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.

Once Wally Barnes Was A Player - Now He's A Referee

FOR ME, the quote of the rugby season came early-on, it appeared in (I think) the esteemed Tom English's Scotland on Sunday column and read: "One thing is certain, at some time, you'll get screwed by Wayne Barnes". You know Wayne Barnes - he was the future of refereeing, until he missed a forward pass and France beat the "unbeatable" All Blacks in the 2007 World Cup.

Since that fateful night, the Barnes star has been on the wane, dipping even more in the aftermath of Saturday's English Premiership Final, when he failed to red card , or even yellow-card Leicester's Manu Tuilagi for a tip tackle on Harlequins' Danny Care.

Now, I accept the sanction for a tip tackle is the subjnect of much debate, since the Sam Warburton incident in the World Cup semi-final against France, but, IRB guidelines are clear - the referee starts at "red card" and works backwards. But, to give a penalty, and nothing else, as Barnes did on Saturday - well he should be back refereeing Old Shirtlifters' Extra B XV v Soddom and Gomorrah College FP Vs until he learns the error of his ways.

When I was a boy, Arsenal had a great Welsh full back, Wally Barnes - now he was a player; today's "Wally" Barnes is a referee - how times change.

As it stands, Barnes' inaction means we will have an RFU citing commission, Rob Andrew and the other 56 Farts will get involved, (hopefully) Tuilagi will miss the summer England tour and the Forlorn Four (Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and Times) will have another subject to keep the rugger buggers of Middle England going on-line all summer.

I have covered a lot of sports in my life, one constant I have found is, regardless of the game - English referees are shit, Barnes is not alone.

I MET Tommy Bowe, the Irish wing, last week. He was doing a bit of pr work for RWE-npower Renewables, one of Ospreys' sponsors - and right well he did it too. The kids from Cumnock Academy and Cumnock Rugby Club whom he met hung on his every word, while, like almost every Paddy I have ever met, he was great craic in the clubhouse, even admitting that my 45-year-old kidney operation scar knocked his much-newer "keyhole" one for six. I wish him all the best next season for Ulster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions (except when he is playing against a Scottish side).

If you've ever wondered about how-much bigger players are becoming, how about the comment from Ronnie Boid, the middle-man in the fearsome Jordanhill Colege McLauchlan, Boid, McCallum front row of the late sixties and early seventies. Meeting Bowe at Cumnock Rugby Club the bold Boid said: "He's a winger - I had smaller second rows behind me".

IT IS nice to see so-many promising young Scots being awarded Elite Development Contracts by Edinburgh and Glasgow this week. Most have already made an impact in Premiership One, and will do so again in the new season. I just hope they get a proper chance in the Rabo Pro 12; nothing against foreign mercenaries, they are a necessary evil, but as has happened in football, I hope they don't become the preferred pick ahead of young, native talent, it is a tough call to make for the best.

It's English, But I Like It - So, Where's Our Coverage?

I HAVE a secret vice: I ought to be ashamed of it, I ought not to confess to it, but feel I must - I enjoy ITV4's Monday night coverage of the English Aviva Premiership.

There, it is out in the open, I feel better now. Some might ask, why don't I go the whole hog and buy the Sky package which would allow me to watch as much rugby as I wanted, as often as I wished?

Simples, I refuse point-blank to help fund the Dirty Digger and his offspring's life-style and attempts at world domination, so, Sky is beyond the limits for me. No, I happily wait until a Monday night, then enjoy watching the Aviva coverage, plus the odd bit of European rugby which they also show.

I also enjoy the BBC Alba coverage of the Rabo 12. The fact I do not have the Gaelic is a minor inconvenience, I can tell what is going on without having verbal heedrum-hodrum in my lug-hole.

I have said before, it is a disgrace the level of coverage Scottish rugby gets, even the Pro 12 games involving Edinburgh and Glasgow. With Rangers perhaps being banished to the outer darkness - maybe the BBC in Scotland or STV can next season, be persuaded to give rugby a bit more coverage - or why doesn't the SRU take Scottish Rugby TV in-house, throw some money at it and give us the quality and depth of coverage which might make a difference either on-line or on some digital channel?

We have a good product at senior club level - it is simply crying-out for more exposure.

I SEE Tom Smith is moving to Toulon, in part because the SRU has been slow off the mark in offering him a new contract. I suppose he will be replaced by some non-Scot, bought-in from elsewhere, Really, the SRU is for me not doing enough with its remit to encourage and grow the game in Scotland, by pushing through more talented Scots coaches. Smith ought, for my money, to have been kept in Scotland.

And, while I am at it, Jason White is coming home - get him involved, please.

AS BIG Jason comes home, another Scot, young McAndrew, heads over to Clermont Auvergne, to joing their Academy, where he will be alongside Mark Bennett. How I wish we had a decent Academy structure in Scotland. The two pro sides cannot do this alone, the top Premiership sides have to do more - perhaps by making their 2nd XV League an Under-23 one.

Something needs to be done to create a better growth environment for our future stars, but, that will cost money, something in short supply in Scottish sport.



NSQ = SRU Nae Clue

YOU might have thought that, after 17 years of mostly getting things wrong, the SRU would by now have had a re-think and come up with a viable business plan for professional rugby. Maybe they have, but I cannot discern it anywhere.

Take this whole business of current recruitment policies for the two SRU-owned professional sides. We have seen a stream of NSQs (non-Scottish qualified) players being recruited. One or two may be young enough to eventually make it into the national side, but ah hae ma doots. Maybe Sean Lineen is going to move back home to NZ and spend his days poring over birth certificates and genealagy sites to find promising young SQs (Scots-qualified) players who might be exported to Scotland to develop.

Or maybe, as some of us increasingly feel - the SRU hasn't a clue.

Better by far I feel to spend money on developing the game here in Scotland, raising standards, improving the coaching pool and getting good, young Scots fast-tracked into the national squads.

For instance: why don't we make more use of the Club International XV as a means of giving the pro sides' Academy and fringe players - many of whom spend more time playing in the Premiership than in the Pro 12 - a chance to play together.

Let the Club XV take-on some of the lesser FIRA sides in Europe, or, in the summer, send them to take-on some of the New Zealand provincial sides who play in the Ranfurly Shield, the level below the Super 15. Make this a mainly Under-23 side, with some experienced ballast, and who knows, maybe the young talent would come through quicker.

At home, as I have argued before, why not make the Premiership a sort of franchise league? Insist, and if necessary hand-out SRU-undder-written loans, to be used under strict guidelines to improve facilities and coaching rather than player recruitment, to sort-out the grass-roots and make certain we can identify the talent early enough and give it a chance to flourish.

Scottish football is dying, Scottish rugby, if it can put its house in order, has a great chance to flourish in the 21st century.

Let's see some out of the box thinking and let's be the architects of our own salvation. Good luck to the NSQs who are coming up here, but, I'd rather see guys who can definitely play for Scotland, getting the first chance.

WELL, Sean Lineen has had his pre-match team talk written for him, by those Leinster men who are openly talking about "three games to go". I must admit, I wasn't looking forward to the trip to Dublin on Saturday, but, I now believe Glasgow has a real chance of shocking Leinster.

I HAVE a mate who went over to the Dark Side many years ago - picking up a whistle and becoming a referee. To be fair to him, he has done well, without reaching the upper echelons of the game and, given his inate sense of fair-play and neutrality, he merits the description a good referee.

These past 15 years he has been living, working and refereeing in England. Now, his spell in the missionary service behind him, he and his good lady have retired back to that Ayrshire village from whence they came. Perhaps he missed the twang of banjoes in the morning, I don't know, but not even counselling could dissuade the couple from returning.

He has decided to retire from refereeing and has spent the last couple of months in the lower levels of Glasgow District rugby, during which he has doled-out two red cards and six yellows: "More than in 15 years in England".

What does that say about the bottom feeders of Scottish Rugby?

"They will not take a telling, then, when you penalise - they argue; there is simply no discipline and a refusal among some clubs to accept even the basic principles of discipline".

This guy has put in the hours in refereeing, he cares about the game, when he feels like this - we have a problem Murrayfield.

It's The Hope That Keeps Us Going

SPAIN - we lost to fucking Spain!!!

Not the Spain of Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Fabregas, but a Spain of a bunch of guys who are not even household names in their own households. Come on, it's not so long ago that Cumnock Rugby Club could go to Spain and return unbeaten.

How low must we sink before the Murrayfield Mafia either gets real about Sevens, or drops the Sevens programme completely?

Still, the Blacks stuffed England, so Scotstoun 2012 wasn't all bad news.

IF YOU only read the Daily Telegraph, or the Times, or watch Sky and ITV you will no doubt believe the guff about the superiority of the English Premiership. If you are Irish or Welsh, you will believe that their game is far-superior to the rugby we play in Scotland. If you are Scottish, you perhaps think we really are not-very-good.

But, as the Warriors and Edinburgh have shown this season, we are not that far away from being good at rugby. Of course, we are still operating from too-narrow a base; we still rely too-much on a handful of good players and we will always be vulnerable in these days of professionalism to the greater financial clout of England and France and the  better player-care regime of Ireland.

However, we've got some great young players coming through - in spite of the  organisaional failings of Murrayfield and, who knows, we just might be competitive come the next World Cup in England.