Answers Please Monsieur Jutge

IT is often suggested that football refereeing in Scotland is a sub-lodge of the Masons. I fear, given recent events, the same accusation might be levelled at rugby union officials

By common consent, the men with the whistle were more than mere bit-part players during the recent Six Nations; and never more so than in the Scotland v Wales match, where Craig Joubert was undoubtedly the Man of the Match.

My media colleagues have been ranting readily since the end of the tournament. A medium-sized Scandinavian forest has fallen to produce the newsprint for the post mortems; but, for all the speculation, comment and analysis, none of the big-money men in the "heavy" newspapers - those whose sports content is not almost exclusively pointed at the English football Premiership - has picked up the telephone and asked some pointed questions of the man who matters most in the whole refereeing debacle, the IRB's Head of Referees, France's Joel Jutge.

Now given that the French, often with legitimate cause, have long criticised the officiating during the Six Nations, and before that the Five Nations. Our Gallic cousins used to suggest there was one set of rules, sorry laws, for the French, and another for the four nations from the British Isles.

I feel, today there is one law for the French, English, Welsh and Irish and another one for the Scots. I have even been forced to subscribe to the view that, since Scotland hasn't had an elite level referee for some years now, it is easy for English, French, Irish and Welsh referees to unduly and unfairly penalise Scottish teams, because there is no Scottish referee to return the favour when officiating on their games.

This, sadly, while going some way to explaining George Clancy and Nigel Owens, doesn't explain Joubert. Wayne Barnes, by the way, is a whole different and individual ball game. Cannot remember who it was - perhaps "Creamy" Telfer - but I have to agree with the leading Scottish figure who said, some two years ago: "One of the certainties of rugby is that at some point, Barnes will screw you".

But, I digress - simple question, why hasn't Brian Moore, or Stephen Jones, or Mick Cleary or Inspector Ackford at least lifted the telephone and asked Mr Jutge: "What the F*** is going on?"

To be fair to the IRB, they are trialing "soft" scrum engagement - basically: front rows in, second row in, back row in, ball in - now shove. It might work, it ought to work, but, while this might solve one of the problems of modern scrummaging, the collapse, will it solve the other - the crooked feed?

Let's hope so. But, while we await the end of the trial, the evaluation and what, if any, change it brings about - shouldn't Mr Jutge do a bit of explaining and then, shouldn't we start to pressurise our national representatives on the IRB to get answers and action?

This would be much-more-productive use of highly-paid journalists' time than in endless speculation about the make-up of the Lions' squad in Australia in general, and the starting XV in the first test in particular.

Because, I guarantee, right now, regardless of how many entries there were from how many journalists in a contest, guaranteeing a £1 million prize, to be won ONLY by whoever correctly forecast that first test starting line-up - it would not be won.

Sort out the scrum, enforce correct feeding, bring back hooking; then, when that is sorted, bring back proper rucking, and we will have gone a long way to sorting-out rugby.

Because, as is the case today, when refereeing issues dominate any game - then that game is in deep doo-dah.

Keep The Taffia Numbers Down For The Lions

IT HAS taken me a week, but, I am finally over the last round of Six Nations matches, I have calmed down and now feel ready to comment again on rugby.

Pardon me for not joining in the applause for the Welsh, who took the title. I still feel this Welsh squad is over-rated, big time. Just how can a bunch of players who are so uniformly poor in club rugby suddenly come together to win a major international tournament? Whatever the Welsh coaching team are doing, could they please let Wee Gordon Strachan into the secret.

For me, this Welsh team cheats to an amazing degree; in particular and it has to be said, to their credit - they have worked-out how best to utilise the dog's dinner which the scrum and the brakdown have become through the uselessness of the IRB.

England seemingly got found out as the tournament progressed, but, with that nation's strength-in-depth, and provided the RFU stands firm and believes, once the English rugby media starts calling for the head of Stuart Lancaster, they still should be the Northern Hemisphere's best hope for the 2015 World Cup.

And what of Scotland - same old, same old, pretty much. For us, two out of five apparently aint bad. I still feel, on another day, with another referee, we'd have beaten Wales, but, against France, we pretty much got what I expected us to.

The jury is still out on Scott Johnston, but, as with Scottish football, because the business model for Scottish Rugby is so flawed, I doubt if any different coach could produce anything different.

I still feel, Tim Visser needs defence lessons, Sean Lamont needs to learn spatial awareness, Jim Hamilton is a liability in terms of conceding penalties and we need John Barclay and Ross Rennie fit and competing - given these things, we have a chance since Northern Hemisphere rugby is much of a muchness, and inferior to the game in the Southern Hemisphere.

NOW, to the Lions. I worry that Warren Gatland will over-load his squad with Taffs, who will tour badly and we will get stuffed. The Scots will, as usual, be in the minority, but, Graeme Hogg, Sean Maitland, Sean Lamont, Greig Laidlaw, Ryan Grant, Euan Murray, either or both locks, Kelly Brown and Johnnie Beattie all have a reasonable chance of selection, with Matt Scott as an outside bet.

Assuming selecting BOD for the job is seen as a backward step (and I'd pick him), Kelly Brown could be an outside bet for captain, if only to deflate the Robshaw or a Welshman argument.

No ABE Today - Get That Chariot Rolling

I FIRST bought into the endless battle in 1958, at Hampden Park: Scotland 0 England 4. At least, I saw Bobby Charlton's first stunning international goal, Sir Tom Finney working his magic on the English left and, from Motherwell's Jim Forrest, in his only international, quite simply the worst and most-anonymous display I have ever seen from a Scottish player.

Two years later, at Murrayfield, I had my first experience of live Scotland v England rugby - so, I have a bit of experience when it comes to watching cross-border sporting rivalry.

I have also worked in Wales - and found our Cambrian cousins by and large a bunch of ungrateful, ungracious in-breds. I then worked in Yorkshire and yes, the Tykes really are a bunch of brain-damaged Scots with a chip on both shoulders. Indeed, heretical though this may sound, the friendliest and most-generous English I have encountered have tended to be Londoners.

This has not stopped my default position on matters of an international sporting nature being ABE. I know, it might be pathetic, it is probably in the blood and incurable, but, Anyone But England is my preferred position, even when Scotland is not involved in a sporting contest.

However, this afternoon, in Cardiff, I shall be rooting for England. Cashier me from the Tartan Army if you will, but, a Welsh win would be bad for rugby, catastrophic for the forthcoming British and Irish Lions Tour (mind you, Gatland will probably pick a ridiculously-large number of his red-shirted favourites in any case) and thoroughly depressing.

They might not have met the expectations of the English press - and what a bunch of tossers they are - they are still very much a work in progress, but, I believe the current England team has the potential to be a very good one and a Grand Slam would be just reward for the terrific job Coach Lancaster has done since taking charge.

A Welsh win, on the other hand, would simply reinforce the Welsh belief that they are the Brazilians of world rugby, laughable though that is. This current Welsh team is hugely over-rated; as they showed at Murrayfield, they cheat outrageously.

For the sake of rugby, we need an England win today.

NOW, about us in Paris. Forward, though ah canna see, ah guess and fear.

I fear, in particular, that this is the night on which all the uncertainties and problems of the previous four games are cast-off and France play - like France at their best.

But, if we, as we are capable of doing, rise to the challenge and have a go back, this could be one of the great internationals. Even if it isn't a great game, let's hope it is an entertaining one - with nothing at stake, both sides can chuck it around and enjoy themselves.

Fifty Years On - Might We Again Get Necessary Change?

FIFTY years on from 'Clive Rowlands' Match', Scotland and Wales produced another shambles, which, hopefully, like that 111 line-outs shambles back in 1963 finally produces a change in the laws.

The fall-out from Craig Joubert's "look at me" performance, just might get the chaos to which the scrum has descended sorted-out, but, I am not holding my breath.

I still say, the answer to rugby's current ills is a bigger officiating team, as in American Football. One man, even three men (assuming - which doesn't often happen, referee and touch judges act as a team) cannot possibly look out for all the nefarious practices which go on in rugby today: we need more officials on the field.

If I can deflect slightly here: why doesn't rugby take a leaf from football when it comes to international officials. In football, each national association assigns dedicated teams of officials to big international games, either nationally or in European cup games.

You have a top whistler in the middle, with two top specialist linesmen on the lines and another two behind the goals, with a sixth top-grade referee as "fourth official" - rugby might do well to appoint six-man teams to the internationals and European Cup games; then we might get scrums set properly, the ball put in straight, a return to hooking and fewer blatant instances of ruck offside.

That said, there is no indication that the IRB is seeking change. So, the shambles goes on.

I AM surprised at the lack of censure for Jim Hamilton, for his performance against Wales. That penalty he gave away right on half time was crass stupidity of the first water. He should have been hooked there and then.

But, I noticed, he also made a lame and failed attempt at a tackle, which he missed, on Richard Hibbard as the Welsh hooker drove for the line for his try and there were a couple of other instances where he looked slow and off the pace.

Nothing new here. I have been saying for years, Hamilton, for all his bulk, is a liability. He has a long history of conceding stupid penalties and should have, since he has singularly failed to clean up his act over three or more seasons, have been consigned to the scrap heap.

As I told my club side years ago, when I criticised the prop whose was the first name on the team sheet every week: if a guy gives away a guaranteed nine points a game through silly penalties - don't pick him. Hamilton is such a man.

Oh Oh Oh Oh What A Referee

FORTY-EIGHT hours having elapsed since the Scotland v Wales international, I now feel able to comment. No complaints about the Welsh winning, we were by and large dire, however, that said, what about that referee?

Perhaps we are being unfair, but, has their ever been such a low standard of "top-flight" referees? George Clancy, Wayne Barnes, Craig Joubert, all have been pilloried, rightly, in recent games. OK, perhaps these gentlemen, and others such as Alain Rolland, who are repeatedly shredded in print and on TV for their perceived failures, are, in comparison with giants of the past such as Clive Norling and our own Jim Fleming and Allan Hosie, poor referees.

However, Norling, Fleming, Hosie and Co didn't have to referee under the dog's dinner which is today's interpretation of the Laws, particularly when it comes to the scrum.

We in the Northern Hemisphere (and the South Africans) have maybe given the scrum more importance than it merits - the scrum is, after all, supposedly merely a way of re-starting play after a minor infringement.

But, whilst the Rugby League scrum has never attracted the mythology which surrounds the Rugby Union scrum - at least it works; the game is re-started quickly.

Joubert repeatedly got it wrong on Saturday; I spotted at the third scrum that Wales were cheating, why couldn't Joubert, a representative of South Africa, the nation for whom the scrum is everything, spot this.

I refrain, of course, from commenting about crooked feeds - this has been such a plook on the face of rugby for so long, I am convinced the IRB doesn't care.

And, while I'm at it - please bring back real rucking. It will not stop Richie McCaw from infringing at the break-down, he's a Kiwi after all, but it might keep the likes of Warburton legal. He'd never have been able to cheat as freely at the breakdown as he did on Saturday if he knew he would get a "guid shoeing" from the likes of John Beattie Senr, Fin Calder or the White Shark.

The IRB MUST sort-out the scrum and the ruck, as a matter of urgency.

Cultivate The Clubs If We Are To Progress

WE ARE forever being told by the "blazers" who run football and rugby in Scotland that  the SFA/SRU are the clubs and the clubs are the SFA/SRU. Aye Right, as they say in Glasgow.

Last night I was at Millbrae for the Scotland v Ireland Clubs International - a cracking game which the Scots won to take possession of the Dalriada Cup for the first time. The RBS, who backed both teams via RBS itself and its Irish subsidiary Ulsterbank, were well-represented, but, if there were any Murrayfield main men there, they were keeping a low profile.

Mind you, there were so many SRU anoraks floating around I wondered what crime I had committed, not to get one. (OK, I know at least most of the many crimes I have committed in the eyes of Murrayfield, but, I sometimes think you get handed one after five visits to HQ).

To the game, the victorious Scottish team - well lead by that wily old fox Mark Cairns, contained one or two youngsters who, I feel, are worthy of a chance in the two pro teams. In particular, Man of the Match Alex Allen of Edinburgh Accies, looked a real prospect, I haven't seen a Scottish tight-head charge about the park so effectively since the young Sandy Carmichael, an age ago.

Allen is on a development contract with Edinburgh, as is the other Scottish prop, Robin Hislop of Boroughmuir - I hope the new Edinburgh coach, whoever he is, gets them more involved - they looked ready.

Craig Gossman, apparently, will never get his chance with either of the pro sides - he's "too wee", that criticism which has killed the careers of countless Scots. He might be wee, but, he's quick, he's brave, he knows the way to the try line and I feel he too could step up.

I've watched a lot of games in the RBS Premiership this year and have no doubt, we've got a lot of talent in Scotland, it just needs the SRU to put in place a means whereby our best talent gets a chance with the pro teams. Sadly, this is unlikely to happen until we get at least one, preferably two more, pro sides in place.

This post goes up, slightly more than two hours before the kick-off, but, I fancy us to beat Wales today. England will surely beat Italy tomorrow and I feel home advantage will see Ireland home against France.

These predictions made, I further predict: IF we beat Wales, they will certainly bounce back to deny England a Grand Slam in Cardiff, while, regardless of what goes before, France will absolutely shred us in Paris next week.

Who Gets The Job? It's A Secret

IT IS often suggested, mainly by those of a green and white hooped persuasion, that Scottish Football is run by a Presbyterian-Masonic conspiracy.

After this week's developments in Scottish Rugby, we might ask which secret society is in-charge at Murrayfield?

Nothing against Steve Scott and Duncan Hodge, who have been handed the poisoned chalice which is management of Edinburgh, but, once again I find myself wondering what is going on.

The Murrayfield "blazers" were maybe a couple of months tardy in dispensing with the services of Messrs Bradley and Back, but, given the results of the past two seasons, the clear-out at HQ should not end there.

It will be interesting to see what transpires between now and the start of next season. Clearly either Duncan Weir or Ruaridh Jackson will be heading along the M8 come the end of the season; accompanied, I would suggest, by a couple of tight forwards (at least).

But, the big question is, who will be asked to manage Edinburgh? The SRU could do a lot worse than give Kenny Murray and George Graham a shot, either individually or in partnership - they deserve their chance.

However, such a radical move is unlikely, which is bad news for two excellent coaches and, for Scottish rugby. So, "Basil" Redpath it is then.

TONIGHT, the Scotland Club XV is entertaining their Irish counterparts at Millbrae. I have said before and will doubtless say again, this is an excellent idea, to showcase the top talent in the club game - but, they need more than merely one game per season.

If we can have Full, Under-20, Students and Women's Six Nations games, why not a Six Nations for club players? To me, it makes sense.

And, whilst I am at it, if we cannot have more Six Nations games for the Scotland A squad, why doesn't the SRU re-establish good relations with the second or third tier European nations, by scheduling more A team games, against the likes of Spain, Portugal, Romania, Georgia and the likes.

Or, does player development stop once our guys get pro contracts?

SO, John Barclay, the last of the Killer Bs, is following Messrs Beattie and Brown out of the Scotstoun door. When Barclay first surfaced he seemed destined for the very top, Scotland captain at least, possibly the Lions leadership. However, his career has stalled and he surely needs the new challenge of life outside Glasgow.

I wish him well and trust, like Beattie, he will be re-born in pastures new, he is too-good a player to vanish from the top flight.

LAST weekend I re-acquainted myself with Scottish Rugby, after a wonderful month cruising the South Pacific, by taking-in the Ayr v Stirling County cup tie.

Pre-match, I speculated on how referee David Changleng would approach his brief: would he punish County for denying his beloved Gala a possible Premiership title, or would be do his best to deny Ayr a possible double?

In the end, David did well, but, since he is no longer seeking advancement in refereeing circles, he is now free to call it as HE sees it - not as he thinks THEY want it seen; and is a better referee for this freedom.

I was impressed by young County lock Ruaridh Leishman, who, if he can put in the hours in the gym without it intruding on his McHarg-like ability to get around the paddock, could go places.

I was less-impressed by Sean Kennedy at scrum-half. He showed some worrying signs of petulance, as if opponents weren't allowed to touch him. These included a childish handbag waft at Finn Russell, after the Ayr stand-off brilliantly took him, quite legally, out of a ruck.

Sean son, never believe your own publicity, it's the first step on the way to a heavy fall. You're good - but not yet that good.