A Good Start But, We're There To Make-Up The Numbers

COURTESY of my final-year student grandson, arriving home at 2.15am from his shift at the local hotel, this blog is being written in the early hours of the morning. His mother's pride and joy actually did me a favour, I was able to watch Scotland get their Commonwealth Games Sevens challenge off to a clean sheet start with victory over Papua New Guinea.

George Horne - suffered a cut eye against PNG

The win came at a cost, with wee George Horne going off with a cut eye. Mind you, from the ruthless way they hammered Sri Lanka in the previous tie, the Fijians have clearly come intent on winning the one tournament to have eluded them. The Fijians, or their conquerors, will take gold.

 

Of course, the big Sevens event today, some will try to tell you, is at Melrose, where the whole shebang started. Aye right, the usual big crowd at The Greenyards will be entertained, there will be a few exciting games, but, it will be but a pale shadow of the play on the Gold Coast. The full-time Sevens players are taking athleticism in rugby to a whole new level.

GLASGOW duly claimed their home semi-final in the PRO14 Play-Offs with last night's win over Connacht, but, in-truth, they only played for about two-thirds of the game.

We are still waiting for The Total Rugby performance which I am sure Dave Rennie wants to see from his men. Maybe they are saving it for the really sharp end of the campaign. Mind you, better sides than Connacht will surely punish any repeat of the second-half fall-off we saw last night, something which is always a danger when one team dominates the first half to the extent Glasgow did last night.

I have, in the past, been critical of referee Frank Murphy. When he penalised Glasgow heavily in the first few minutes, I thought, Oh no! This is going to be one of those nights, but, to be fair to Murphy, once he got going he was fine – only to lose the plot in the second half.

 Murphy's Law last night - if it could go wrong, it did

His yellow carding of Alex Allan was a joke decision. It was obvious the Connacht tight-head was boring-in, but, neither Murphy, nor his touch judge saw it. Now Murphy is a former Connacht scrum-half, so, he has clearly, although never actually been in one, spent a lot of time around the scrum. Not to see the obvious, I am sorry, but, that is unacceptable.

Equally unacceptable is the way we continually see referees compromised as Murphy was last night. As a former Connacht player and Irish, he should never have been put in the position of officiating in a match involving his former club – this makes a mockery of “neutral officials”. Surely there were Welsh officials available to do last night's game. Th PRO14 really has to get a grip on its refereeing, and the Irish bias of the Dublin officiating “Murphyia”.

I KNOW him only as “Clubfan,” a regular below the line contributor to this blog, and clearly a man who cares deeply about Scottish rugby.

In response to yesterday's blog, he made the following comment:

“Ultimately it will come down to player demand. To yesterday’s piece how does a “full service” rugby club cater for 15s, 7s, touch and any other variant of the game that emerges?”

This gets to the heart of the impact of Agenda 3 on the wider club game. As I have said, often, in football, the SFA has delegated administrative oversight of the different strata of the game, to various different bodies and associations.

The Senior game is the province of the Scottish Professional Football League, who look after the 42 senior 'League' clubs. The two senior under-pinning leagues, the Highland and Lowland Leagues run themselves, but, along with the SPFL, come under the umbrella control of the SFA's Professional Game Board.

The rest of Scottish football comes under the umbrella of the SFA's Non-Professional Game Board, looking after such diverse bodies as the semi-professional Junior Football clubs of the SJFA, the unpaid amateurs of the SAFA, the play for fun “pub league” (if that is not an unkind description) of the Scottish Welfare FA, the Under-21 players of the Scottish Youth FA, the school-kids of the SSFA and the ladies of the Scottish Women's FA. Then there are the thousands of regular five-a-side players at the various sports centres or specialised fives centres, the kids – and increasing numbers of adults playing Futsal, and the old codgers of the Scottish Walking Football Association.

Each of these specialised segments of football knows what they are doing, and who is responsible for their overall welfare. But, in rugby, we have one governing body, and everything seems to gravitate back to the all-embracing arms of Murrayfield.

The Gold Standard could cause clubs problems

Now, under Agenda 3 the SRU is looking to see each club find its level, be it Gold, for the bigger, better-organised clubs, Silver for the aspirants to better things, or Bronze for the basic clubs.

But, as Clubfan alludes to – how can one club, even a really well-organised one, properly cater for:

• the serious adult player, who has aspirations towards a Club XV cap, and maybe a crack at the professional game.
• Some talented Sevens players who perhaps lack the physique for “real” 15-a-side rugby.
• A proper youth system which will allow natural talent and potential to be realised, but, also allow a future average club player to emerge
• Women's rugby
• The old-fashioned “Coarse Rugby” player, who isn't that keen on training, but wants to be able to have a Saturday run-about, followed by a night on the lash.
• The guy, or girl, who doesn't relish the full-on nature of real rugby, but might, if only for fitness reasons, enjoy Touch Rugby.

I do not think one club can do this, any more than I think one, overly-centralised governing body can adequately meet the differing aspirations and needs of a vibrant, 21^st century sport.

The SRU has, I believe, some serious thinking to do, about Agenda 3 and the future.