Let's Hear It For The Girls

IT GOT somewhat overwhelmed by the celebratory testosterone elsewhere on Saturday night, but, a wee word of praise for The Thistles ladies development squad, who beat their Welsh opponents 21-7 at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday.

Scottish wins in the Welsh capital are a wee bit like rocking horse shite, so well done to the girls, who backed-up their solid showing first time out with this welcome victory. Three wins from three matches against Welsh opponents in one weekend is a brilliant return for the SRU.

I HAVE been involved in rugby since 1958, so I have probably forgotten more than most of today's active rugby journalists have even learned.

Over my long association with the game, I have even on several occasions actually refereed games – and believe me, playing is far-easier. Refereeing is a thankless task, particularly today, when, at the top level, the all-intrusive television cameras have turned everyone watching into an instant expert.

Thus, in spite of instances where the match referee is forced to rely on one of the game's great unbreakable Laws: Law 6, 5 (a):

• The referee is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match. The referee must apply the laws of the game fairly in every match.

Now, after every match, you will find some numpty – in the case of games at the elite level a lot of numpties – who are prepared to skweam and skweam and skweam that the referee was biased. I must say, in my 60-plus years I the game, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have been convinced I was watching a biased official; but, cries of bias still follow every contentious decision.

That's probably human nature, but, increasingly in this television age, we find armchair experts prepared to dispute the part of Law 6, 5a, we must never dispute:

The referee is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match.

That particular rugby law got a lot of people het-up on Saturday thanks to a couple of incidents. Firstly, there was Wayne Barnes' decision to only yellow card French prop Uini Atonio for a high tackle on Irish hooker Rob Herring in the first half of the game in Dublin.

Countless armchair experts were crying for a red card for Atonio, but, the way Barnes handled the incident and reached his yellow card decision was, I believe, a textbook example of a top official, at the top of his game, making a difficult decision.

Yes, some will still think Atonio should have seen red, but, Barnes, the referee, was the sold judge of fact and we must now accept his decision.

There was a similar incident in the later Scotland v Wales game at BT Murrayfield, where Referee Andrew Brace decided a yellow card was sufficient punishment for a George Turner tackle on George North. I actually thought, this was an easier decision than the one in Dublin, and again – the referee got it right - so, live with it.

Barnes and his team cannot be held responsible, for another contentious decision on the day – when he decided James Lowe had scored what seemed at first to have been a spectacular try for Ireland.

The match officials reviewed several television angles of the try and decided, there was no overwhelming evidence to disallow it – thus, the try stood.

However, long after the game had restarted, another television angle, not previously made available to the TMO, emerged, which showed, Lowe had indeed put a foot in touch and the try should have been disallowed.

There have been suggestions for some time, that television companies have been withholding footage which makes life awkward for the home team, with French TV in particular being accused of being highly-selective in deciding what footage to show the TMO.

I believe, there is overwhelming evidence that, on Saturday, some producer or director from the Irish host broadcaster, RTE, played a blinder in helping Ireland's cause.

Never mind, what goes around comes around and, some day that decision by the man from RTE will come back and bite Ireland. Also, since I can see no way other than World Rugby/The Six Nations spending millions in setting-up their own television crew to provide coverage for all relevant games – which will not happen – then there will always be scope for such skullduggery.

England v ITALY on Sunday was like watching paint dry – two poor sides playing poor rugby, under the gaze of a poor referee, poorly covered by the broadcaster.

Italy were a long way short of the form they showed against France in Rome, while England were as poor as they were against us. Referee James Doleman had a shocker, getting a lot of his calls wrong. Given England have to go to Cardiff in two weeks, this one might yet prove to have been a wooden spoon decider.

Let's not forget – Italy won the second half, pity they didn't get off the bus until half time. For England, it was a welcome win, but, one of David Dodds' ugliness.

FINALLY – this one came to me late on Saturday night. I was listening to Billy Sloan on BBC Shortbread; when they went to the 11pm news, they included a clip of “Scotland Captain Finn Russell” speaking after Scotland had beaten Wales at Murrayfield.

Now, I know The Gallus One is the guy who makes us tick, but, the fact the newshounds at Pacific Quay can identify him as the skipper demonstrates how little they know or care about rugby. We deserve better.

 

A Finntastic Day

KEEP THE HEID – ffs, we've beaten nobody yet, England and Wales are the two worst teams in the Guinness Six Nations. Ok, we won, but, as Jamie Ritchie said when wee Lee Mackenzie was interviewing him post-match: “We weren't perfect,” the squad themselves know, they have to find a lot more for France in Paris and Ireland at home.

Is he The Messiah, or just a very-naughty boy?

  

However, when things like the 'Finn Flip' come off, we can beat anyone. Now, Toony has some big decisions to make – for instance, does he stick with Stuart Hogg at 15, or, is it maybe time to give Blair Kinghorn a run in the jersey.

I felt the defences, on both sides, were immense. Wales made it harder for our backs than England did, while the way their forwards stuck to their guns when we were mauling was impressive.

Mind you, when Wales were putting us under pressure, our own defence was first-class, but, it will need to be even better against France and Ireland.

I also felt, referee Andrew Brace had a very-good game; he, like Wayne Barnes and Frank Murphy before him, is growing into international refereeing.

We are in a good place at the moment, but, onwards and upwards, let's enjoy tonight. Mind you, in the continuing interests of keeping the heid, can I point out a couple of things to all those celebrating Scotland's biggest win over Wales.

If 2023 scoring values had been in use back in 1924, when we had our previously biggest win over the Welsh, the score would have been 51-14. Alternatively, if the scoring values had been reversed, today, we would only have won 25-5. The try was only worth three points back then, and we scored eight that day.

I HAD half a mind to not watch the Under-20s match v Wales, from Scotstoun on Friday night. Then, when I switched on the iplayer, I got pictures but no sound for long enough and thought: “This is a subliminal message that I shouldn't watch this.” However, I persevered and got the right result.

Mind you, we won “ugly” as they say. I thought, as is so often the case at Scotstoun, that wind was worth 20 points and we certainly didn't use it as well as we might have in the first half.

I also thought our technical skills were not good enough for this level, but, that's a long-standing problem with Scottish rugby, and, at half time, I was really worried.

However, particularly in the field of personal discipline, Wales were a lot worse than us and they simply could not make their better technical skills count.

We did have one brilliant maul in the second half, while when our hookers read the wind correctly, we dominated at the lines-out. Richard Simpson's injury is worrying, we definitely suffered from his inability to kick, but, in the end, we got the result I felt we deserved – and we have one or two there, particularly Rudi Brown, Duncan Munn and replacement Johnny Rutherford, who could have big careers ahead of them.

The young Australian referee maybe didn't have his best game, but, the real duffers on the night were the BBC commentary team – they were awful, so Wales-biased it was embarrassing. However, since BBC Shortbread seems to believe “Sport” means The Bigot Brothers, the fact the excellent Jamie Lyall didn't get the gig was hardly surprising.

Phillipa Tuttiett, the former Wales Sevens player who was on “colour commentator” was particularly poor. The only colour she saw was the scarlet of Wales, not once in the entire game did she name-check a Scottish player. Myopic Welsh commentators are nothing new but this particular one took that to new depths.

Well, after two rounds, we've faced the two weakest teams in the U-20 Six Nations. We ought to have beaten England, we did beat Wales – now it gets harder with the three good teams: France, Ireland and Italy to come. But, maybe, now the boys know they can win, things will look up.

THE MATINEE FEATURE from Dublin on Saturday afternoon was everything you'd want and expect from a clash between the two top-ranked teams in the world.

It was brutal, it was intense and it benefited from having the world's top referee in charge – not that he pleased everyone, but, on balance, I thought Mr Barnes had a good game.

Sadly, that could not be said for the RTE match director. Had he done his job correctly, the TMO would have had access to the angle which proved James Lowe had a foot in touch when scoring in the first half.

Mind you, even if that try had been chalked off, the Irish would still have won.

We are used to British commentators complaining about French TV directors not putting-up angles which hurt French sides – well, we should all know, there's no way Paddy isn't going to miss a chance to game the system.

A final point in this game. I felt Gordon D'Arcy was almost English or Welsh in his bias in favour of the nation he used to play for.

FINALLY – there is a little local infection which is fairly common in my airt of East Ayrshire - “a rush of shite to the brain.” On Saturday it spread to that exclusive part of BT Murrayfield – the Bill McLaren Press Gallery.

The man who caught it was The Guardian's Michael Alwyn, who, in his match report, named the Scotland hooker as Chris Turner (sic).

Just confirms what we have long thought, to our Southern neighbours, in particular those unfortunates who get a nose bleed when they leave the M25 bubble. To them, Scotland is a small, far-away country, of which they know nothing and care even less.

 

A Nod To Blazing Saddles For The Old Farts

I GET no kicks from Champagne, mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all, but (when I see England's media cheer-leaders scuttling around trying to find something positive from an England defeat. Well, then: I get a kick out of you. (Apologies to Cole Porter).

Dear Gerard Meagher, is a Barbour-wearing English fan with a lap top - he's one of the down-table rugby writers at The Guardian  - was in full deflection mode on Sunday, when he breathlessly repeated England Coach Steve Borthwick's third or fourth plea in mitigation from Saturday: “At least, our scrum improved as the match went on.” Aye Right!!

I've been writing,ever since they first broke through that Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler simply cannot scrum. In the world of modern elite-level rugby, the ability to get down and do the grunt and shove stuff is not the necessity it was when I was a boy. Such is the skill level at the sharp end of the game today, even props can give and take good passes, so, the game today sees far-fewer scrums than we used to have.

So, we should perhaps not be surprised that the mastery of the dark arts of the scrum which made the likes of Ian McLauchlan, Tom Smith, Sandy Carmichael or Iain Milne so special have rather fallen by the wayside.

But. Let's look at Borthwick's view of the game. We have to accept, Genge and Sinckler are England's go-to props. It is also widely accepted in the South that Dan Cole is their best scrumming tight-head. However, for my money Cole and Mako Vinupola, the English back-up loose-head are, like the two starters, over-rated when it comes to the basics of their position – the ability to scrum.

On Saturday. Scotland were minus their regular starting tight-head, Zander Fagerson, and while bench-warmers Jamie Bhatti and Simon Berghan were not as poor as the English-slanted reports might indicate, their place in the squad is, I would suggest, as much down to injuries to Rory Sutherland, Allan Dell and the elder Fagerson as to form (although both have been going well for Glasgow).

What I did notice from Saturday was, without exception, when the ITV Director allowed us to see pictures from the overhead 'Spider Cam' at scrum time – it was obvious that the English props were cheating – by not pushing straight.

A couple of times, they managed to con referee Paul Williams, (who had a generally good game) into giving England penalties they didn't deserve. However, over the piece, England was a poor second in the scrums.

I've long been calling for the Television Match Official to have access to the 'Spider Cam' footage at set scrums. If this was brought in, I am certain it would clean-up this particular set piece and make for a better game. To me, it's that simple – it would be a really stupid prop, and props as a general breed are not that stupid, who didn't push straight when he knew he was under television scrutiny.

AS AN old Rugby World hand – I had my first by-line there back in the black and white days of the early 1970s – I get a tad morose when I see how it has dumbed down to meet the demands of the short attention span 21^st century.

When even the game's “bible” uses phrases such as “The Captain's arm-band” I want to get out my trusty AK47 and go to work on the current editorial staff. However, after last weekend, the dear magazine, to my mind, went irredeemably over the edge – when they wondered why Italy wore their “away” strip against France.

The young Me, given a chance to do the only job I ever wanted – be a Sports Writer, well maybe I was lucky. I didn't learn my craft by going to college, or to a specialist course. No, I learned at the coal face – covering Ayr v Kilmarnock games, where I had almost a full page to fill; and I had to get my copy past a sub-editor who could spot a split infinitive at three miles and wanted the report to follow the paper's style guide.

Accuracy was everything and the readers wanted facts rather than opinion – how old-fashioned that seems today.

I kept “a black” of my raw copy, so I could, when the paper came out, see where the sub had changed things. I learned to only use the minimum of words, to cut out the flashy stuff and to keep things tight.

Later on, I had a weekly battle with the great Steve Wolstencroft's production team at The Scottish Sun. They would maybe order a 300 word report for the Monday edition, then cut it to 250 for the actual paper. My aim was to send them a report which they could not cut, without losing something vital. After two or three years, I could do this.

Today's sports writers seem, more and more, to come out of the school of fanzine writers. Nothing wrong with that, I am all for talent being given its chance. The trouble is, the bean counters on the management floors have so-decimated the ranks of the solid, experienced subs who can make even the dullest raw copy sparkle, that pish is being published.

Then there is the fact, today, “Sports Writing” largely means “Football Writing.” 'The Beautiful Game has laid waste to a great craft, if it cannot be translated into football speak, apparently the desk jockeys ruining today's papers think their readership will not understand it.

Thus we get “the Captain's arm-band” and home teams wearing their “away” kit. For a start – no Rugby Union team captain has ever worn an arm-band to signify he is Captain; and, it isn't a case of “home” or “away” kit – it's “first-choice” and “alternative.” Rugby Union has always worked on the principle of – where there is a colour clash, the home team changes – in football, it's the away team that changes, so, maybe the conception is, that's the protocol for every game. But, when writers on Rugby World go down that road – slowly shakes head and silently weeps.

 

We Won, But Let's Not Get Carried Away

DUHAN van der Merwe joined an exclusive club on Saturday. Our victory in the Calcutta Cup will henceforth be known as “Duhan van der Merwe's Match, in the same way as the 1938 win:”Wilson Shaw's Match”, the triumph of 1971 is forever “Peter Brown's Match” and the 1983 win is “Tam Smith's Match.” Aye, old Norman Mair was on the money when, after the 1971 game, he suggested heroic deeds against The Auld Enemy were the guarantee of a seat at God's right knee in the hereafter.

 

Van der Merwe's glorious first try on Saturday is arguably the finest moment a South African-born player has enjoyed in London, since Tom van Vollenhoven's length of the pitch sprint for a try for St Helens in the 1961 Rugby League Challenge Cup Final.

For most of my life, the bi-annual trek to Twickenham has been fraught with disappointment and defeat; at my advanced age, it takes some getting used to when we win there on a regular basis. Of course, to read the London-based rugby media's account of things, we don't actually win – in their eyes it's a case of England playing badly and losing a game they should win – Aye Right!!

Currently, English rugby is in a mess. Its club game is over-rated, as are a significant number of their players. It's like a return to the 1960s, when, England was the par team in the Five Nations, if you could beat them, you were in with a shout of the title, but, if you couldn't, you had to accept, you were a pretty poor side.

England's cheer leaders in the media can shout all they want about what a great league the Gallagher Premiership is, but, the likes of The Sprite isn't Captain Jean Luc Picard, repeating the mantra cannot make it so.

So, we beat what is arguably the fifth-best team in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday. Next up we have the other team competing for that fifth spot – Wales. They have, in recent years, become rather good at pulling us down to their level, we really do need to assert ourselves at Murrayfield on Saturday and back-up the Twickenham win with a second success.

There's a general rule in England v Scotland games, whatever the sport – for us to win, we need every one of our guys to have a good game, while England has two or three key men off the pace. That pattern was followed on Saturday. Our big players stood up to be counted, while our lesser lights lifted their game – some of England's alleged superstars were posted missing at key moments – and that cost them.

I know it's an entirely non-scientific method of doing this, but, I checked-out The Guardian's marks out of ten for each player. These show that Scotland came out of the game 16% better than England, which I think is a pretty fair summing-up.

So, we have won a game we expected to win and are off to a good start in this season's campaign. Now comes the hard bit – winning a home game we expect to take, to keep the momentum going. Can we do it? I think so.

WALES were stuffy, but, out-played in Cardiff pm Saturday. The game in the Principality is in a mess – we all know that. They stuck to their task but, Ireland's additional quality was always evident and Warren Gatland now knows, he's got a major rebuilding task on his hands.

I felt the Welsh youngsters demonstrated their promise, while one or two of the older players showed they are just on the wrong slope of the hill. Gatland will need to start making changes as this tournament goes one, if Wales are to make any impact at the World Cup.

Ireland won, as you would have expected the world's number one ranked side to, even without one or two first-choices. But, I think, and I am sure Andy Farrell is aware of this – they will need to up their game again for the greater challenge of France next week.

SUNDAY'S Roman Romp was another very-enjoyable game. Italy really made France work for their win, but, undid themselves with some unforced errors, particularly in the first half.

Like us, the Italians are always keen to get the ball wide and play rugby, and doing it well. This might well be the season when the Azzurri finally makes an impact in the Six Nations. The gap between them and the rest is definitely narrowing – it is no longer to be accepted that Italy will be favourites to finish sixth.

When Tommy Allan kicked that penalty on the hour, to put the Italians in front, I thought: “hello, this has just got very-interesting.” Then, immediately, France took off Gregory Aldritt, which doesn't happen too often.

Then, on came Matthieu Jalibert for another of his try-scoring cameos to put France back into a lead they didn't lose, in spite of a fierce finish from the Italians..

FINAL thought on weekend one:

• ITV made use of a couple of overhead shots of scrums at Twickenham; however, since these demonstrated that the English props were not scrumming straight, they stopped showing them. If that overhead view is available – why isn't the TMO getting access to them, or using them? If they did, it would surely take much of the guess-work out of officiating at the scrum.

• If he hadn't opted to make use of his Italian qualification – could we have fitted Tommy Allan into the same Scottish midfield as Finn Russell? And, could they have worked together?

• Owen Farrell was sent to 'Tackle School' – will Steve Borthwick perhaps opt to send the rest of his squad after some of the embarrassingly poor tackling on Saturday?

• As I have said often on here, for all the efforts of the BT Sport team to convince us that the club game, particularly in England, is the pinnacle of rugby – the international game is a level above even the best of the European games, and that was demonstrated over the weekend's three games.

   

The SRU May Have Problems, But, At Least We Are Not Wales

WE MAY have grave concerns over the manner in which the ruling Junta is managing the Scottish Rugby Union, but, compared to the problems currently afflicting the Welsh Rugby Union – with new Chief Executive Nigel Walker being asked to in effect clean-up a mess of Augean Stables proportions – all is peace and love in EH12.

However, there is one nagging problem which, typically, our esteemed CEO Sodoff Baldrick TCD seems determined to avoid – the fact, the Cattigan Family is still hurting and feels the SRU is at least partly to blame for the sad death of Siobhan. That TCD should cancel a planned meeting with the family at short notice – well, from what we know of our esteemed leader and his dictatorial ways, that's no surprise. That he should cancel two planned meetings, even less of a surprise.

But, what does concern me is that the new Chair of the Custodians Board – Professor Lorne Crerar hasn't stepped-in before now and pulled TCD into line. I have always considered Lorne one of the good guys and thought he might have had this distressing situation in-hand by now.

I would like to think, before the Scotland party sets off for London this weekend, that Professor Crerar has made it clear to TCD: “Set an early date for the meeting with the Cattigan family and, regardless of what might happen in the interim – keep it, because I will be in the room with you.”

Almost as troubling is the situation at Liberton RFC, where their Women's Section felt so unloved as to Walk away. I al aware there is a considerable minority of male rugby men who have doubts about women playing rugby, being old school, many of these doubters are my contemporaries.

However, as the father of four daughters, had they wanted to play – and there weren't as many opportunities for girls to play when they were growing up; yes, I would have had my doubts, but, I would like to think I would have supported them.

If women want to play rugby, we should help them do this, and, I am delighted to see Leith Rugby stretching-out a hand to the Liberton ladies.

Dr Ross Tucker, one of World Rugby's panel of experts on head trauma, was an impressive guest on BT Sports' Rugby Tonight on Sunday. The South African-based Dr Tucker gave a cogent and clear explanation of the science and the thinking behind the moves to lowering the tackle height.

I found his use of the traffic lights analogy very impressive:

• Sternum and above – the Red Zone

• Midriff – sternum to the top of the hips – The Green Zone

• Hips and below – The Amber Zone.

That made sense, even Austin Healy saw the common sense in what he was saying. OK, we have to admit:

• The RFU – being a rugby governing body, managed to fuck-up their announcement of the lowered tackle height.

• World Rugby, being World Rugby, has been slow to react

• The professionals, who will surely have to adapt their game to a new, lower tackle height – aint happy

• A lot of the amateur players and clubs, who will need to work harder on technique, will be similarly unhappy.

• Even after the tackle height is lowered and we get to these traffic light zones – there will still be the occasional distressing collision as players forget themselves.

But, we have to try to make the game safer and this traffic lights system could well work, so, let's get it into place.

Mind you, I also think – as I always have - a return to real rucking, and a demand that the ball be played with a foot at the breakdown, would do much to remove these head-on-head collisions from the game.

FURTHER PROOF of how important the FOSROC Super6 is to Scottish Rugby came on Tuesday with the appointment of Glen Tippett (pictured) as Glasgow Warriors' Head of Commercial. By the way, that's bad grammar Warriors.

The big man from Hawera, Taranaki, has been a familiar figure in Scottish Rugby for the past decade and more – as a player, coach and high heid yin at Millbrae, and before devoting himself full-time to rugby in the Land o' Burns, as one of the best Regional Development Officers the SRU ever had.

The likes of Pat McArthur, Gordy Reid, Ali Price, Finn Russell, Mark Bennett, Stafford McDowall, Ollie Smith, Marshall Sykes, Alex Samuel, Pete Murchie and Pete Horne have all benefited from time spent with Tipps; while his time as General Manager of Ayrshire Bulls, mainly working on the commercial side, has given him a good, solid grounding for his new role with Warriors.

But, he will be missed, both with the Bulls and in Super6 as well and he will prove a very hard man for the Silverbacks at Millbrae to replace.

 

Top Television Viewing This Weekend

THIS IS getting a bit worrying; Glasgow, even without a whole raft of big names, travelled to Newport to give Dragons a serious beating. This result will make Warriors even-firmer favourites for when the sides lock horns, in the last 16 of the European Challenge Cup, at Scotstoun, at the end of March.

We Scots, traditionally, do not handle being favourites well. And while Glasgow went into yesterday's game on a run of good form, given that so-many of their bigger guns were with Scotland, there was always that nagging fear, that they might not be able to keep their great run going.

In the end, we need not have feared; indeed, on the day the biggest stumbling block to a Glasgow victory came from Television Match Official Olly Hodges – who seemed to go out of his way to try to find spurious grounds on which to deny Glasgow tries. I thought Mr Hodges was Dragons' best player.

For Glasgow, Fraser Brown roared back to his best in a Man of the Match performance. Sebastian Cancilliere was again outstanding; Sam Johnson came back to his best while skipper Stafford McDowall gave a great lead.

Dragons had to be content with a four-try losing bonus, but, in spite of this, they found Glasgow's defence difficult to breach. There was one first half defensive set which was quite outstanding.

Coach Franco Smith will be hoping his squad can maintain their present consistency in their next two games, at home to Ulster on 17 February, then in the rescheduled trip to South Africa to play the Emirates Lions, the following week.

GLASGOW'S win was the first part of an enjoyable Saturday afternoon of TV watching. Unfortunately, Edinburgh couldn't make it a Scottish double, losing narrowly to a very-good Cell C Sharks squad at The Dam Health Stadium later on Saturday afternoon.

Both sides were short of big names and I honestly thought Edinburgh's failure to win a game which was in doubt right up to the final whistle, some seven minutes past the optimum 80 minutes was down to the fact, they lack runners with genuine “gas”, when Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe are absent.

This failing cost them South Africans, when they could not convert one or two breakaway chances and Edinburgh runners were overhauled by South African defenders.

Sharks' defence was absolutely first-class, denying Edinburgh several good opportunities to score and in the end, that was probably the difference between victory and defeat for Edinburgh.

I spent a couple of pleasant hours this morning, watching the Racing 92 v La Rochelle game on Viaplay 2. Both teams were shorn of some big names, by injuries and French calls, but The Gallus One was on his element at ten for Racing.

He contributed 24 of Racing's 39 points in their narrow victory – converting all three tries (all of which came from Russell “assists”) and adding six penalties – including the winning kick, right on 80 minutes. However, he did miss one conversion I would have expected him to nail, and threw a couple of passes to nobody.

Our boy also got tip-tackled by Fijian Levani Botia, who was yellow carded for his trouble. That incident had me sweating, but Oor Finn got up, grimaced, then nailed the penalty.

If England want to give away penalties anywhere in their half at Twickenham on Saturday, I'll be quite happy that Finn can punish them from the tee. However, it's the way he opens-up defences which is now so good. He's the best Scottish passer since Jim Baxter was in his pomp in the hooligan's game.

SUNDAY MORNING compensated for a frustrating period on Saturday night, when I struggled to get any sense out of the SRU website, and in particular their Fixtures and Results segment.

I know, I forecast chaos when we lost wee Ron Evans – who was Mr Rugby Results as far as Scotland was concerned. I also know, I've been saying for years, for as long as Matt Horler – the Chocolate Fireguard's chocolate fire guard is running the SRU's media operation – it will be unfit for purpose, but, really – is nobody else inside The Junta paying attention.

I, and other commentators, have been saying all season, and indeed during last season, this part of the Murrayfield operation is not fit for purpose. The SRU's website ought to be the go-to place for results on a Saturday.

However, you go on there at seven pm to find results, which were up on sites such as BBC Sport Scotland and Borders Rugby TV two hours previously, still not showing. You click on a league table, to find it shows four lines for each club, and half the fixtures not updated.

If we are paying for people to make such simple fuck-ups – why are we paying them at all? This is not a new complaint, but, I get the impression, a lot of people inside The Junta simply don't give a fuck. In which case, it is time we had a top to bottom clean-out.

FINALLY – few clubs can have had such a drop in levels as Langholm in recent years. So, I was delighted to see The Muckle Toon's first XV clinch the East Regional League title at the weekend.

It's a long way back from there to where the club once was – Unofficial Champions in 1958-59; but, it would be great to see them building on this season's success to get back up through the leagues.

 

Look Out For Spat Dummies

THERE'S A bit of a stooshie going on on Facebook at the moment. The cause, it seems at least one of the FOSROC Super6 franchises has asked a well-known rugby agency to recruit some new players for the new campaign, which is due to start in March.

Cue outrage, foot-stamping, dummy-spitting, often from “proud clubmen” who have sworn an oath to never darken the doors of any of the six franchises. Where do I stand? It is fairly well-known that to quote the great Franklin Clark: “A surfeit of succulent lamb lunches at Millbrae” have forced me to suspend common sense and get behind S6.

I am convinced S6 is the future, but, as I have never stopped saying from the start, the problems with S6 are of Murrayfield's doing. He perhaps cannot help himself, but Sodoff Baldrick, the CEO of the Scottish Rugby Union, keeps coming up with cunning plans – which he hasn't quite thought through properly. S6 is such a plan.

As I've been saying from the off, S6 is professionalism done on the cheap. Ideally, the SRU should have stuck with at least three – preferably four - full-time professional sides. However, TCD (to give him his other title), decided we couldn't afford it and that he couldn't afford to make that confession – so, S6 was conjoured-up.

I would have hoped by now that at least five of the six franchises: Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir, Southern Knights, Stirling County and Watsonians, given they all have long-standing youth development programmes that have been shown to work, would have no need to attempt to recruit more than the occasional player from outwith the Scottish club system.

I accept, the reality – there will always be some need for players to be brought in from beyond the borders of Scotland. Hopefully, these players would come from the ranks of the Great Caledonian Diaspora.

The SRU this morning announced the 34-strong Scotland Under-20 squad for the 2023 2023 Under-20 Six Nations. Of these players 27 have come through the domestic system, with the other 7 being Scottish-Qualified, playing in England and Wales.

So, 80% of the squad are home-grown. 16 of these players (60%) are with Super6 clubs. Twenty-three of the 27 home-bred players are in the Academy system, with 10 being in the full SRU Scottish Rugby Academy and the other 13 attached to the Regional Academies. That worries me a wee bit, I might have expected the cream to have risen to the top and most to be in the full rather than the Regional Academy.

The full Scotland Under-20 squad is:

Forwards

Max Surry (Cardiff Met University)
Craig Davidson (Watsonians RFC)
Moby Ogunlaja (Glasgow Hawks)
Callum Norrie* (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
Robbie Deans* (Watsonians/Edinburgh Rugby)
Eben Cairns** (Glasgow Hawks)
Elliot Young (Exeter Chiefs/Exeter University)
Corey Tait** (Boroughmuir Bears)
Jerry Blyth-Lafferty** (Boroughmuir Bears)
Harris McLeod* (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
Ruairaidh Hart** (Glasgow Hawks)
Eddie Erskine (Bath Rugby/Bath University)
Jake Parkinson (Ealing Trailfinders/Brunel University)
Rudi Brown* (Southern Knights/Edinburgh Rugby)
Sam Derrick** (Southern Knights)
Jonny Morris** (GHA RFC)
Liam McConnell* (Boroughmuir Bears/Edinburgh Rugby)
Ewan Guy (Cardiff Met University)
Johnny Rutherford** (Currie Chieftains)

Backs

Ben Afshar* (Ayrshire Bulls/Glasgow Warriors)
Finlay Burgess* (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
Charlie Clare (Harlequins/Surrey University)
Richie Simpson (Ayrshire Bulls)
Harris Rutherford** (Gala RFC)
Kerr Yule** (Glasgow Hawks)
Duncan Munn* (Boroughmuir Bears/Glasgow Warriors)
Murray Wilson** (Gala RFC)
Geordie Gwynn (Ealing Trailfinders/Brunel University)
Findlay Thomson** (Musselburgh RFC)
Amena Caqusau** (GHA RFC)
William Robinson (Caldy RFC)
Logan Jarvie* (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
Dan King** (Heriot’s Rugby)
Ben Evans* (Heriot’s Rugby/Edinburgh Rugby)

*FOSROC Scottish Rugby Contracted Academy Player
**FOSROC Scottish Rugby Regional Academy Player

Good luck to all the boys, however, with the U-20 6 Nations then the World Trophy to follow, there might still be a requirement for the Super6 sides to fill their squads with players form outwith Scotland, recruited via that rugby agency.

MY DESIRE to become a sports writer was to some extent fuelled by my choice of reading material as an impressionable boy. Back then, we had comics that you had to read. These were mostly published by DC Thomson, and had names such as The Adventure, The Rover and The Wizard.

In their pages, I, a wannabe goalkeeper, was transfixed by the exploits of Bernard Briggs, who only ever let-in one goal – in the pre-match warm-up before the FA Cup final. Bernard played football for Darbury Rangers, and, in the summer he played County Cricket, as a leg-break bowler. He was also a scrap metal dealer, who travelled everywhere on his motor bike, with an old bath as a sidecar. I somehow see Harry Maguire as a reborn Briggs.

There were other fictional heroes: Wilson of the Wizard, a 200-year-old hermit, who had discovered the secret of eternal life and could outrun, jump or throw the likes of Usain Bolt and Daley Thompson. Then there was Alf Tupper – The Tough of the Track – his day job was as a plumber and welder, while at the weekend he could show a clean pair of heels to the likes of Sir Bastion Coe and Steve Ovett.

Or how about Nick Smith, whose speciality was to take over a struggling Third Division club, sign his long time wingman, Arnold Tabbs, and immediately take the team to promotion and an FA Cup win.

Every Christmas, I would get one or two of the magazines' annuals, which always contained some special stories. And that's the nub of this blog. One year in The Rover Annual there was a story about a young rugby player who had a problem with tackling – he simply couldn't do it, so, he was more-often out of the team than in it.

Any way, he was tricked into going along to the local United States Air Force base, where he finds himself, reluctantly, kitted-out in the full uniform and taking part in the grid iron squad's training.

Here, his confidence boosted by wearing all the padding and the helmet, he is taught correct tackling technique – round the hips, arms wrapped, head behind the hips of the tackled player is restored.

He gets back into the school team and, in the biggest match of the season, against their biggest rivals, he dashes across the field to make a text-book, try-saving tackle which wins the game for his team.

I can remember, when I was starting off in rugby, aged 11, over the first two or three school practice sessions, Matt Todd, our coach – with whom I would later play for Cumnock Rugby Club, spent a lot of time drumming correct tackle technique into us. We didn't always do it, but, we all knew what we were supposed to do and, by and large, more often than not – we got it right.

We didn't have tackle bags, or rucking sacks, or even padding back then. Such equipment is freely-available today. In my day, most rugby players were 11 or 12 when they first picked up a ball (OK down in the Borders they were maybe three years ahead of us thanks to the likes of Bill McLaren.) But, we were properly taught and the lessons stuck.

Given how most clubs today start Mini-Rugby at about Primary Four level, I see no reason which proper tackling technique cannot be hammered into the youngsters taking up the game, and, as a result, the game made safer.

That this doesn't happen is maybe down to clubs and coaches putting winning above producing well-rounded, technically competent young players.

Of course, rugby being a collision sport, there will always be accidents, that's a fact of life, but, with proper coaching, teaching and insisting on correct technique, then these accidents will become fewer and fewer and rugby has a future.

That's why I am all in favour of the RFU's ban on above the waist tackles and why I cannot stand the negativity, from professional players who should know better. Give the new law a chance, and, maybe if World Rugby got involved and put the same law change into effect in the professional game – we would see rugby really flourish, going back to being a game of pace, invention and invasion and not the clash of the juggernauts which it so often is at the top level.

Apparently World Rugby is getting involved; the tackle height will also be coming down in the professional game. Why does that worry me? After all, it's not as if the Dublin Murphyia has a track record in making poor, badly-thoutht-through decisions which harm the game.

Let's get rid of the Rugby League influence and go back to playing Rugby Union.