Magnificent Sevens

I AM in my seventh decade of involvement in rugby. I was hooked by Arthur Smith's try in the win over Wales which terminated our terrible run of defeats; Jimmy Greenwood playing on with a shattered shoulder against Ireland showed me the courage it takes to play internationally; I wanted to be Ken Scotland; I played against Gordon Brown, Al McHarg and Gordon Strachan at school; I witnessed "the greatest conversion since St Paul", roared Alan Lawson home with a lot less detachment than did his father-in-law; I have caroused with Gavin Hastings, John Jeffery and Co - marvelled at Jonah Lomu; shouted "Gerritrightupyouse" and Will Carling and assorted white-shirted farts; come to realise Brian Moore isn't Satan incarnate and met living legends such as Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Mike Gibson and Willie John McBride.

Now, as I contemplate retirement, I fear rugby is going to hell in a handcart - unless we address such fundamentals as a law book which has become unworkable, a strain of laissez faire refereeing which is threatening the game as a spectacle and a consciousness in the professional game which will, unless curbed, take us down the dark road which football has followed.

Rugby, the game, remains great, but crisis time is fast approaching and I fear we do not have the minds within the game to divert rugby away from potential disaster.

I thought it was only in Scotland that we had given the inmates the keys to the asylum - when I survey the self-serving time-servers in so many leading Murrayfield roles. Then I watch the mess the English are making of appointing a Performance Director and realise - we are not alone.

But, it is not all doom and gloom.

Take Rugby Sevens becoming an Olympic sport from 2016. This single action could well be the making of the game. However, the trick, which the IRB will require to pull-off, and here I must say I doubt if they have the savvy to do it, is to make Sevens a popular world-wide Olympic sport, without it overwhelming the true 15-a-side game. Cricket is struggling to maintain the integrity of five-day Test cricket as the true game, in the face of Twenty20 and the mega-rich Indian League. Rugby could face the same dilmema in respect of Sevens.

But, now it is an Olympic sport, on top of its popularity in the Commonwealth Games, Sevens may well be rugby's future. After all, it shows-off the game's better points, the athleticism of the strike runners, the contest for possession at the break-down, the tackling, the aerial ballet at the touch lines, without some of the core ingredients so-beloved of the true believers, but which turn-off the non-believers.

That's why all the concerns about funding the Scotland Sevens squad have to be addressed - this is the game's future and we have to be involved. But, can the SRU come up with sensible, workable solutions? That's the question.

AS I wrote above, I've got a lot of time for Brian Moore - just as I had a lot of time for Jimmy Hill - which perhaps makes me unique in Scotland. 'Pit Bull' is one of the more-sensible sporting commentators around today and always worth reading.

His Monday take on Richard Cockerill, the Leicester coach, who is apparently England's answer to Neil Lennon, except without the red-hair and with added obnoxious qualities was a masterly analysis - would that some of my friends in the Scottish Football Writing fraternity could be as incisive and insightful (rather than inciting) on little Lennie.