arts of hooking. I think the final match tight-head count was something like 9-2 to Sam. It was the start of a long friendship and a great deal of respect for the man on my part.

The tight-head count seems to have vanished from modern rugby, now the obsession is with the scrum penalty count. This is a plook on the fair countenance of the game and it is way past time World Rugby did something about playing for penalties at the scrum.

The scrum, and here I quote directly from Law 19: “The purpose of a scrum is to restart play with a contest for possession after a minor infringement or stoppage.”

There you have it – a contest for possession, not a means of winning a penalty – take penalties out of scrums and I think a lot of the problems would vanish with that change.

Ignore what I wrote in the second and third paragraphs above, I would certainly maintain the push-over try element, but only from five metre scrums. Elsewhere, I would prohibit holding the ball in in the second or back row and demand the fastest possible in and out of the ball at each scrum.

Do away with scrum penalties, give the non-offending side a free-kick and get on with the game.

However, we must still have the penalty sanction for foul play, although, the good, old-fashioned front five punch-up seems to have vanished from the game. I wrote above about my first game as a hooker. My second was equally memorable; we were playing a minor Glasgow club, whose tight-head turned up in his big Jaguar. A somewhat loud character, at the second scrum, he started boring-in on me, so I had a word with my loose-head, a gentleman who spent his week days flat on his back, pick in hand, hewing coal at the face in the narrow seams of Whitehill Colliery. A lightning-fast head butt, followed by a couple of hooks and the opposing tight-head was anonymous for the rest of the game.

Any way, the massed ranks of English Rugby, from HRH The Duchess of Cambridge down (and by the way, I bet the Cambridge household was an unhappy place on Saturday night), are moaning about that series of scrums in added time on Saturday – claiming, erroneously, that England ought to have had a penalty.

I said, at the first re-set, Joe Marler, under the most-intense pressure from Wilem Nel, had stepped out and, under the present refereeing of the scrum, should surely have been pinged. But, we can forgive the generally excellent Ben O'Keefe for getting that one wrong.

As for that great late line-out steal from Sam Skinner, I would hazard a guess, it will be written into RFU protocols: “When trailing by three points very-late in the game, we take the points rather than kicking to the corner, we never, ever, do this again.” They are proving to be not very good at that tactic.

ANOTHER thing I noticed on Saturday night and Sunday was the differing views of those rugby writers charged with producing player ratings for the game. Now, when “on the tools” I was never a fan of ratings – I didn't like doing them; they come down to opinion, and opinions are like erse-holes, everyone has one.

For instance, I saw one team of the week which had Jonny Gray as one of the locks. Well, it seemed to me, and indeed to most Scottish commentators, that Grant Gilchrist was the more-important and influential of the two Scottish locks during the game. Mind you, I have a hunch, Gray the Younger's performance was a rare case of a rugby player doing a football-style “man marking” job on his opposite number.

Certainly, Maro Itoje wasn't his usual big nuisance self, indeed, he was barely seen during the match. I feel Oor Jonny had something to do with that fact. Mind you, that same Team of the Week had Marcus Smith at ten, so maybe a desperate effort to get at least one Englishman into the team, or, failing that, a player with an English club.

OF COURSE we are only one-fifth of the way through the competition; just 20% of the games played. Take this down to a single game and, we are 16 minutes in. Well, 16 minutes in on Saturday, even the most-optimistic Scots had to concede, we are only just hanging-on. There's a lot of rugby still to be played.

With Jamie Ritchie almost-certainly out of the visit to Cardiff, Gregor Townsend has to make at least one change. So, who comes in – Magnus Bradbury (perhaps at Number Eight, with Matt Fagerson switching to six); Sam Skinner, who has been playing there regularly for Exeter; perhaps Nick Haining, given Josh Bayliss' injury concerns. Or, might Toony gamble, switch Hamish Watson to six, give Rory Darge his debut and play with two out and out sevens?

A wounded Wales, playing at home, will be dangerous. The trouble for the Welsh is, while every squad in any 6N campaign has to contend with injuries, Wales are losing the guys they would least want to lose. OK, a lot will now depend on skipper Dan Biggar, but, I honestly think, this weekend, we have a terrific chance to improve our woeful record in the Welsh capital.

I also believe, an England win in Rome is not the Gimmee their cheerleaders in the media would have us think it will be. The annual Wooden Spoon Decider has come early this year, and could go either way.

And, it goes without saying, whichever nation wins in Paris confirm their tag as tournament favourites.

That's The Easy Game Over - Now It Gets Harder

I TOOK some stick from many mates, after sticking my neck out and suggesting we could beat a poor England team on Saturday. At times, as we under-performed, conceded daft penalties and gave England field position, I questioned my own pre-match reading of the game, but -In Finn we trust – and in the end, ugly though it perhaps was, we got the win and retain possession of the Calcutta Cup. Job One in the Guinness Six Nations done, we move on.

This is where I came into international rugby, back in the late 1950s. The England of those far-off days were generally a bad lot. Sure, they had one or two great players: Peter Jackson, Richard Sharp, Dickie Jeeps, but, these class acts were too-often, surrounded by over-hyped big lumps. Fast forward 60 years and, plus ca change.

Any half-decent England team, given the amount of territory and possession they enjoyed on Saturday, I would have expected to beat us, with tries a plenty. But, what we saw at Murrayfield was not a great England side. Indeed, they men in white might be looking at a second straight fifth-place finish in the Guinness Six Nations, come the end of the tournament.

We had the quality players – Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Grant Gilchrist and Man of the Match Matt Fagerson. We also had the better team spirit, a refusal to crumble, even when things were not going well for us, and, we believed and got the result we wanted.

Ben White's dream debut on Saturday

 

And what about debutant Ben White? (pictured). Jilly Cooper's great anti-hero turned good guy, Rupert Campbell-Black was given a great line about timing a sportsman's retirement – reckoning it's the particular sportsman's hardest decision. Jim Telfer has joked, he really should have quit after his try against England in 1964, Ben White might be thinking this morning – yesterday was probably as good as it gets.

OK, Marcus Smith was very good for the Saxons; skipper Tom Curry led from the front, but, too-many of their supposed big names didn't perform. Indeed, even Maro Itoje, who so-often reserves his best form for this fixture, was largely anonymous.

We got few favours from referee Ben O'Keefe. Sure, he got the big decision right, around the Penalty Try, but, I was not impressed by his officiating at the few scrums, where he got one or two calls wrong.

But, I would not entirely blame Mr O'Keefe, Rugby Union's Laws are a shambles and, I again say, they need a start to finish re-write. Take that controversial call, when he penalised Stuart McInally for that “brake foot” offence, in his first scrum. By the letter of the Law, he was correct – it was a second such offence by the Scotland hooker. However, he had penalised two different hookers and it strikes me as unfair to penalise McInally for a prior technical offence, by George Turner. That aint right.

But, all that is history now, we've won, we move on to Cardiff, where we will be facing a wounded and angry Wales.

THE WELSH were simply out-classed in Dublin, where Ireland were, for my money, even-more-convincing winners than the 29-7. four tries to one, score line indicates. Ok, they had an awful lot of experienced players missing, but, if they play like that against us on Saturday, then we too should beat them easily.

Ireland struck early, got a foot on Welsh necks, so to speak and never let-up. Make no mistake, this is a terrific Irish side and their clash with France on Saturday might well be the game of the tournament.

IF ENGLAND cannot raise their game a lot from how they played against us on Saturday, then they will be in bother in Rome at the weekend. It took France a long time to subdue then beat them in Paris on Sunday, and the French are a much-better outfit than England.

Les Bleus' class acts: Dupont, Aldritt, Ntamack, Penaud and Woki all stood out in what was, after initial problems, a comfortable home win – which sets-up a potentially explosive clash with the equally in-form Irish this time out.

The 2022 version could be a Six Nations tournament to remember.

MASSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT – that's my take on Friday night's Under-20 Six Nations opener, between Scotland and Edinburgh. Sure, the bald fact is, England won 41-24. But, the reality is, there weren't that many points between the sides. Simply put, England took their chances, we didn't, don't forget, three of the English tries were long-distance affairs, scored when we were on the front foot. As so-often, our mistakes killed us.

As has so often been the case, when the two starting XVs were on the pitch, we were competitive, but, as soon as the replacements began to come into the game, England's greater depth showed and they pulled clear. It is not surprising that we do not have the depth of talent available to a neighbouring country, with ten times the population.

Young Henry Arundell, the England and London Irish full back looks like a player who will give us problems for the next decade or so. He oozed class, has pace to burn and he and Ethan Grayson of Northampton, look like class acts with big futures.

Maybe, with a bit more composure and a bit more luck, we could have snatched it. Certainly, while taking nothing away from the English win, we got little or nothing from a French referee who had clearly never heard of the Auld Alliance. At times, the England pack got away with murder, while we got pinged, but, that's not enws.

I didn't catch the identity of the main commentator, but, he was yet another in the long line of English talking heads you really, badly want to kick repeatedly in the goolies. The commentary was myopic and one-sided to the extent, it was almost Welsh.

Finally, fair play to Scotland captain Rhys Tait who, in his post-game interview, proved you can take the boy out of Hawick, but never Hawick out of the boy, as he dropped the F bomb in his opening sentence. And, well done too to Johnnie Beattie for his part in the commentary.

FINALLY, BBC Shortbread's Tom English is arguably the leading Sports Writer working in Scotland today. (In English's mind, there is no argument by the way). So, it was good, on Sunday, to see him getting something spectacularly wrong.

Schadenfreude it definitely was, but, I enjoyed English wondering why Joe Marler took that game-turning line-out throw, after Luke Cowan-Dickie was yellow carded. “Why didn't Eddie Jones bring on Jamie George at that point?” the smug Irishman wondered.

Because the Laws didn't allow him to ya tick Mick.

Hooking in a scrum is apparently a “specialist skill” - so you need a specialist hooker. Throwing-in at a line-out is not a specialist skill, therefore, anyone can do it. When I was playing, wingers threw in; then, there was a brief spell when scrum-halves did the job, before we settled down to the now common theme of hookers throwing-in.

I would say, given how every scrum-half now feeds the ball in squint, throwing-in at a line-out is a more specialised skill in the modern game.

Oh Shite! I Think We Can Win This One

 THE LATE, great, Tommy Burns – one of the finest gentlemen ever to step onto a sports field, is the subject of a great story, which shows his humility. At Wembley, on 21 May, 1988, at roughly 4.30pm, 74 minutes into the annual England v Scotland football international, Andy Roxburgh sent Tam on, to replace Aberdeen's Neil Simpson. But, as he stood up on the Scotland bench, Tam shook his manager's hand, and thanked him for making a dream come true – he would be playing for Scotland, against England.

The 16 minutes of action he enjoyed, if that is the apposite word for playing in a 0-1 defeat, marked Burns' final appearance in a Scotland shirt; but, it was still dream come true time. I wonder if any of the 23-man Scotland squad for Murrayfield on Saturday, a player who has never faced the Auld Enemy, will think to thank Gregor Townsend for the chance to achieve every Scottish boy's sporting dream.

When I was a boy, we Scots all lived by Max Boyce's take on Grantland Rice: When One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He marks, not that you won or lost, but did you beat England.”

We are now telt, beating England isn't all that important, it's all about the overall Six Nations outcome, or doing well in the World Cup – I don't think the descendants of those who sent Proud Edward and his army homeward to think again, are quite on-message with that one. Stuffing the Saxons still give us a wee additional kick.

So who are the guys who will be channeling their inner Queen, under pressure on Saturday?

Toony announced the following squad (in 1-23 order) this lunch time:

Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson; Ali Price, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Sam Johnson, Chris Harris, Darcy Graham; Stuart Hogg (Captain). Replacements: Stuart McInally, Pierre Schoeman, WP Nel, Sam Skinner, Magnus Bradbury, Ben White, Blair Kinghorn, Sione Tuipulotu.

I am worried now – that's a team which I really fancy can damage England, and, as we all know, with Scotland, it's the hope that kills. Interesting to see Ben White jump straight into the back-up scrum-half role, in his first appearance in a Scotland squad. He is clearly in-line for a cap off the bench.

The prospect of, our two starting props having clearly demonstrated that Messrs Genge and Sinckler are not international-class as pure scrummagers, WP Nel and Pierre Schoeman arriving later on to further damage England's front row, has the old front five donkey in me almost salivating.

AND WHAT of the opposition? Eddie Jones named his squad first, and, again in 1-23 order, it is:

Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Nick Isiekwe, Lewis Ludlam, Tom Curry (Captain) Sam Simmonds; Ben Youngs, Marcus Smith, Joe Marchant, Henry Slade, Elliot Daly, Max Malins, Freddie Steward. Replacements: Jamie George, Joe Marler, Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels, Alex Dombrandt, Harry Randall, George Ford, Jack Nowell.

To be honest, that's a dangerous team for us to be facing. Only Maro Itoje, and maybe Sam Simmonds, would in my view get into a composite XV selected from both squads – so, if we cannot beat that lot, we've got problems.