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.