Whacko Jacko - What A Show

WELL, I called it correctly. Glasgow did beat Edinburgh by five tries to four in Saturday night's second-leg of the 1872 Cup; they claimed second place in the Pro12 table and, Edinburgh went home with a losing bonus point and a four-tries scoring point.

 

So, everyone, except perhaps the respective defence coaches, ought to have gone home happy.

 

I can tell you somebody who would have been very happy - the Wasps attack coach, after that superb display of running number ten play by Ruaridh Jackson. I have long seen Jackson as almost a Toony Mark 2, from his ability to commit defences by running the ball right into their faces before off-loading. Now, in the last few weeks of his Glasgow sojourn, he suddenly has inside backs outside him who are on his wavelength and can function alongside him.

 

Of course, in professional rugby terms, whereby it is more-important not to lose and to take fewer risks, Dunky Weir, who doesn't have Jackson's running gifts or expressive abilities, is seen as the safer option, but, while I wish Jackson well with Wasps, I think Glasgow may regret letting him leave.

 

 

 

THERE is a crisis in the Scottish rugby media, one which requires radical surgery before the new season. Basically, there isn't a rugby man in a position of authority on Scotland's national newspaper sports desks.

 

With David Ferguson's recent decision to take voluntary redundancy to freelance, The Scotsman no longer has an in-house Rugby Correspondent. Of course Iain Morrison, who has that role with Scotland on Sunday, contributes to The Hootsman too. But, Ferguson's departure was sufficiently serious to force the SRU to invite The Scotsman to come along to Murrayfield and try to reassure them about their rugby coverage.

 

The Herald's Kevin Ferry no longer concentrates on rugby. He is, in effect the in-house replacement for Doug Gillon as the man for all sports, and right well he does this. But, this leaves the Herald's rugby coverage in the hands of a clutch of freelances.

 

OK, Alasdair Reid is the point man, backed up by Hamish Stuart and one or two others, just as, at the other end of the M8 "house freelance" Martin Hannan, backed up by a clutch of freelances, keeps things going.

 

But, it tells us how far rugby has retreated in the face of wall-to-wall football, that neither of Scotland's two "rugby papers" now has a full-time staff writer concentrating on the game. This is serious for Scottish rugby. The game needs men, in situ, at these two newspapers, pushing rugby's case with sports editors who, fine journalists though they are, are basically football men.

 

Further down the food chain, at the tabloids, what little coverage rugby gets, is left to basically one man, sitting in Arran, who sends out his friends to actually cover games, then submits pared-down round-ups to the papers. The game deserves better.

 

 

Enjoy Yourself - But, That Isn't Scottish

I REMEMBER, many moons ago, a post-match conversation which a gang of us sports writers had with the late Ally MacLeod, in his pokey wee office under the stairs at Somerset Park.

 

The question being discussed was, what does a manager do, when, his club is going into a match which doesn't matter to them - but matters a great deal to the opposition. His team is safe in mid-table, the opposition, rivals, but friends, needs a good win to perhaps win the league, or stay-up. What does the manager of the uncommitted team tell his players?

 

"Simple," said Ally. "You simple tell your team to go out there, enjoy themselves and express themselves.

 

"That way, they go out, go through the motions and lose, but, only the really rabid fans only hold the defeat against them."

 

Ally had a few faults, but, he knew his sport.

 

I hope, tonight, just before 7pm, in the away dressing room at Scotstoun, Alan Solomons tells his Edinburgh troops to: "Go out there enjoy yourselves and express yourselves".

 

The ideal scenario tonight would be for Glasgow to win the game by say, five tries to four. Indeed, if I thought for a minute there was somebody with sufficient nous inside the Murrayfield bubble, I would hope he calls all 46 players together pre-match tonight and INSISTS that they produce a harum-scarum tries-fest which Glasgow wins by five tries to four.

 

That way, Glasgow more or less guarantees the home semi-final they need in the Pro12, Edinburgh enjoy themselves and things look good again in Scottish rugby.

 

But, this is Scotland. I suspect Edinburgh may well go out there determined to stiffle Glasgow's ambition, wint he game and thereby spoil a chance to put a real collective smile on Scottish rugby. After all, isn't this the Scottish Way?

A Good Day, Badly Presented

I ENJOYED my day at the SRU Cup Finals, at Broadwood on Saturday. OK, the fact that the press box at that stadium is located inside the main stand, while it's great for our creature comforts, means we poor hacks don't find it as easy to mingle with the public - which is where you sometimes find your best "lines" to insert into your copy.

 

I did see several big-hitting Murrayfield 'Alickadoos' mingling with selected members of the hoi-pilloi. but, and apologies to the named gentlemen if they were indeed there and I failed to spot them - I singularly did NOT clap eyes on Mark Dodson or Scott Johnson. Of course, these two influential gentlemen are not Scottish, they haven't come through the ranks, and, the day also being Easter Saturday, it might well be that Mr Dodson at least, was down south amongst his ain folk.

 

However, I would have expected, on what is supposed to be Scottish rugby's biggest day of the year, to see them mingling with their people; although, maybe being asked - as they surely would have been - to explain away our Six Nations performances and the current state of Edinburgh, might have been a bit wearing.

 

As to the day itself. The SRU really are failing in their duty in how they sell this single occasion, but, what's new. I don't know what they are paying Dominic McKay, but, on Saturday's evidence, it is too-much.

 

Fair enough, some people feel the pre-match build-up at Murrayfield internationals is over the top, this one was under the carpet - is there nobody at Murrayfield who can hit the right tone in selling the game?

 

The competing teams all competed; there were some good passages of play in all four games; but, there were also some dull ones. The crowd was enthusiastic, but, disappointing, never getting much above 3000. No, a good idea, a good setting, but, much more work needed on selling and presenting.

 

Of course, as the perceived absence of the big guns administrators shows, Murrayfield doesn't DO the club game at the moment.

 

TO CONTINUE about Edinburgh. I hesitate to suggest the English football Premiership, or, as it will be known after this morning's events in Manchester, the United approach to team-building, but, can we afford to give Alan Solomons more time, to import more average Saffers and further run-down Edinburgh?

 

That club is in a hole - FFS Murrayfield, stop digging.

 

That said, I sincerely hope Murrayfield has issued Formula 1 style "team orders" for Saturday's 1872 Cup second-leg. Glasgow MUST get a bonus-point win, to assist their push for a home semi-final in the Pro12 play-offs.

 

It would be typically SRU/Scottish, were Edinburgh to upset the odds, beat the Warriors and deprive them of home advantage in the last four. This cannot be allowed to happen.

 

THE Herald's Kevin Ferrie has been sat down of late with Frank Hadden, to get the former Scotland coach's views on the state of the game here and the way forward. I will refrain from commenting until the series has finished, but, it is nice to know my old mate Kevin hasn't entirely given-up on covering rugby.

A Huge Weekend - Let's Hope It's A Good One Too

THIS is a huge weekend for Scottish rugby, with Glasgow facing what will surely be the hardest match in their run-up to the Rabo Pro12 play-offs - their Scotstoun meeting with Ulster.

 

Glasgow are more than capable of winning this, however, Toony and his back room team know, Ulster will bring a formidable challenge across the North Channel and, it just might come down to one flash of genius or inspiration from someone, to turn the game. Fortunately, although the men who wear the Red Hand are a formidable team, who - native Ulstermen or imports, play for the jersey and will never surrender; in the match-up, I reckon Glasgow have more guys capable of that single moment of inspiration and fancy them to win, albeit narrowly.

 

It could come down to kicks, in which case, youngster Finn Russell, who will carry the kicking duties, has shown himself, in Ayr's pink and black this season, more than capable of knocking over the big shots at goal.

 

Some have questioned Toony entrusting the number ten shirt to Finn, having seen a lot of him in the pressure cooker of the RBS Premiership this season - and yes, I acknowledge that isn't the same pressure cooker as the Pro12 - I am confident the kid can handle it, particularly since, he is paired with Chris Cusiter, who has been there, seen it, done it and will take the pressure off Finn when required.

 

Then, tomorrow, we have the all-day beanfeast of the RBS Cup finals - four back-to-back games, stretching from 11am until somewhere beyond 7pm, more than eight hours of rugby.

 

Because of the necessary work on the Murrayfield pitch, this year we are decamping to Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld, a ground I know well, having covered a few Clyde games there.

 

OK, particularly for those clubs in the Bowl and Shield finals, some guys are being denied perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime chance to strut their stuff at Murrayfield, but, I believe, with the smaller capacity and the crowd right on top of the field, the atmosphere will be better and I hope we see some cracking rugby.

 

There was some uncertainty about the line-up for the Bowl final, which kicks things off at 11am. Now, however, St Boswell's having fallen foul of the dual-registration rules and been deemed guilty of playing an ineligible player, their place has gone to Glenrothes, who face Highland. I couldn't give a form steer on this one, the Shield final or the Women's, but, while I would like to see Glasgow Hawks - who surely got there the hard way by seeing-off Ayr and Gala in successive games - winning the big one, I have a sneaking fancy that Heriot's will carry the day.

 

 

 

I AM an unashamed advocate of a Yes vote in September's referendum, but, would not be so crass as to campaign for this through this blog. However, since the London-based rugby media appears to treat Scottish rugby as a foreign sport - they pay more attention to what is going on in the Southern Hemisphere than to what is happening in "North Britain"; well, maybe we are better-off without them.

 

Bad enough the way they act as cheer leaders for Sky, making believe that whatever Uncle Rupert choses to bank-roll, provided it is, however loosely, English-based, then, it has to be the best.

 

BT Sport is almost as bad. I must say, I had hoped, with their investment in shirt sponsorship for Glasgow and Edinburgh, that the new BT channel would have given even the briefest of mentions to the Pro12 and the two teams therein which they back, but, no, it's all about Englandshire.

 

And they wonder why some of us want out. A wee mention for the Pro12 on a weekly basis might work wonders for their viewing figures.

 

 

Seven Is Not My Favourite Number

I HATED playing Sevens when I could still run - too-much like hard work for a fully-paid-up front five "donkey". Then, when I stopped playing, thanks to only having one kidney, I could never compete in the all-day drinking binges which spectating became.

 

I can admire the thought which goes into getting a septet's flying machine into enough space to set-up the score, but, no, on balance it isn't real rugby.

 

I feel, once Sevens makes its Olympic Games debut in Rio, a schism will open up and we will see more specialisation between the seven-a-side and 15-a-side forms of rugby. Anent that Rio tournament - what price a New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Team GB last four, or, will the self-interest of the big English clubs scupper Team GB's hopes?

 

Any way, to get back on-message. This week we have crucial games towards settling the last gour in the Aviva Premiership and the Rabo Pro12, the French Super 14 is coming nicely to the boil in the shake-out for their play-offs, so, what gives in Scottish Rugby?

 

Why, most of the interest is in a single club's sevens tournament, in a wee village in the Borders. And there, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with Scottish rugby.

 

Now, this isn't an anti-Melrose rant, fair play to that club, in having managed to make their fund-raising spring event such an integral part of the Scottish sporting and social scene. Today, you either go to Ayr for the Scottish Grand National race meeting, or you go to Melrose, it's not about the sport, it's about being seen.

 

But, the majority of the Scottish rugby congregation, the hardy public who turn out week-in, week-out, in the worst of the weather, to watch their club sides strive for league recognition - what's in it for them?

 

We are told: "Rugby is a players' game", well, what's in it for the players? They've toiled through the cold, clinging mud of winter; the new grass growth is coming up, the wind has lost its chilling side, conditions are good - what are they doing?

 

Either, if they are masochists, playing sevens, otherwise - watching.

 

Of course, down there in in-breed land, they will tell you: "Aye well, it's aye been - ye play the Sports in April". OK, if that's what Scotland's sheep worriers want, let them play their wee game. Can the rest of us not play real, meaningful 15-a-sides.

 

The SRU, that oft-maligned bunch at Murrayfield, do make more than their fair share of clangers, but, buried in their suggestions for re-vamping the game, you know the document, the one which suggested an eight-ten club semi-frofessional league, was one to have league play-offs such as they have in the top pro leagues.

 

These play-offs would have to take place in April, and this, the fact the Borders clubs see April as THEIR month, for their self-indulgent "Sports", as much as the fear they maybe wouldn't be good enough to be involved, is why the Borders doesn't want change.

 

When will the SRU bring their spoiled child to heel?

Some Retain And Develop Plan

Note to editors
Edinburgh Rugby are committed to retaining and developing Scotland's best professional rugby players in a squad which currently features 16 senior Scotland internationalists among the 43 players eligible to represent the country, with another two committed to representing the country through residency.

 

THE ABOVE is a direct quote from the press release by which the SRU/Edinburgh Rugby announced that Nick Di Luca would be leaving the club for Biarittz at the end of the season.

 

I wish nothing but the best for Di Luca, a good player who has never quite managed to transfer his excellence with his club to the international arena. He is now, apparently, surplus to requirements at Scotland level, so, a big-money move abroad is a good career one, although, swapping the Pro12 for the second level in France, where his new club are surely headed for the new season, does cause a Roger Moore-style raising of an eyebrow.

 

Di Luca is not the first player to leave Edinburgh - Geoff Cross is going to London Irish via Glasgow; Lee Jones has also headed along the M8 and might not have been handed a return ticket; Harry Leonard is off to Leeds; Ross Rennie is currently at Bristol, and, here again there is scant evidence of a return ticket - scandalously so, since he is (with John Barclay), one of just two genuine international-class number sevens we have; Greig Laidlaw is also heading for the West Country, with Gloucester.

 

Pardon the cynicism, but, does that look like a commitment to retaining and developing Scotland's best professional rugby players? Not to me it doesn't.

 

When he came in back in August, Alan Solomons immediately set-about sorting out some of the more-obvious defects in the team he inherited. The defence has got better, there are obvious playing patterns in place; however, any improvement which the new coach has brought about has been through the old chestnut - imported from football - of bringing-in a bunch of players from his past club(s) whom the coach knows will jump if he says-so.

 

Solomons appears to have done little to sort-out the deficiencies of the Scottish players he inherited. Perhaps it is not the remit of a professional club coach, but - it ought to be. A coach, by the very definition of the word, should be seeking to improve his individual players, and by so-doing, the performance of his team as a whole.

 

Of course, Solomons cannot do this on his own. We are told, Scottish players, because the best youngsters are not challenged as much as their contemporaries in other countries, lack the basic skills. Sorting this out, if indeed it is true, is the task of our clubs and what we have passing for academies, the Regional Institutes - or are these places simply glorified weights rooms?

 

However, as one who has long been critical of the lack of time which Scotland's full-time footballers spend honing their individual skills, might it be a case of our full-time rugby players being similarly deficient or lazy.

 

Maybe better time management by our top clubs, both pro and non-pro, might bring about the desired improvement in skills levels, and top Scottish players such as Di Luca might be retained by our top clubs.

 

As I said above, the departures are probably good moves for the players, but: are they good for Scottish Rugby? Or, are they another case of the Murrayfield "blazers" not giving a shit about the game as a whole, so long as their wee sinecures are ok   

Nice One Accies

WELL-DONE Edinburgh Academical, for seeing-off Stewart's Melville and maintaining their RBS Premiership status for next season. Accies's collapse in the second half of the season just ended was something of a mystery, which eventually cost their coaches their jobs. At their best, however, which admittedly wasn't often seen, Accies could give any team in the Premiership a real game.

 

I remember, for instance, watching them come from behind to beat champions Melrose right at the death. They have some good young players in their squad and, if they can get the coaching set-up right, and more-so if they can sort-out their long-running dispute with Edinbrugh Council and the NIMBYS of Stockbridge, then Accies, Scotland's oldest club, will have a say-so at the top end of the game here for some time to come.

 

 

 

THE worst-kept secret in the club game is out - "Fossie", Calum Forrester to the uninitiated, is the new Head Coach at Ayr, stepping-up from captain to succeed Peter Laverie, who will, if the Glasgow District rumour mill is correct, be involved at Hawks next season.

 

Fossie has already dipped his toe in the shark-infested, results-driven, world of of coaching; he called, very successfully, the Ayr v Hawks game at Millbrae last month.

 

As one who sees a lot of Ayr, the side missed him last season, and it was significant that the form dip which followed his injury at Hawks in September, ultimately cost Ayr the defence of their title, but, they recovered, with Peter McCallum stepping-up to prove a more than adequate replacement for Fossie at number eight and with Forrester driving things forward from the technical area, if Ayr can sort-out their front five failings, then they will be the team to beat next season.

 

The Premiership is certainly giving young coaches their chance. Simon Cross was doing so well at Accies, he was signed-up by Worcester; John Dalziel won the title first time out with Melrose, Ben and Mark Cairns have taken a load off Ally Donaldson's and Graeme Hogg's shoulders at Currie for instance - while, by being promoted from Ayr to the Warriors, Kenny Murray has shown that there is a road to be travelled by good, young, Scottish coaches.

 

I wish Fossie well as he takes his first  steps down that road.

 

 

 

I HAVE previously written about the somewhat slanted view of life which we get from our friends in the English media. Reading the reports of the Clermont v Leicester Heineken Cup clash, yesterday, it seems that Clermont didn't beat the Tigers, they simply scored more points than them.

 

Leicester still lost, however.

 

 

Please Sir - Can We Have A Game

WHEN I was a boy, you knew where you were with the rugby season. You couldn't play officially before 1 September, and the boots had to be put away sharp at no-side on 30 April - although you might, if the powers-that-be at Murrayfield had enjoyed a good lunch prior to making the decision, get a request to play a Sevens on the first Saturday in May, allowed.

 

Even if, as sometimes happened, 31 August fell on a Saturday and the official start date of the new season was moved forward one day, that gave 35 possible Saturdays in which to play. Surely ample time for anyone to get enough rugby. Indeed, I remember over 40-years ago, when I was playing for Ayr, the First XV played 45 matches in a season, and that legendary tight-head prop, John Burston, played all 80 minutes of all 45. This was in the days when replacements were only allowed, on the say-so of a doctor, following injury.

 

Forty years ago, league rugby was still in its infancy, and, for the education of some of the youngsters reading this, one of the founding principles of the Scottish Rugby Leagues was that league games should not be allowed to overwhelm long-established "traditional" fixtures - the thinking being if, (purely as an example), Glasgow Academicals and Edinburgh Academicals were to find themselves in different divisions, then there would still be a date in the calendar for their long-standing friendly meeting.

 

Of course, this turned out to be wishful thinking on the part of the Murrayfield traditionalists, as was shown by the fate of Queen's Park in football, once a league competition starts, if you're not in it, you're nobody.

 

There was always another fly in the ointment in Scotland, the Border clubs' "Sports", the tradition whereby Saturdays in April were set-aside for the tournaments at Gala, Melrose, Hawick, Langholm and Jedforest - Kelso and Selkirk held theirs in September.

 

These showpiece events grabbed the media interest. But, the Borders clubs, contrary to popular perception did not immediately stop playing 15-a-side to concentrate on sevens, the climatic games in the Border League meant a lot of midweek traffic on the roads down there.

 

Although, with the exception when it briefly enjoyed major sponsorship, of the Easter Monday tournament at Glasgow Accies, sevens has never been as big outwith the Borders, there was a circuit in Glasgow: I forget the exact order but it encompassed the tournaments at Greenock Wanderers, Allan Glen's, Glasgow University, the afore-mentioned Accies, Ayr and Kilmarnock. There were similar circuits elsewhere, even junior circuits involving the lesser clubs - the Wigtownshire Sevens in Stranraer had a legendary reputation for post-tournament excess.

 

Then there were the knock-out tournaments. I can never understand how or why the old Glasgow Knock-Out Cup was allowed to wither and die, it was a tremendous event, while the Ayrshire Cup and the Ayrshire Junior Cup, brought Ayrshire Junior Football-levels of competitiveness to rugby life in God's County.

 

I remember a pre-game punch-up at Millbrae when the vagaries of the draw for the Ayrshire Junior Cup paired Ayr's A1 (third) XV against their A2s (the fourth XV). This meant one of the teams would have to wear the 1st XV's black change kit, the other their normal pink and black hoops. The A1s claimed, as the higher XV, it should be them, but, forgot the A2s had half the club's committee playing and was as difficult to get into as Royal Troon or Old Prestwick Golf Clubs - where, again, half the A2s were members. Anyway, experience and exclusivity won, just short of a stand-up fight, the A2s wore the firsts' strip and won the game.

 

OK, that was a long preamable, but, we come to the nitty-gritty. Even though today's players may train harder and drink less than we did; basically, rugby remains a players' game. Sevens, even in the Borders circuit (Melrose apart), isn't what it was, and while - probably because they have wage bills to justify - the professionals at the top end are playing over more of a calendar year than they ever did. They really only have, international tours apart, June off.

 

Meanwhile, the amateurs, the guys who play for love of the game, seem to be playing less. Cannot the SRU come up with a means whereby the guys who just want to play, can at least play something other than twice or thrice-postponed league fixtures on the better grounds of April and May?

 

Let's bring back the County Cups in the places like Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and  Lanarkshire. Why not a re-cast Glasgow Knock-Out Cup, or an equivalent in Edinburgh and Caledonia? Let's get the guys playing in half-decent conditions.

 

I did a short spell of "missionary work" south of the Solway. During this I lived for a time in Yorkshire and really enjoyed the experience of playing in the Yorkshire Cup.

 

One of the strange things about the Yorkshire Cup back then was, there was a tradition that, once your team was knocked out, you followed the team who beat you and so-on, all the way to the final. This meant that supporters of one of the smaller clubs would switch cup allegiance to the bigger club who beat them, and so-on. I remember sitting on the bench for my club in one final at Headingley, marvelling at the packed ground. Mostly they were neutrals, but, they made it a terrific night, all the better because we won, and I got on for the final eight minutes.