Why Is It Always Us Who Get Punished?

WHERE to begin - with so-much to philosophise about in this Six Nations week?

 

I shall start by getting the righteous indignation out of the way. I am very disappointed, but in no way surprised, that Scotland will be without Finn Russell against Italy tomorrow, after his appeal against his two-week ban, following his yellow card against the Welsh match was thrown out.

 

The Law under which Russell was yellow carded is bad law, badly applied. If there was any justice, he should have got off with the yellow card alone, while Dan Biggar, whose dangerous leap into Russell might have landed our fly-half with a serious head injury, had Russell not taken avoiding action, should have got the Welsh 10 red-carded.

 

But, having got it all wrong, the disciplinary tribunal was never going to change its decision on appeal.

 

Mind you, this is yet another example of Scotland being a second-class nation at the top of world rugby.

 

 

 

MOVING on to the Leone Nakarawa suspension. Didn't see the match, or the incident, so, I cannot comment, other than to say - how come, it always seems to be the Scottish players who get caught? Maybe the SRU should appoint a cheating coach.

 

 

 

MIND You, we already have one or two socahes who can cheat outrageously. Time to declare an interest here; being Ayrshire-based and, having worn Ayr's pink and black, I am maybe biased, but, Heriot's coach Phil Smith's decision to cite Ayr Ross Curle for a "dangerous tackle" during last Saturday's epic encounter between the two clubs at Millbrae - well, it stinks.

 

I was at the game and I barely remember the tackle, which seemed a good one at the time and went unpunished by referee Cammy Rudkin and his touch judges.

 

It was just one of several good tackles, which Curle put-in on his way to a Man of the Match-winning performance.

 

Ayr president Billy McHarg is rightly furious, accusing Smith of trying to get Curle taken out of the BT Premiership equation. He clearly fears Curle's influence. Significally, Ayr refused to cite the Heriot's forward who blatantly took Ayr lock Scott sutherland out int he air as he won the home side a crucial line-out. A far-worse qoffence than Curle's.

 

Any way, Smith's citing might well back-fire on him, as it now seems likely, with the Melrose v Ayr game likely to be put-back until April, because Melrose will have players in the Scotland Under-20 squad on the day the league match is due to be played. Curle will be available for the play-offs.

 

Should Ayr have to face Heriot's, look out for fireworks off and on the pitch. I already know, one or two Ayr officials will refuse to be int he same room as Smith. He has created grave ill-feeling between the clubs.

 

His decision to cite Curle also back-fired on him as coach of the Scotland Club XV, since, the five-week suspension givemn to Curle means he is unavailable for tonight's match against the English Counties XV, at Fylde. Curle was Scotland captain in their great win over Ireland earlier this month.

 

 

 

NOW, about the Scotland v Italy game. Well, needless to say, this is a must-win one for us. We really need to post a victory after our good but unrewarded performances against France and Wales.

 

I think we will win, we certainly have the players to do so. I hope to see Ben Toolis capped off the bench, I think he is a talent, as is Hamish Watson. I also feel Peter Horne will not let us down at 10.

 

Mind you, George Clancy is the man with the whistle, which always worries me.

 

Elsewhere, I fancy France to further deflate the Welsh sense of greatness, while Ireland v England on Sunday might come down to one individual moment of brilliance or error, the teams are that close.

 

 

 

FINALLY, when will the SRU properly tackle the situation whereby some mainly Edinburgh schools are treated as special cases?

 

Frank Hadden has come up with a supposed ranking system for schools, whicjh puts the top Edinbrugh schools almost on a plateau above the rest. It will be interesting to see what happens once the state schools get in amongst them, some time in the future.

 

On a linked subject. Interesting to see the Scotland Under-18 squad named. It is jam-packed with boys from the Public Schools, whilst Jed Thistle and Ayr, the two top Under-18 club sides don't have a single player from either club named.

 

 

 

 

Citing Russell Is Adding Insult To Injury

CITING Finn Russell - for Fuck Sake, are the Six Nations organisers determined to add insult to Scottish injury? This is a nonsense, best I think summed-up by Allan Massie in this morning's Scotsman, when he asked: "What, other than throwing himself flat on the ground, could Russell have done to avoid a collision with Biggar?"

 

And, if Russell was to be cited, why no citing for Jonathan Daview, yellow-carded in similar circumstances, or for Mike Phillips for that head-removing almost tackle on Sam Hidalgo-Clyne in the build-up to the Mark Bennett "try" that was disallowed?

 

Or, to take things to their logical conclusion: why wasn't Glen Jackson cited for repeatedly ignoring the Laws? When George Clancy is the pick of a refereeing team, you know you had a stinker of a ref in the middle.

 

 Thinking back to when debutant Geoff Cross was yellow-carded, barely conscious and on a stretcher, after a supposed illegal tackle on Lee Byrne, I have come to the conclusion, the Welsh are being coached to go in ultra-aggressively for high balls, sometimes, as Byrne always did, feet first - in the knowledge, they will get away with it. This, to me, is just another example of the culture of cheating and rule-breaking built into the bricks of the WRU.

 

I covered football for many years and chronicled many instances where a big centre-half, coming from maybe 10 or 15-yards away, would go up with a centre-forward for a high upfield punt. In most cases the forward either came from a standing start, or, from a much-lesser distance than the defender. In nearly every case, the forward got the foul, unfairly I thought. Now, rugby is standing this presumption on its head, with the defender, even when, as in Russell's case - he had little or no chance of avoiding contact, being penalised.

 

It is time The White Shark, who chairs World Rugby's Refereeing Committee, bit a few bumks to get Scotland a fair deal.

 

That said, a cynical friend of mine has long felt, until Scotland has a couple of referees at the Elite level, capable of dishing-out a few cheap penalties against England or Wales say, we are playing with one hand tied behind our backs.

 

WE also paid a heavy price in injuries in the Welsh game. Gordon Reid, Jon Welsh, and Richie Gray are all out for the remainder of the Championship. The loss of the two props we can cover, barring injuries, since the three remaining games are all Saturday affairs, so, Euan Murray is available, while Ryan Grant will step-up for Reid. Tim Swinson was come in for Gray, and I hope Ben Toolis, who has been in wonderful form for Edinburgh of late, will be blooded, maybe off the bench, against the Italians.

 

I would like also, to see SHC start against the Italians. Hopefully the citing body treats Russell's appearance as the nonsense it is and we can see this exciting young pairing in action together.

 

 

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! What A Referee

When it comes to winning rugby, the sheep worriers from the Land of the Long White Cloud pretty much wrote the book. They are ruthless and relentless, they seldom complain - well, maybe about English referees - they simply get on with winning.

 

But, they are not perfect, as a couple of Kiwis demonstrated at BT Murrayfield yesterday. Let's start with the lesser of the two. Put-up Warren Gatland.

 

Mr Gatland, you are accused of squandering the great legacy of beautiful Welsh rugby, with you attachment to what some in the Valleys have dubbed: "Warrenball" - a form of boring rugby, whereby the first receiver tucks the ball up his jumper and charges straight at the nearest opponent. You then have various equally large men tearing up in support to win the breakdown and start the whole thing over again.

 

On lengthy and well-documented evidence - Guilty.

 

But, you are futher charged, that, in your post-game interview at BT Murrayfield, you suggested that a Scottish player, who was jumped into by an airborne Welshman should have been red-carded. By so-doing you showed yourself to be what we in the West of Scotland term: "an erse-hole", you were talking shite.

 

As I said at the start, Kiwis seldom complain, but, they seldom come up with pish like that. Maybe you have been too long in Wales, and have adopted the  Taffia's default position in rugby - as the world's worst winners.

 

Your tactics are shit, you got lucky yesterday - that luck is running out and, unless you can dig-up some better players between now and the World Cup, I see embarrassment and the sack lying ahead for you.

 

We now turn to the second indicted Kiwi - put up Glen Jackson.

 

Mr Jackson, you are charged with failing to properly carry-out the duties of a top-flight, international referee.

 

The evidence from yesterday is:

 

Your failure to spot the high tackle on Tim Visser, which led to the turn-over from which Rhys Webb scored a try for Wales in the first half.

 

Your failure to spot the interference running by Dan Biggar later in the same move.

 

Your failure to refer the grounding of the ball by Greig Laidlaw on or over the Welsh try line to the TMO just before half-time

 

Your failure to spot the high tackle by Mike Phillips on Sam Hidalgo-Clyne in the build-up to the Mark Bennett "try" for Scotland which you disallowed.

 

Your failure to refer the SHC-Mike Phillips incident and the way the ball fell from SGC's grasp to the TMO.

 

Your failure to yellow card Dan Biggar? for kicking the ball away as Scotland turned the screw in the final minute.

 

Your failure to allow additional time following the Jim Hamilton-Mike Phillips "handbags" after Jon Welsh's late Scottish try.

 

Several other instances whereby a Scottish offence was rightly punished, the same offence, by a Welshman, went unpunished.

 

In mitigation: You showed good consistency in following-up your debateable yellow card to Scotland's Finn Russell, with another equally debateable one to Wales's Jonathan Davies. Further, one accepts, the modern enterpritation of the Laws of the Game are such a shambles, every referee, in every game, is going to be open to criticism, but, your performance was erratic, it visibly veered towards favouring one side - Wales - to the detriment of the other, and, as such - you are found guilty.

 

Let's be honest, margins in the Six Nations tend to be so-tight, games swing on the smallest of issues. But, when a referee's interpretation of events can swing so violently from one game to the next, depending on the man with the whistle and how he thinks, then, that game has a problem.

 

Final word on the Welsh game. Did anyone else spot the moment of history?

It came, when George Clancy, the stand-side touch judge, drew Jackson's attention to the obstruction running of the Welsh second rows in the lead-up to Leight Halfpenny's disallowed try.

 

Never before in his refereeing career, has George done a Scottish side a favour. See, there is a first time for everything.

 

 

 

ELSEWHERE at the weekend, I spoke to the four Glasgow Hawks players who were in the victorious Scotland Under-20 team over Wales at Netherdale on Friday night; when I bumped into them, supporting their club, against Ayr in the BT Scottish Cup, at Old Anniesland on Saturday.

The quartet were still buzzing, and, rightly so. Theirs was one of the best Scottish wins I have seen for some time. After 20 minutes, I thought Scotland was dead and buried, but, the Welsh kept sinning, George Horne kept kicking the penalties and the Scots dragged themselves into the game.

By sheer guts and determination, and no little skill, they won and the bigger, bulkier, more honed Welsh boys were visibly shell-shocked at the end to have lost.

Onwards and upwards we hope for Sean Lineen's young charges. Sean believes in this group, with good reason.

BY THE way, while I have been critical of Glen Jackson, above, he was not the worst referee I saw over a busy weekend. Graeme Wells had a real shocker in the Old Anniesland cup tie. He was worse than Jackson - honest.

Well done to Hawks, for winning what was always going to be a hard tie against Ayr. The balance of power in the West just might be shifting towards Old Anniesland, after so-long at Millbrae.

I heard in the Bill McLaren Press Gallery at BT Murrayfield on Sunday, that the two (pre-match) "banker" cup quarter-finals, those between Heriot's and Howe of Fife and Hawick and Kelso were anything but.

Indeed, one Borders sage went as far as to suggest, we nearly had a Howe v Kelso semi-final, so tight were the margins. that is no bad thing for Scottish rugby, we need competition.

Looking at the semi-final line-ups, I fancy a reprise of last season's final, with Heriot's and Hawks seeing-off Hawick and Boroughmuir. That said, I am told it never does to forecast a Heriot's v Hawick match.

Bright Start - Let's Hope It Continues

THE 2015 Six Nations is up and running, and, if the remaining weekends are as good as the opener, we are in for a vintage year.

It is, of course, still too-early to draw any firm conclusions from the opening forays, but, if it was a case of listing the teams in order of satisfaction with the opening excfhanges, I think the table would look as follows:

1.  England

2. Ireland

3.Scotland

4. France

5. Italy

6. Wales.

The Common Enemy MUST be delighted with their win in Cardiff. Considering their lengthy injury list, the way they blew Wales away in the second-half was highly-impressive.

I have long held the Welsh scrum to be way over-rated. Adam Jones cheated for years and now, in his declining years has been found-out and discarded. Paul James also cheats outrageously and is starting to be found-out,thus the decision to stick with Gethin Jenkins, who is on the downward slope of the hill, and the hill he climbed wasn't that high in any case.

England did a job on them, and on the big bullies in the Welsh back division - Warrenball clearly has been if not burst utterly, is deflating - fast. The way George North was allowed to remain on the field, after taking two really big bangs to the head doesn't say much for the WRU's idea of their duty of care to their players - I think we will hear more on this.

But, while Friday's result gives me added confidence for Sunday's Murrayfield clash, we will need to play even better than we did in Paris to beat them, but,beat them we can.

Ireland opened with a confident win in Rome. Considering they were one or two key men short of optimum strength, they must believe they have a good chance of retaining their title.

Scotland are coming good at the right time. I would not like us to give too-much away to the opposition by winning the Six Nations - a near-miss would make me happy, looking ahead to the World Cup. But, we showed enough in Paris to increase my level of confidence in BVC and his squad. OK, we lost, but, it was a case of small margins, and small margins only.

France can improve on how they played against us - the question, as ever, is - will they? If they can build on the confidence of a win, albeit not a great one, and "train-on" from there, they could lift a Grand Slam. They could, however, just as easily, fail to win another match.

Italy may well fail to win any games this year, but, if any of the other five nations go into a match with them, particularly in Rome, with the idea: "This one's won already", then they may come unstuck.

Finally, Wales, having conceded more points than they scored against the Bloody English (you never beat Wales - you only score more points), will very rapidly go through the five stages of grief. They will seek excuses, but, if they come unstuck on Sunday at Murrayfield - cue mayhem in the valleys.

I HAD an enjoyable time on Saturday afternoon. I decided to leave Italy v Ireland to the iplayer, and went to watch some genuine, old-fashioned "Coarse Rugby", taking-in the BT Bowl West final between Cumnock and Millbrae, which is Ayr's social side.

Let me say immediately, I had to agree with weel-kent Millbrae (the ground) stalwart and former World Trials Champion Norrie Lymburn, who declared at half-time: "Rugby at this level is not a spectator sport". And, Norrie had a vested interest, his son Jim, the former Ayr captain, was, aged 48, leading Millbrae from the front, and giving a master-class in how to win turn-over ball on the ground.

Jim wasn't the oldest in the Millbrae team, a couple of the others were in their sixth decade, while centre Nigel Howard, who used to play in central defence for Rangers and Ayr United, is "just a boy" at 44.

They also had three "sons-of"; scrum-half Max Pickeles, son of Andrew - who definitely took one or two kickings which owed much to his lovely Dad's ability to wind-up the lower orders, as only a former Captain of the Fettes College XV can.

Robin Dale, son of Rab, thankfully doesn't have his father's total disdain for the Laws of the Game - although he did pick-up a yellow card (it's in the genes). The third chip of the old block to appear for the side in pink and black was Jack Brown, son of David - from the back,he looks very like his Dad, and is just as enthusiastic.

Cumnock's XV is all home-grown, testimony to the wonderful work that club is doing in bringing through young players. They played the better rugby, including a couple of purple patches of off-loading, continuity rugby, to which Millbrae had no answer.

Cumnock won 14-3, and, having scored the only try, rightly so. They now face Ross High in the BT Bowl semi-final and, the prospect of an invasion of Cumnockians at BT Murrayfield in April, for the National Final, is already causing some sleepless nights at HQ.

I did like the comment of one Cumnock official at the end: "In 100-years' time, the record will not say: 'won ugle'; just 'won', and I will take that".

I also liked the response of another Cumnock official when I sought the name of one of their penalty kickers.

The reply was: "Jungle".

"Aye, but, what's his name?"

"Don't know - he's always just been 'Jungle' about the club". 

A Pox On Both Their Houses Tonight

THE usual large amount of Scandinavian forest has fallen, each media outlet's "expert" has done his Mystic Meg and made his forecast. Tonight, in front of a full-house in Cardiff, the 2015 Six Nations will kick-off.

As regards the opening match - can I reprise an old story?

Some years ago, back when OVD Rum were the competition's name sponsors, the Scottish Junior Cup Final came down to Glenafton Athletic being that year's nominee to try to keep the cup out of Auchinleck Talbot's Beechwood Park.

That it came down to an all-East Ayrshire final did not go down too-well elsewhere, and nowhere more-so than in Cumnock, the settlement between Auchinleck and New Cumnock. As part of a preview piece I was writing I sought the counsel of the late Jim Yates, a school contemporary of mine who, before he was taken tragically young, made a lot of money from his road haulage company, money which he squandered as long-time sponsor of Cumnock Juniors.

"What do you fancy for the final, Jim", I asked him.

"I fancy an atomic bomb, dropped on Firhill just as the match kicks-off to wipe the lot of them out," was Jim's response.

When I review the hype over tonight's Cardiff match - I can see where Jim was coming from. If I am ever asked to vote on which nation I would prefer to win a match, when the match is a rugby one, involving England and Wales, I would love to be able to vote: "Neither of the above".

With due reference to our dear friends in Australia, when it comes to being the World's Worst Winners, or indeed, the World's Worst Losers, for me, it usually comes down to a toss-up between the Common Enemy and the Taffia. I always take cognisance of the great Ian Kirkpatrick's dictum, when that great All Blacks captain remarked: "You never beat Wales - you only score more points than them".

Any way, enough of this procrastination - who's going to win the damned thing?

I fancy, given the injuries which England has suffered, and, with home advantage, that Wales will win tonight. As ever these days, however, much will depend on how the forward battle is refereed, and, how long Dylan Hartley can stay on the pitch.

As for tomorrow, I know it will be difficult, but, I cannot see Ireland losing to Italy in Rome. Finally, the most-difficult game to call; how will we Scots do in Paris?

Our record there isn't great, mind you where, even BT Murrayfield, is our recent record great? OK, BVC has started to turn our ship around, but, for tomorrow evening's match, I think it all comes down to the perennial question: which France will turn up?

If it's La Belle France, ready and able to play champagne rugby - we might as well have remained back in Edinburgh. If it;s the headless chicken France, wilting in the face of Parisien derision as they make error after error, then, I believe we will win.

We can get off to a winning start. I hope we do, but, I am unwilling to back this feeling with hard cash.

SINCE rugby went professional, our club game has been consistently under-rated and ill-used by the professionals running events from BT Murrayfield.

Tonight, at Netherdale, our Club XV - the best of our guys from the BT Premiership, take on their Irish counterparts for the Dalriada Cup. This match was originally scheduled for Old Anniesland, but, a frozen pitch has necessitated the switch to Gala.

I don't necessarily agree with all 15 of coach Phil Smith's selections, but, I think we can win tonight, and certainly hope we do. Phil has been an excellent coach for Heriot's and he deserves the chance to show what he can do with the Club XV - who will certainly get a good lead from captain Ross Curle.

I AM not so confident as regards the prospects of our other two national teams in action this weekend - the Under-20s and the Ladies. Damage limitation might well be the order of the day for both as they take-on their French counterparts.

I NOTE, with some concern, an article in one of today's newspapers, regarding the Kebab Shop Punch-Up.

Glasgow Hawks have, probably rightly, been left feeling their man Ally McLay has not received proper recompense for the injuries he sustained, there are suggestions coming out of Old Anniesland that, maybe, Ryan Wilson got off lightly.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. However, Ryan now has a criminal record, he has been hit very hard in the pocket: a £750 fine, loss of wages for three months, his legal bill to pay.

It might have been better had Hawks spoken sharply to Warriors and the SRU about the indiscipline of their players, and kept the matter within the Scottish rugby family - rather than allowing a journalist who is mainly a football writer, to splash it all over the paper.