I've Seen The Future and It's Sevens

REMEMBER how it used to be, back in the day, when rugby was an amateur game - for ruffians, played by gentlemen? The season was structured in such a way that this agreeable means of passing an afternoon and evening in the company of like-minded chaps could be enjoyed as the none-too-mentally-taxing diversion it was.

The season kicked-off sharp on 1 September, with the shutters going up on 30 April - that way a chap might put away the rugger boots, bring-out the cricket whites or golf clubs and enjoy two good sports at the correct time of year.

In Scotland, 15-a-side play all but ceased on the final Saturday in March, particularly in the Borders, but also in the other three Districts, April was Sevens month. Here in Ayrshire, where I learned the game, April was spent in pursuit of the senior and junior Ayrshire Cups, but these were midweek competitions, we also played sevens on Saturdays.

The Borders series - Gala, Melrose, Hawick, Langholm and Jedforest might have been the Formula One of Sevens; but in Glasgow District there was a well-supported series too: forgive me if I get the running order wrong, but it went something like - Greenock Wanderers, Glasgow University, Allan Glen's, Kilmarnock, Ayr and Glasgow Accies.

The Borders series still runs, Glasgow's has gone, although, greatly diminished, some of those grand old tournaments still continue. However, like real rucking and strikes against the head, these days are past.

However, in a week when the SRU's media department is pulling-out all the stops to "big-up" the Scottish leg of the IRB Sevens series, to take place at Scotstoun over this weekend, we should think carefully about the future of the abbreviated form of the game.

Sevens becomes an Olympic Games sport in Brazil in 2016. Scotland - unless Wee Eck succeeds in ripping us away from the not-so-tender embrace of ROUK (Rest of the UK) before then - will not be participating in the Olympic bow of the sport we invented, it will be 'Team GB' which will carry British hopes in that inaugural tournament.

Fortunately,unlike in football, the mechanism is in place to put a truly-representative Team GB Sevens squad together for Rio and subsequent games. That mechanism is the Lions infrastructure, presided over currently by oor ain Andy Irvine and Welsh Wizard Gerald Davies, with Sir Ian McGeechan also a Lions big hitter.

The Irish will probably bite the bullet and enter as a separate nation, as is their Olympic right, but I can see the English, Welsh and Scottish Unions putting together a competitive squad for these future Olympics.

In fact, I can see - as has happened with limited overs cricket - the abbreviated form of rugby becoming increasingly popular once it is under the IOC umbrella. I well remember, 25-years ago, being told by one of the top men in the United States Rugby Union that: "Once rugby becomes an Olympic sport - just watch us grow".

One of the draw-backs from professional rugby has been the shortening of careers. Ours is a collision sport, people get hurt and the fitter and harder the players become, the more the less-fit, slightly softer players will get hurt and drop out.

There are fewer, if no less fierce, collisions in Sevens; the short form doesn't have the same number of breakdowns, scrum resets don't happen. It will never fully displace the true, 15-a-side game, but, it will attract a new audience, it will become a tv staple and we in Scotland ought to be planning NOW, how we can get the best from the increased popularity Sevens is sure to enjoy post 2016.

Can we meet that challenge?

A Braw Day for the Braw Lads

SOME years have elapsed since I last graced Murrayfield with my presence on Cup Finals Day, but this year, with the prospect of Ayr achieving the first three-in-a-row run in Scottish Cup history, I fired-up Steffi, my faithful MB and, bribing "Management" with the opportunity to spend the afternoon in Jenners, Harvey Knicks and sundry other expensive Edinburgh emporia, followed by a meal in one of the many excellent Edinburgh eateries, we headed East.

Kudos to the SRU and in particular Graham Law and his team for the press arrangements. Further kudos to Dunfermline and Musselburgh for a cracking warm-up match prior to the final and well-done too to Ayr and Gala for their performances.

It maybe wasn't the best final, mainly because Ayr never managed to get into the game, Gala were always in-charge and thoroughly deserved their victory. It is good to see this "sleeping giant" awake from its slumber to offer a genuine challenge to Melrose's dominance in the South.

IF (and that is one HUGE if) the Teris can sort-out their local political differences and get the Green Machine going again, a glorious era might yet dawn in Scottish rugby.

Ayr will be back, but Kenny Murray their coach and the "think tank" of Messrs Billy McHarg, Jock Craig and Norrie Lymburn are all-too-aware that much work needs to be done over the close season if they are to remain in contention for the big prizes.

Ayr are now virtually ploughing a lone furrow in the West. This should be good in terms of player recruitment, but, just as Melrose needed a local challenge from Gala and (hopefully) Hawick - Ayr need Hawks and West to recover from the current malaise.

The crowd at Murrayfield was perhaps disappointing, but with a wee bit of work that can surely be sorted-out. We in the media didn't cover ourselves in glory.

Where were the Herald Group's three leading rugby writers? Alasair Reid was in Italy with Warriors - fair enough; Neil Drysdale, who wrote what little pre-match stuff the Herald published, seldom graces a live match with his presence in any case, but where was Kevin Ferrie?

Fine job though fellow freelance Colin Renton did on the actual Finals Day, it surely speaks volumes on the paper's interest in rugby when the Glasgow contender to be Scotland's serious newspaper of record cannot staff the biggest day in Scottish club rugby. Perhaps the SRU should be having a word with the men at the top at the top of Renfield Street.

But, where was the preview pieces on BBC Television or STV? Where was the wee filmed snippet on either channel on the day? Where was even a mention? I suspect someone was there from BBC Radio Scotland, but I didn't see anyone and, let's be honest, Big Beattie is hard to miss.

The two pro sides might be the main attractions as far as Murrayfield is concerned, but, as Saturday again showed, the body of the Kirk, the club game, is healthy and cannot be ignored.

Honest Men v Braw Lads - Recipe For a Cracker

THE colour scheme for this post is deliberate. Being Ayrshire-born and bred and a former member of said club, I am hoping that Ayr will tomorrow become the first club to win the Scottish Cup three years in a row, when they face Gala at Murrayfield.

 This promises to be a cracking final. Their last meeting, at Millbrae in the league last month, which Gala won, was an epic encounter, deservedly won by the Braw Lads, who made hay on the back of an indifferent Ayr start; Ayr were coming back strongly when prop Gordon Reid was red-carded and that single incident was a game turner.

I didn't see the clubs' other meeting, at Netherdale, at the start of the league campaign, but apparently it too was a classic, so the portents are good.  I like what Kenny Murray and his cohorts have done at Ayr, but I am in awe of the manner in which wee George Graham has awakened the sleeping giant which is Gala. Of course, I want Ayr to win, but, if Gala triumph I will be pleased for wee George and for them.

THERE was an interesting post on the Guardian website this week. The poster, an English rugby fan, offered the opinion that Edinburgh's back row was the best unit in the Heineken Cup and he wasn't shot down in flames for offering this opinion.

Funny how things change, prior to Kelly Brown's departure Glasgow's "Killer Bees" of Brown, Johnny Beattie and Barclay were the  benchmark, now that honour has moved along the M8, but, of course, one thing Scotland has never been short of is quality breakaway forwards. My Murrayfield memories reach back to the days of Adam Robson Jimmy Greenwood and Douglas Elliot and from them through the likes of George Smith, Pringle Fisher, Ronnie Glasgow, Jim Telfer, Rodger Arneil, David Leslie, the Calder twins, JJ, to today's stars - tis a pity we didn't have such consistent quality elsewhere around the park.

Looking ahead, we may be on the verge of having a surfeit of quality centres from which to pick. In recent weeks Stuart Hogg and Alex Dunbar have lit-up Glasgow, Matt Scott is breaking through for Edinburgh, while Mark Bennett at Clermont-Auvergne has seemingly got over his bad knee injury far better than we might have hoped. Dare we dream of better days ahead?

Speaking of flankers and referring to tomorrow's Cup Final. The game will be flanker Rob Colhoun's farewell appearance for Ayr. Rob is a Kiwi, who is Scottish-qualified and has played for the Scotland Club XV with distinction. Sean Lineen rates him highly, so, let's hope, in his new SRU post, Sean can find a way of keeping Colhoun here. He would not look out of place among the back row resources of our two professional sides, admittedly strong though these resources are. I hope Colhoun has a blinder tomorrow. 

Ruck The Referee - The Way to Get Fair Play

SOME 40 years ago, the team for which I then played used to arrange Saturday morning fixtures in Edinburgh and the Borders on international mornings. This usually involved leaving the West on the Friday night, spending an uncomfortable if drink-fuelled night in some flea pit Borders hotel, before being systematically kicked off the park on the Saturday morning.

The South of Scotland Referees Society official supposedly in charge of the game would use neutral statements such as: "Oor baw" to indicate which team had the put-in at a scrum. The first time you were thus screwed, you said nothing; the second time, you moaned; the third time - you took preventive action.

I recall one morning, at Philiphaugh, the Soutars' 16th man was having a blinder for them, so our veteran number eight decided to do something positive about it - picking-up at the base of a scrum, he ran straight over the top of the official, the rest of us in the pack followed and we rucked him out through the "sausage machine".

Said official, when we picked him up, was most-indignant. Then our number eight apologised: "Sorry ref, it was that blue shirt you're wearing, I though you were one of them".

We still lost to a good Selkirk team, but we got a bit more even-handed treatment after the ref was rucked.

It would be harder these days, what with real rucking now banned, but, I offer this scenario to big Al Kellock, for the next time his Warriors come up against the combination of Nigel Owens and Irish opposition, in Ireland.

Sure, Glasgow didn't play him as well as Munster did at the weekend - and paid the price, but, Owens is a "homer" and sometimes, "homers" have to be hurt to alter their ways.

I WATCHED the English Premiership Rugby programme on ITV4 on Monday night. Some good stuff was played, maybe that's the best way to watch English rugby, stick to the highlights. But, I thought forgotten man Alex Grove did some good things for Worcester in their match against Exeter. The timing of his passing was excellent, while he defended well.

This summer we've got a tour ont he go, I hope Grove gets picked, likewise, I have been impressed by the late season form of Warriors Murchie, Dunbar and Stuart Hogg. We now have options in midfield. Once Robbo realises it has to be Duncan Weir at ten, we might go places.

I also saw Ally Hogg score a cracking try for Newcastle on Monday night - another forgotten man who still has, I believe, something to offer Scotland, albeit in an area where we have riches aplenty.

KUDOS too to BBC Scotland, who emerged from their fitba obsession to broadcast the Melrose Sevens live on Saturday too. With Sevens becoming an Olympic sport from 2016, just as Twenty-20 and One Day games have superceded three and four day County/Provincial play and even threatened the integrity of five-day Test cricket, I can see Sevens threatening the 15-a-side game once it becomes an Olympic event.

I remember, some 25-years ago, an American rugby high heid yin telling me that, once rugby got into the Olympics, it would take-off Stateside and that, given the huge fall-out rate of good class college American Footballers who didn't make it into the professional NFL, USA Rugby would pick-up some class acts who could drive them to the top.

He just might, finally, see his forecast come true.



Murrayfield Management - more like Murrayfield Muddle

WHAT is going on at Murrayfield? Here we are, with Edinburgh in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup, Glasgow pushing hard for the Rabo Pro12 play-offs and at every turn, good, young Scottish players proving they are up to the demands of top-flight professional rugby - yet Murrayfield seems determined to hobble the game up here.

Gregor Townsend was capable of moments of inspired genius as a player - yet equally capable of doing a great headless chicken impression. However, he has long had Golden Child status at Murrayfield, so, having failed to impress as Scotland attack coach, his reward is to be appointed Head Coach at Glasgow.

If, and I can see no reason for this action, Sean Lineen had to be moved aside at Scotstoun, to open up a position for a younger, former Scotland stand-off, they why they picked Toonie and not Chick Chalmers is a mystery to me.

Now they have replaced Mike Blair with a Welsh scrum half who has never been as good, while an equally crap Welsh hooker is coming-in as back-up to Ross Ford. What do these signings say to the good young Scots players already inside the SRU's small professional stable, but suddenly fining themselves one place further back in the pecking order?

The signing of the Georgian number eight, while Johnny Beattie heads off to France is another strange one. If, as seems likely, Beattie needed a fresh challenge - why not move him to Edinburgh? Strange are the ways of the SRU - that at least is consistency, it was ever thus.

I AM still laughing at the English reaction to Saracens losing to Clermont Auvergne in the Heinekenquarter-finals, leaving a last four of two Irish, one French and one Scottish team.

Do away with the salary cap is the cry in the south - because unless the English clubs can spend, spend, spend, they will become second-class citizens, is the perception.

Excuse me, but, while I understand Irish players enjoy some tax breaks from staying with their provinces, the fact is, Leinster, Ulster and Edinburgh have budgets a lot smaller than that enjoyed by the top English sides. OK, Clermont have Michelin behind them, but, if money bought a guarantee of success - there whould be an all-French semi-final line-up.

To further weaken the English spend, spend, spend argument, the very same day as the English rugby press were baying for bigger budgets, Wasps were reported to be in financial trouble.

My take on events is - there's not such a big gap between rugby in the traditional European big five nations as we perhaps think there is and, in the end, it all comes down to players performing on the day.