YESTERDAY, I mentioned Brian Moore's belief that Andy Robinson is a good coach, but a poor selector. I agree with the Pit Bull, and apparently we are not alone in holding this opinion.
So, what do we do about it? Well,what's wrong with re-introducing a selection committee? The fct is, whether chosen by 7 or 57 Old Farts, or by a Head Coach or Team Manager, Scotland's performances in Five or Six Nations tournaments have, over the history of international rugby, been fairly consistent.
We lose more than we win - we have good years, bad years and indifferent years. We haven't had a Golden Age, when we were the team to beat, since the 1920s and we can just as easily be reckoned to be ready to fall flat on our faces in Rome as we are to beat the English at Murrayfield.
We seldom win in London, Paris and Cardiff; anyone who tries to predict the outcome of a meeting between Scotland and Ireland is risking ridicule, so why bother.
Better perhaps to lock Messrs F Calder, D Sole and J Jeffery in a room (perhaps with G Hastings or J Rutherford as advisers on matters behind the scrum, and not let them out until they have come up with a 22-man squad, which they then hand over to Andy Robinson.
That idea worked in the past just as well as handing all power to one man has worked (or not) in recent years. Whether the Scotland team is selected by one man or by a committee - it still wins or loses willy-nilly, always has, always will.
If rumblings coming from the South are any guide, it seems that the England team for Saturday's game will have a Saracens core. That's got to be good for us. Unlike Sarries, the team in white on Saturday will lack a great Scot at number eight and a handful of Saffers.
Therefore, like most England football teams - minus the capable foreign imports, they will struggle in the face of England Expects. Now, if we can get Dan Parks carted early-on, we should win.
THE prize for the naffest bit of visualisation in this season's Six Nations media coverage has already been won. Last night BBC Scotland, in their item on new Scotland captain Ross Ford, actually came up with a photoshopped picture of Ford, wearing a Scotland captain's arm band. The scream you heard was mine.
It is one of my pet hates - when rugby reporters use the term "captain's arm band" in respect of the captaincy. I've never seen a rugby XV skipper wearing a twee little arm band and may never do.
It's a football thing, but even guys whom I had thought of as "proper" rugby reporters have started using this incorrect term. They're trying to turn us all into little footballers; but rugby chaps are better than that. Or at least, we were.
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