Sevens Has Moved On And Melrose Is Now Sadly Second-Rate

I AM sorry, I know there's the long tradition and all that, but, in comparison with the Women's Sevens gold medal match in the Commonwealth Games yesterday – Melrose Sevens was shite.

 Portia Woodman - simply a fantastic player even at loose-head

Of course, The Greenyards didn't have the fantastic Portia Woodman, at loose-head prop FFS, or “Sunny Bill's Sister” on show. And the Australian and New Zealand women demonstrating the depth of rivalry on either bank of “the Ditch”, as they refer to the Tasman Sea, was merely the starter, the warm-up for New Zealand v Fiji in the men's final.

Another comparison, or should I say – non-comparison and demonstration of the obvious, top-level Sevens is now a totally-different game from even top-level Fifteens. We are now in the age of the specialists. Even our full-time 15-a-side professionals would struggle to compete at Sevens with the full-timers on the World Rugby HSBC circuit. Therefore, even our best club players, in action at Melrose, look third-rate in comparison with what we have seen on the Gold Coast.

 Clark Laidlaw - "Roy's Boy" in Jethart, but a coaching king in New Zealand

The CG Men's Final, in truth was a tad disappointing, as the New Zealanders stifled Fijian creativity and flair. In truth, the ABs played most, if not all the rugby in the final. But, I suppose Scotland can claim a wee bit of reflected glory, in that their victory was master-minded by one of oor ain – Clark Laidlaw. I suppose, if you've got to cast-off being known in Jethart as: “Roy's Boy”, coaching New Zealand to Commonwealth Games glory is as good a way as any.

The Women's Final was, I feel, the better spectacle, settled as it was deep into extra time. One final thought on the victorious New Zealand women; after witnessing their victory Haka, following the medal ceremony – I widnae like tae tak a brokey pay poke hame to oany o' them.

Naturally, the BBC did their Sevens coverage on the cheap. On the first morning, when Scotland opened against Papua New Guinea, we had the local Australian commentary, with oor ain wee Colin Gregor, last seen helping carry the Games flag into the stadium for the opening ceremony, doing his usual excellent job as local colour commentator.

Andrew Cotter - this is Gordon Dalziel, football manager

Then, as things heated-up, we had Andrew Cotter, who will surely never live down spending most of his commentary on Scotland games describing Scotland coach JOHN Dalziel as former footballer GORDON Dalziel. Troon's finest had the excellent Rob Vickerman helping him, but, when we were left with pictures-only coverage of the medals ceremony on the red button coverage, if we had not already guessed, we knew, Cotter and Vickerman were commentating from somewhere inside the BBC's Salford sports hub.

and this is John Dalziel, rugby coach

And what of Scotland? Sixth was a good performance, with a hybrid team. How much better might we be, if the SRU was to really get behind a programme which is expensive to run, and, as we know, if there's one thing Murrayfield hates doing, it's spending money on anything but themselves. But, if we are to compete, spend big the SRU will have to. And, let's hope our girls can be involved in Birmingham in 2022.

TO RETURN to Melrose. BBC Scotland went big on yesterday's tournament; live coverage, all their big names, except John Beattie involved in the TV broadcast, why, they even roped-in National Treasure Doddie Weir, who played a blinder as expert analyst.

However, if you missed the live coverage and were looking to catch-up via the BBC Scotland Sport website, forget it – absolutely no mention of the tournament. Indeed, having had to bail-out before the final, I had to go to the Melrose Sevens Facebook page this morning to discover Watsonians had won the event. Mind you, I still feel, if Connor Bickerstaff had not been injured, I fancy Marr might have been able to hold on and win their tie against the Edinburgh side. It was good to see the Troon lads make such a great impression on their first visit to the tournament. I bet their fans enjoyed the day out too.

The only thing approaching a neutral newspaper report I could find was, not unexpectedly, Alan Lorimer's excellent piece for The Offside Line. And this further underlines a massive problem the SRU has going forward.

For all the advances in social media today, most people, I would venture, still prefer to get their news from the traditional outlets, newspapers and radio and TV. Given the silence over Melrose, a long-established and well known event, how the Hell does the SRU expect to find a media presence for a new, untried and frankly daft notion such as Stupid 6?

I can see no way that the mainstream media will show any interest in Stupid 6, if it ever gets going.

THE MSM will, however, continue to cover the Guinness PRO14, with, in Scotland anyway, as little space as they can spare after they have obsessed with the Old Firm and the garbage which passes for Scottish fitba.

I find myself scratching my head at the result of the Edinburgh v Scarlets game, at Murrayfield on Saturday. Just how could Edinburgh stick eight tries on Scarlets, just one week after the Welsh side had hammered Glasgow at Parc y Stradey?

Then I looked at the Scarlets' squad, which, with a view to their upcoming Champions Cup semi-final, was shorn of their big names – no Barclay, Owens or Davies for instance. In fact, some of the Scarlets squad are not even household names in their own household.

Richard Cockerill - another great coaching display on Saturday

But, you can only beat what is in front of you, so, well done Edinburgh, for a performance which demonstrates just how far Richard Cockerill has taken the club since being appointed. Gone, hopefully, are the days when the Welsh sides could send any old squad up to Edinburgh, confident of a win.

We could still, and I accept it's a long shot, see a Glasgow v Edinburgh PRO14 final. Glasgow are assured of a home semi-final, but, against whom? In fact, depending on how the matches end, they could face Edinburgh again at that stage. Aye, it's a tasty end to the first season of PRO14 rugby. There is still an awful lot to play for.