We Got Our Selection Wrong And Paid The Price Against England

THE FACT England beat Scotland in the World Rugby Under-20 Championships in Manchester does not surprise me. Given the sheer weight of numbers, plus the difference in the resources which the two Unions are able to put into age group rugby, England really should beat us every time.

OK, we beat them during the Six Nations, however, we had home advantage then, while several of England's brightest Under-20 players did not feature then, being required to fill-in at their clubs for players who were on Six Nations duty. We might, therefore, have expected things to be closer in Manchester on Saturday, when England had their bigger boys back. But, a 62-point turnaround in four months – from an 18-points Scotland win to a 44-points defeat, is frankly unacceptable.

Certainly, Scotland paid a heavy price for beating Australia in their opening match, a mere four days before they were due to face England. I worried when I saw the number of changes the Scots' management team made. Certainly, some were necessary, but, to choose to rest Zander Fagerson at this stage, when we would be facing an England team which tends to play by firstly gaining the upper hand up front; that one defied logic. In the event, we conceded 13 scrum penalties – I wager, with Fagerson at tight-head, we would have won a few of our own.

Zander Fagerson - resting him for England was a mistake

However, the big lesson is hardly a new one. Compared to England, we lack depth, but, we are not “hot-housing” our talent well-enough. Our youth talent identification programme needs tweaking, as does our development programme. To take the Avis example – we are not the biggest, so, we must try harder, and work smarter than we are doing.

That much is obvious – but, what we do and how we do it, to get to where we want to be – difficult one.

WELL DONE Ireland, whose win over the South Africans on Saturday was undoubtedly the pick of the three results involving Six Nations teams against the best of the Southern Hemisphere. It is never easy to win in Cape Town, or indeed, anywhere in South Africa, but, to win when playing virtually an hour of the match with only 14 men, well, that was fantastic.

CJ Stander in action v Scotland in the Six Nations 

I honestly felt a red card for Stander was over-reaction from a referee who did not impress me. A yellow card would, I am certain, have been the appropriate penalty. Stander's was, firstly, attempting to charge-down Pat Lambie's clearance. No way could he have avoided contact. The challenge was never a red card.

Still, Ireland buckled down an deservedly won. That final, try-saving tackle at the death, with some four Irish defenders involved, summed-up the commitment of the men in green. We now must wait and see what sort of backlash this produces from the injured Saffers.

FOR Wales, it was the usual story, since 1953. They didn't lost to the All Blacks, the World Champions merely scored more points than did the red dragons!! I always fancied this recast AB

s team would take an hour or so to gel and find their feet; they have lost a phenomenal amount of class and experience since the World Cup final, but, as I expected it would – class told in the final quarter. No surprise that the ABs won.

ENGLAND beat Australia, no real surprise here either. Given Australia only got as far as they did in the World Cup thanks to the uselessness of Craig Joubert, the Scottish line-out and more-particularly an out of his depth TMO, it was hardly a surprise that, next time out, they should fall to an England team which continues to grow in confidence and stature under Eddie Jones. The next two tests in this summer series promise to be very interesting indeed.

Ned Haig Will Never Believe It, But, Sevens' Day Is Dawning

THIRTY years ago I sat in a bar in Seattle and listened as one of the then leading officials in the USA Rugby Union spoke of the travails the game faced in that great country. A Scotland party were billeted, two to a room, in the Edgewater Inn in that city in Washington State. The Pacific Coast Grizzlies squad they would face in a tour match were squeezing in, four to a room, in the lesser rooms in the same hotel. Back then, nobody had heard of Starbucks, or Bill Gates; hardly anyone visited Seattle, the city was known only for Boeing. It was beautiful, but, distant.

This American administrator, I cannot even recall his name prophesied: “Rugby will never take off in this country, until it gets Olympic Games recognition, that will be the catalyst. Once rugby is in the Games, America will start to pay attention, and the cash we need will start to come our way”.

This, remember, was in the far-off amateur days and these Grizzlies really did play for love. Well, later this year, rugby will become, once again, for the first time in over 90-years, an Olympic sport, but, already, money is flowing towards American rugby.

But, it will not be 15-a-side, “real” rugby which will be seen in Rio at the Olympic Games, it will be seven-a-side, that “fun”, summery, short form of the game, devised and nurtured at Melrose and in the Borders. We hope that, in time, the USA, Kenya and the other nations beginning to make their way in the abbreviated form of the game will, in time, also embrace the full game, but, wade must face the possibility that, just as twenty-20 has become the most-popular form of cricket, sevens may become the more-popular form of rugby, globally. Only time will tell.

Any way, one of the drawbacks which the Olympic Games rugby programme is facing in this country is the age-old one: we in the British Isles are used to supporting four separate teams, or in the case of football, five. We find it hard to even come together once every four to six years for a British & Irish Lions tour. Certainly, particularly in recent years, the Lions attract a good following, but, while they all wear the red shirt, sit down with any group of Lions supporters and you will find, they still argue that their own national favourites should be playing rather than representatives of the other nations. Only the O'Driscolls, O'Connells and Wilkinsons of this world are accepted across all four contries.

The Team GB Olympic Games Sevens squad will have to overcome this problem. At least, in their favour is the fact, of the preliminary 25-strong squad, only one, Scotland's Mark Bennett, has any kind of half-decent international profile in 15-a-side. The rest, no matter how good their pedigree on the World Rugby HSBC Sevens circuit, are barely household names in their own households.

Team GB are having to gel very quickly, they have a mere four tournaments in which to bring together the talents of the best English, Scottish and Welsh sevens players – the Irish will be doing their own thing. This mission near-impossible began at the weekend, in Moscow, and it has to be said – it began well.

The Moscow tournament was organised by Rugby Europe – FIRA as was – and their rules demand that the two Team GB squads had to operate as separate entities. If a player began in GB 1 “the Royals”, he could not be swapped with a player from GB2 “the Lions” - although, strangely, the coaching staff could, and did, switch around.

The squads did well, GB Lions finished third in the tournament, losing to eventual winners Russia in the semi-final, before beating Germany in the third/fourth-place play-off. GB Royals lost to eventual runners-up France, to a last seconds penalty, in the quarter-finals, before going on to beat Georgia in the Plate Final to finish fifth. Bennett finished as top try scorer in the tournament with seven and, by all accounts, the six Scots who played, all contributed.

Mark Bennett - top try scorer in Moscow

Of course, you will struggle to find much information on the Moscow event in the mainstream media in this country. Even the RFU, who are lead nation in GB Sevens, didn't do a particularly good job of bigging-up a good first outing for the squads in their website, the SRU has still to notice the event passed.

In trying to pull the Rio squad together at the end of the season – the 25-strong extended Men's squad first met-up on 5 June, less than nine weeks before the first game – the management team, led by Scotland's Stevie Gemmell, are clearly working to a Lions schedule. Well, the Lions have done well in the past on even less preparation time, so, we should not rule-out a good show in Brazil, while acknowledging, the competition they faced in Moscow is some way short of that which the southern hemisphere big guns and Fiji will offer in Rio.

The final 12-man squad for the Games will not be known for some time, but, the extended squad has made a good start. It would, however, be good to see them receiving a wee bit more recognition.

LET'S be honest, Sean Lamont has been a great servant to Scotland. Well, you don't win 100 caps by being useless. However, he is hardly going to Japan as a certain starter. I would expect Tommy Seymour and Sean Maitland, who has stayed in the English Premiership by switching from London Irish to European Champions Saracens, to wear the 11 and 14 jerseys in the Tests, if everyone is fit. That said, Sean Lamont will surely add to his already-impressive caps tally, off the bench in Japan.

He is good in press conferences, well, he has done plenty of them, so, from the point of view of the press pack at Murrayfield on Monday, he was a good choice of talking head to put up. But, there are bigger and better close season stories going around than what a veteran fringe player thinks about touring Japan.

ONE such story is the new pitch for Scotstoun, and not before time. Having a top-quality artificial surface to play on next season will, I believe, make a good Glasgow squad even better. The new surface will really suit the type of rugby Toony wants his team to play.

Well done to everyone who helped make it possible. Probably the happiest man in Scottish rugby this week at this news has been Hugh Barrow, that stalwart of Glasgow Hawks. In a previous life, Hugh was a brilliant miler, indeed, he carries membership card Number 1, for the British Milers Club.

 Glasgow Hawks' stalwart Hugh Barrow

Hugh is a life-long Victoria Park AC man, and he is delighted that an upgrade to Scotstoun's athletics facilities will be included in the work being done. This will greatly help Victoria Park.

Hugh in his racing days

FINALLY, good luck to Coach John Dalziel, skipper Scott Cummings and the Scotland Under-20 team, as they begin their Junior World Cup campaign in Manchester. Australia first-up is hardly the start they would have chosen, however.

In The Blue Ridge Mountains Of Murrayfield - On The Trail Of Rugby Success

 Stan and Olly - who wears London Scottish's blazer and who the SRU's

WHICH one is Stan and which is Olly? That's my response to the tiff between London Scottish and the SRU, and the termination, after just four months, of the loudly-trumpeted player development agreement between the two parties. Because, make no mistake, this is another fine mess they've got us into.

I do not presume to know all the details of the deal and how and why it fell apart so-spectacularly and so-quickly, but, I can presume, with a degree of certainty – there were faults on both sides.

1. Were the two sides totally honest in what they wanted, during the preliminary discussions?
2. Was their an agreed common goal at the end of it?
3. Was the pathway towards that goal set out and understood?
4. Was a properly worked out management structure in place?
5. Was it costed properly?

These are just a few of the questions which the wider Scottish rugby public will want answered. This tie-in between Scottish and the Scottish Exiles community and the SRU was an opportunity to provide professional rugby for a greater number of Scottish players. With its failure, the immediate question for the SRU is: Is there a Plan B, and, what is it?

Will we see these questions answered any time soon? Hopefully, barring some sort of response before then, I would hope someone will raise it, if not before, under 'Any Other Business' at the SRU annual general meeting.

For my part, I can see one big problem, for London Scottish. That is, what, in the 21^st century, does this grand old club seek to be? Does it still wish to be a Caledonian enclave in the heart of English rugby, or, does it seek to become a leading English club, because, under RFU rules, these roles are incompatible.

For most of its long history, Scottish was one of the leading clubs within the RFU, regularly fielding XVs comprising mainly top English-based Scottish internationalists or Scottish-qualified players. The current first XV still contains some Scottish-qualified players, but, they are now in the minority.

If Scottish strives to get back to where it was, in the top flight of the English club game, then, its unique selling point – its Scottishness, will by necessity have to be diluted. Because, quite simply, if Scottish is to win promotion out of the Championship into the English Premiership, once in there, they will be required to have 70% of their match-day 23. “England-qualified”. In numbers, this means they will require to strip 17 Englishmen, or England-qualified men, for every game, leaving a maximum of just six Scots able to pull on the famous navy blue shirt each game.

Whaur's yer Scottish noo, is surely the response to that. 'London Scottish', playing in the Aviva Premiership with a token handful of Scottish players, well, it simply would not be London Scottish. Also, Scottish, in the top-flight in England, could not, because of the eligibility rules, be part of any Scottish player development project.

So, if the joint development project with the SRU was to work, the Scottish management would have to forget all about promotion and playing at the highest level. What, therefore, would be in it for the club and the guys running it? Some would surely want to get back to hosting and visiting Harlequins, Leicester, Wasps, Bath, Gloucester and so on on a regular basis. They would want to play at the highest level possible. How would they take to being told: “No you have to settle for the second tier”.

Mind you, in club statements, London Scottish have stressed, they see the Championship as being the perfect vehicle for proper development of young Scottish players. OK, but, even while they accept this, they would also, it seems to me, want to have the best young Scottish players seconded to them.

There were problems with the youngsters who were sent to Richmond during the four-month agreement period. Andy Davidson's dad had to buy a bed long enough to accommodate his six foot eight inch son – who has now joined Newcastle Falcons, perhaps unimpressed by the SRU/Scottish set-up. Davidson certainly did not linger long in Richmond, before returning to play the second half of the season, mostly in the Glasgow Hawks 2^nd XV!!

 Andy Davidson - a short stay in London, in more ways than one

We hear rumours that the Scottish coach had: “Lost the dressing room” during the season. Certainly a good few players have left the club. Was there a difference of opinion, or of how things should progress between the established guys at Richmond and Messrs Lineen and Grant, both of whom are now back at Murrayfield?

Of the others sent south - Robbie Fergusson has now signed-on permanently with Scottish, he was the only one sent down to Richmond to get a regular game, although Jack Cosgrove and George Horne were squad regulars, used mainly as impact subs.

I am still trying to work-out what happened with Rory Hughes. He is already a full cap, he scored five tries in four games for Scottish, before returning to either sit in the stand or on the bench for Warriors – he should surely have made a greater impact at Richmond.

I still believe, the answer is – London Scottish, as a full-time, London-based professional rugby team, playing as a Scottish side, in the Pro12. To me, no other scenario makes sense.

FINALLY, good luck to the Scottish players in the GB Royals and GB Lions Sevens squads who will be warming-up for Rio. Now that Lee Jones has been added to the mix, I can see us having a few guys in Rio in August.

Lee Jones scoring for Glasgow, now he's in the GB Sevens squad