It Worked In Hungary - Why Not In Scotland

I HAVE long understood that the basic clannishness of the Scots means we seldom make the best of our limited, but stretched resources, particularly in sport.

For instance, when the Hungarian Communist government decided, in around 1950, to bring a particularly-gifted squad of players together in one national "Superclub", so they could play together week-in, week-out and thus perform better when they put on the national scarlet strip, they faced a couple of problems.

 

The obvious club to base this new superclub on was Fernecsvaros, the top Hungarian club of the time. But that club didn't meet the idealogical doctrine of the regime. MTK Budapest, the next possible club was likewise disqualified, but for different idealogical reasons, so they picked a third club, Kimset, which became Honved - "the people's club".

 

This was the club of Puskas, Boczik, Grocsics etc - the rest is history.

 

Imagine if a Scottish government had tried something similar. Obviously, for the same, different reasons, Celtic and Rangers, even Hearts and Hibs would have been ruled-out, so Partick Thistle might well have become our superclub. I know, it makes no sense.

 

But, take the superclub concept into rugby, and we have what happened when the game went professional. OK, the SRU managed to much it up big time, but, I suggest, having our betterScottish players playing week-in, week-out, SHOULD have been good for Scottish rugby.

 

Why hasn't it? How long do you have for all the reasons?

 

Let's just leave it. I suppose a totalitarian SNP government, post-independence, might do a North Korea and close the border with England, keeping all our best rugby players at home and giving them a standard of living way above the rest of the population. Allowing them to play for Edinburgh and Glasgow in the Pro12 and for Scotland and in the process producing a World Cup-winning team which rolls over Saxon and All Black alike, pulverises the Paddies, whacks the Welsh, F***s the Frogs, tobers the Tallies, stuffs the Saffers, obliterates the Ockers and annihalates the Argies, while doing a good Krakatoan impression on the poor Pacific Islanders. But, I am not holding my breath on that one.

 

We really ought to be able to produce two good, competitive professional teams, capable of winning in professional club  rugby and providing us with an international side which can compete with the very best. Or is it, as is often suggested, that there is something in the Scottish psyche, which prevents us from winning at team games, for all the good individual sportsmen and women we produce?

 

I know Glasgow are going well at least in the Pro12 and can accept that they got a bad draw, for the stage in their development they are at, in this season's Heineken Cup. But, whatever is going wrong at Edinburgh, it needs sorting out, quickly.

 

 

 

ALLAN Massie had a good piece in Saturday's Scotsman, in which he wondered at the quality of the imports recruited by Edinburgh this season. I couldn't agree more. I feel, perhaps, time is running out for Michael Bradley at Murrayfield.

 

Apparently Brian Redpath is heading for the exit at Sale..........

 

That said, one hears that wee Chic's jacket is on a shoogly nail at the Greenyards..........

 

A wee home-coming, perhaps in an advisory role to Chalmers, followed, after a short but suitable period of time, by a call to Murrayfield. I wonder, might this be a goer?

 

 

 

SPEAKING of Melrose's current inability to win at home, which has all but taken them out of the RBS Premiership title reckoning. This shows what a terrific competition the Premiership has quickly become.

 

I watched Ayr beat Boroughmuir on Saturday and this game was a lot tighter than the result might indicate. 'Muir are languishing in the league basement, but they are a lot better than their results might indicate. They have some terrific young forwards, plus the great experience of Sean Crombie and Ali Davidson and they gave the Ayr pack a good going-over.

 

However, in the end, the pace of the Ayr backs won the day, but it was a terrific game and typical of an under-rated competition. Come on SRU, I know you've got most of your eggs in the pro teams basket, but, the Premiership is a brilliant competition, well worth talking-up. DO SO.

 

 

 

 

Two More Good Guys Gone

THIS has been a sad week for those of us who have been a long time in the game, with the deaths of All Blacks legend Sir Wilson Whineray and Hawick and Scotland legend George Stevenson.

 

I belong to the school of thought which dictates that a star in one era would have been a star in any era; this is a basic add-on to the belief that while form might be transitory, class is permanent and both Whineray and Stevenson oozed class and charisma.

 

I was speaking to one of the current leading men in green and he put it well, suggesting that Geordie was well-nigh uncoachable. He did things off-the-cuff and instinctively, the very antithesis of the sort of playing by numbers which is such a big part of present-day professional rugby.

 

The way Stevie and the smaller and lighter Eddie McKeating of Heriot's repeatedly went in low, like navy blue torpedoes, to repeatedly sink the bigger John Gainsford and Iain Kirkpatrick, their Springbok opposite numbers, during the Murrayfield international of January, 1961 is one of my abiding memories of those school trips through to the internationals.

 

On paper, Scotland had no chance, but, we gave the 'Boks a game and a fright and much of that was down to the two centres.

 

Although they were international contemporaries, Stevenson and Whineray never faced each other on the national stage. Stevie was not chosen for the 1959 Lions Tour to New Zealand and he was out of selectorial favour when Whineray's marvellous All Blacks were held to a 0-0 draw at Murrayfield in 1964 - the closest Scotland has yet come to beating the world's best team.

 

 

 

TO A centre of lesser class. Ayr's Ross Curle has been suspended for six weeks, following his second red card of the season, at Currie a couple of weeks ago. I think he got off lightly, compared with the old days when the SRU used to hand down draconian sentences for the most-innocuous of crimes.

 

Six weeks, Curle got off lightly, but not half as lightly as he did on the day. Ayr coach Kenny Murray apparently went through him. Just as well Ayr Director of Rugby Jock Craig was at the game, or Curle might be missing two "male brain cells" by now.

 

 

 

WITH the best part of a full XV not considered due to various injuries, there were no surprises in the 34-strong squad Andy Robinson named for the forthcoming All Blacks game, the first of the three autumn tests.

 

There were whispers that, just maybe Clermont Auvergne's Mark Bennett might be called-up for the Autumn test squad. If I was the SRU I wouldn't hang around too-long before securing young Mark for the national side - before he qualifies for France on residency grounds.

 

Get him into at least the A squad for the Six Nations, or risk losing him.

Things Can Only Get Better - I Hope

WOE, woe and thrice woe are we. After the Heineken Cup hammering of Edinburgh at Munster, a defeat which came hard on the heels of their Saracens shaming, things are looking black for Scottish rugby.

 

Glasgow's losses to Northampton and Ulster were (slightly) more acceptable. They are in a tough group, but may yet at least beat Castres and the Saints at Scotstoun; Edinburgh could be in for a few more bum skelpings further down the track.

 

For me, equally galling were the British & Irish Cup defeats suffered by the Premiership sides. I know, from seeing them at Ayr last season, that Llandoverey are a good side, but I didn't expect them to win at the Greenyards for instance.

 

A series of losses, such as at the weekend, is not good for the national feel-good factor, with the Autumn internationals looming. Andy Robinson will name his squad this week, it will be interesting to see who he calls up, because we badly need a boost and he has several selection issues to resolve, not least with a few key men injured. I can see one or two surprise selections being revealed.

 

 

 

AYR coach Kenny Murray praised the SRU at the weekend, for their new initiative whereby, in RBS Premiership games, the two coaches have listening-in access to the match officials' feed - the means whereby the referee and his two assistants communicate during games.

 

The coaches therefore know what on-field events are getting to the officials; they now know immediately, if say one of their back row players gets a yellow card at the breakdown - why the card was produced. They also, should have been aware that the card was coming, from the referee's inter-play with the men with the flags.

 

"I think it's a great advance", said Murray.

 

I wonder if the SFA might think of trying this in football - it might stop a few stooshies in that game.

 

 

 

SCOTLAND'S top rugby referees are not currently represented at the very highest level. We don't have a current successor to the likes of Alan Hosie or Jim Fleming taking charge of the really big internationals.

 

But, hope is at hand. Johnny Bacagalupa - former law-bending loose-head prop turned law-upholding referee and now one of the SRU's top referee talent spotters is convinced that we have a handful of young turks coming through the ranks who are going right to the top of the whistler ranks.

 

Murrayfield spends a lot of time and money encouraging young refereeing talent, which is a very good thing. Dislike them, or loath them - without referees we cannot have a game and if players have to sclamber up a greasy pole to reach international level, it is nothing to the obstacles in the way of aspiring referees.

 

A contemporary of mine, who only quit refereeing when he turned 65, is now one of the SRU's young referee mentors and he had a horrific tale last week of mentoring one young charge who was given a second XV league match between two West of Scotland teams.

 

If we take full internationals as Level One - this was about Level 14, 30 basically unfit guys working-up a thirst. Yet the young referee, who was doing his level best was subjected to relentless abuse from the touchlines and dumb insolence and worse from the players.

 

My mate has given both clubs a dire report, which he hopes Murrayfield will act upon, otherwise, the shortage of referees which currently exists will worsen somewhat in years to come.

 

Referees, in any sport, probably love the game more than the players, but are repaid with abuse - it has to stop.

The End of The Beginning - Now Let Battle Commence

THE week-end just passed was, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill: "the end of the beginning" - of season 2012-13. The Pro12 and the RBS Premiership will now yield precedence to the Heineken and British & Irish Cups.

 

So, before this change of emphasis, we should perhaps run a State of the Nation type posting. In the professional game, Glasgow, particularly after that fine win over Cardiff on Friday night, will go into the HC in better shape than Edin burgh.

 

OK, there were mitigating circumstances surrounding their loss to Treviso on Friday night - not least an Italianreferee, apparently appointed courtesy of a bit of interference from the Mafia - if you read between the lines; but, that said, good teams, particularly at home, always have ways of taking an incompetent referee out of the equation - although, for some unfathomable reason, this has long proved problematic to Scottish teams.

 

Must Do Better - a LOT better, will surely be wee Michael Bradley's message to his troops this week.

 

A couple of seasons ago, when his name was first being mooted as a ptoential Glasgow recruit, I watched Mike Cusack come second to Gordon Reid, then with Ayr full time, in a B&I Cup tie. I thought then, Glasgow were chasing the wrong prop. However, the two were subsequently signed by the club and today, with Reid's case being helped by Jon Welsh's long-term absence, they have elbowed their way past three four internationalists to be Warriors' two first-choice props.

 

They were particularly effective in Cardiff, with Cusack fully deserving his Man of the Match award and Reid not far behind in a display which totally over-powered the Cardiff tight unit. Of course, props cannot win the bump and grind battle unaided and maybe it is now time to bury, once and for all, that old chestnut about Al Kellock not being a good scrummager.

 

The way the Glasgow pack has worked this season has surely also boosted Shade Munro's standing as a forwards coach, and, while I'm being gracious, the big bearded Saffer in the back row looked a much-better player in Cardiff than he had in Scotstoun the previous week.

 

However, Glasgow's old nemesis of passes not sticking in the red zone, was again evident in Cardiff - but, at least they are creating chances, which, they will soon be taking regularly. I feel they could have a good HC this season.

 

 

 

IN THE  Premiership, Ayr continue to lead - seven from seven so far, which is great for them. They travel to Currie on Saturday and this will be their biggest test yet, particularly with Peter Jerecevich absent on Scotland Sevens duty.

 

This battle of the "New Firm" will not, on its own, settle the Premiership title; however, if Ayr can keep winning - they will become increasingly difficult to peg back over the remainder of the season. This game deserves a big crowd at Maleny Park.

 

The B&I Cup teams' fortunes may well come down to which professionals are available to them. Gala and Melrose are perhaps, on domestic form, the most-likely to threaten towards the knock-out stages of the competition, Dundee and Stirling County will have to climb a few more rungs of the ladder from where they currently are if they are to make an impact.

 

 

 

I HAD a bit of a rant during the Cardiff v Glasgow game, when the referee sent the Halfpenny try or no try decision to the TMO. He ruled, correctly, that Stuart Hogg's brilliant cover tackle had seen him push the ball out of Halfpenny's grasp and into touch-in-goal.

 

The decision to award Cardiff the put-in to a Scrum Five was therefore, the correct one - I just felt, the TMO ended up making a decision which he wasn't asked to make. Or am I being pedantic? I can see, somewhere down the line - please, please, let it be in a crucial Calcutta Cup decision which goes Scotland's way - the TMO making a huge, match-turning decision, which will unleash all kinds of argument about what ought and ought not, be referred "upstairs".

 

A wee bit more thought and guidance would not go wrong, even if, on the whole, anything whbich helps-out the poor bloody ref is to be applauded.

 

 

 

I WATCHED the Leeds v Warrington Rugby League Grand Final on Sunday. The very good BBC coverage was spoiled, yet again, by the prattling of the ubiquotous Jonathan "Piles" Davies. But I had to laugh at one point when he - a former Warrington player - squealed about a Leeds forward pass not being called.

 

If there is one thing the Welsh do know about it is forward passes - seeing as they make them so often nowadays.