We Are In For A Stormy Close Season Of Turmoil

Ne'er cast a cloot till May is oot,” one of these old saying your grannie would come away with. And, as May disappears, the SRU is casting their cloots of patrician superiority, and preparing to get down and dirty – to fight-off the peasants' revolt which is surely coming their way come the AGM.

 

The "suits" prepare the carriages for circling, since the natives are revoltin

The landaus are being circled – nothing as common as wagons for the Murrayfield professionals, as they have started to hear further tales of upheaval in the grass-roots, being relayed back to HQ by the harassed councillors in the field.

Even a couple of months ago, when all the chat was about Stupid-6 and which big club was or was not going to be blessed /cursed (delete according to your bias) with a franchise, further down the food chain, there was little interest. “It doesn't affect us,” was the common theme. Then, as Stupid-6's “Siamese Twin” - Agenda-3, started to become interesting, it suddenly dawned on the body of the kirk: “Hey, this does concern us.”

One of the sacred tenets of government is: “Keep the middle classes onside.” Tony Blair and "Broon frae the linoleum Toon" worked the New Labour miracle basically by convincing enough of the middle classes in England that their Labour Party was different from the Labour Party of Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock, and they would not be squeezed till they bled.

Even less secure and stable than the Rangers defence, and less-competent than Pedro the Portuguese she might be, but Theresa May survives because, led by the Daily Mail, the English right-wing media has convinced England, she is still a better bet to lead the country than Jeremy Corbyn – indeed, some even believe Boris Johnston, Michael Gove or even Jacob Rees-Mogg is a better bet than poor old Jeremy.

But, I fear, the SRU is losing the battle to convince the ordinary clubs and club-men that a choice between the Doric Dan Quale, the Chinese restaurant 'Jim Who?', and the Gala Inspector Clouseau is a good one. Unimpressed, however, by the thought of Lance-Corporal Jones handing over to Mrs Pike, without a balancing, independently-minded counter-weight, the clubs are holding-out for a hero, while the Ayatollah and the minions are shitting themselves at getting someone inside the tent whom they cannot control.

And the battle is being led by the “middle class” clubs – the National League ones, who have realised, having battled so-hard to get to that level, who have raised standards and maintained them – who now realise, the anointed Stupid-6 are likely to come cherry-picking their best talent for their own ends.

At the next level down, the ambitious Regional League clubs, which include, lest we forget one or two once top-flight outfits who have fallen on hard times and are striving to get back to something like their past status, are also seeing the debilitating effects of Murrayfield machinations.

For instance, the “Reserve” teams of the Stupid-6 are, apparently, to be shoe-horned into the National Leagues, but, at which level we dinnae ken. What we do know is, if they are to be placed in the National Leagues, that means six fewer places at this level for “ordinary” clubs. It is yet another unfair recruiting tool for the anointed half dozen. Already, with “strict amateurism” being imposed below them, they are the only clubs able to offer potential new players cash. Now, they will be able to dangle the carrot of the odd game in Stupid-6, say in times of high injuries, plus access to enhanced back-up in terms of coaching and S&C to players from smaller clubs.

As it happens, I feel there are too-many “National” Leagues in Scottish rugby and a more-regionalised structure would be better, but, the position of the Stupid-6 muddies already murky waters, at a time when one or two clubs have questioned the sustainability of them moving-up from Regional Leagues to National ones.

Among the hired hands at HQ and around the country, the so-called leaders, the Board and the Council, are known as 'The Gypsies' – because: “They are forever tinkering.” And their latest spot of tinkering has not gone down well. The Sheila Begbie-led review of the Club Support infrastructure, I understand, included: some psychometric testing, a competence interview and some business simulation exercise. Some of this was done by Sheila Begbie. But others were carried out by the HR dept and some done by external folks.

Consultants were employed – at the usual hefty costs of such exercises, but, there are reports of previous experience of running rugby development wasn't taken into account – the skills and expertise of some of the guys being discarded – albeit with “slightly” enhanced above the legal minimum redundancy packages – to “ease” the blow.

One club official, who has experience in an HR environment said: “This has all the hall-marks of a classic “stitch-up”. The decision has been made, Management has decreed: “These people are leaving, provide a means whereby I can do this.”

No wonder the Domestic Rugby Department is choc-a-bloc with unhappy campers.

As I have said before: professional rugby, even semi-professional rugby, is a voracious money-eating beast. Very few professional rugby organisations break even, far-less make money. In Scotland, the clubs – the main stakeholders in the game are never told how much the Performance side of the game: the national squads and the two professional teams, cost. We never see costs break-downs, we don't know what performance indicators, if any, they are supposed to meet, beyond vague phrases which look good on paper and mean little.

But, what we do know is – the SRU is embarking on an exercise, call it “streamlining”, call it “efficiency-savings”, whatever, which affects the club side – while the professional side seems to be escaping Scot-free.

• The BT Premiership – the top level of the Club game – was: “not fit for purpose”.
• The Domestic Game Department is now apparently - “not fit for purpose”.
• Development Managers are being shed
• Modern Apprenticeships are vanishing.

These cuts affect the grass-roots, we see little evidence of cuts to the professional side of the game. Yet, surely by under-mining and weakening the foundations – the club game – there will be a knock-on effect on the professional side. Have the Ayatollah and the minions even thought of this?

As a club official commented just this week: "The SRU currently has the look of an inverted pyramid, with all the resources and attention going on the top, while there is relatively little at the bottom - such as system is unsustainable."

He has a point. 

Bad News For The Ayatollahs - The South Is Rising In Rebellion

AS I wrote a day or three back, the troops on the ground are distinctly unimpressed by the cock-up which GHQ (Murrayfield) are making of things, to the extent, a barracks mutiny is very much on the cards.

 

The Borders teams are restless

The unrest is particularly pronounced among the moss troopers and calants in the game's heartlands in the Borders. The boys down there are distinctly unimpressed by the credentials of the known candidates for the vice-presidency – the Doric Dan Quale and “The Chinese Restaurant” or “Jim Who”. Thus the fiery cross has been sent round the dales, seeking a Young Lochinvar to ride out of the South (rather than the West) to save the jerseys.

One of the Robbie Dye's who would certainly have had my support, and that of a great many people across Scotland, declined to stand – deciding he had enough on his plate locally, while a Braw Lad has, I understood, agreed to carry the banner, if nobody else will.

Another weel-kent Borderer, described to me as: “Upper B-List, possibly lower A-List,” considered answering the call, but eventually declined to enter the viper's nest of Murrayfield. However, I hear another household name, provided he can “bribe” Er Indoors to allow his candidacy is doing the sums: “perks of the job and the presidency in due course v possible costs of a divorce” and the feeling is, if this Plan B candidate decides to stand – look out for fireworks.

Now, the fact the usually fractious South guys are going to this-much bother, putting age-old rivalries aside and seeking to find a candidate who will attract support outwith their ain wee bailliewick, should be the clearest notice yet to the Ayatollahs – The troops aint happy and are going to do something about your mismanagement of the game.

IT DOES not get any better for the Ayatollahs. I hear, one of the long-serving administrators deemed surplus to requirements by Sheila Begbie's assessment of the Club Services Department at HQ has opted to re-apply for his old job – which could make for an awkward interview. I think they could sell tickets and partially underwrite the SRU deficit.

MEANWHILE, the summer touring squad is now safely encamped in their Vancouver hotel, and in a training camp at the magnificent University of British Columbia campus. They are there until next Tuesday, when they make that terrific flight over the Rockies to Edmonton, where they play Canada in the early hours of Sunday morning: 10 June.

My only advice to the tourists is – steer clear of Edmonton Clansmen – their hospitality, overseen by their legendary Long-Range Drinking Group, is ferocious.

Grant Stewart

By the way, the excellent Scotland National Team Media Manager Michael James, has made a rare slip-up, in failing to tell the world of a very late call-up to the touring squad. Young Grant Stewart of Glasgow Hawks, who earlier this season found himself drafted into the Warriors' squad when they found themselves short of hookers, is now in Vancouver with the full Scotland squad.

With all the attention on the withdrawal of Alex Dunbar and Richie Gray, and Mark bennett's addition to the squad, Stewart's first full Scotland call slipped under the radar.

Just a nasty wee thought – what happens if he gets on and wins a cap? He will have to go down in the list of capped players as Grant Stewart – Glasgow Hawks. Although, by the time the games against Ireland were played this season, Grant was on Warriors' duty, he was an original choice for the Club XV squad. So, the Club XV to the national squad in less than six months - what does that do to the SRU Performance Department's mantra: “The BT Premiership is not fit for purpose”, if a Premiership player is capped?

Grant is a trucker – keep him away from those trans-Atlantic big rigs.

THE Under-20s begin their World Cup campaign, in Beziers this evening, when they face Italy. The match kicks-off at 5.30pm and will be streamed live on the IRB's World Rugby.com website.

The Scotland team, hoping to overturn the result of the recent Six Nations encounter, which Italy won, is (in 1-23 order):

Ross Dunbar (Boroughmuir), Finlay Scott (Jed-Forest), Finlay Richardson (Edinburgh Accies), Ewan Johnson (Racing Metro 92), Jamie Hodgson (Watsonians), Martin Hughes (Heriot’s), Rory Darge (Melrose), Devante Onojaife (Northampton Saints); Charlie Chapman (Gloucester), Ross Thompson; Kyle Rowe (both Glasgow Hawks), Stafford McDowall (Ayr) CAPTAIN, Cameron Hutchison (Currie Chieftains), Logan Trotter (Stirling County); Paddy Dewhirst (Ayr). Replacements: Robbie Smith (Ayr), Sam Grahamslaw (Leicester Tigers), Murphy Walker (Strathallan School), Charlie Jupp (Heriot’s), Guy Graham (Newcastle Falcons), Charlie Gowling (Stade Francais), Callum McLelland (Edinburgh Rugby), Fraser Strachan (Northampton Saints).

 Stafford McDowall, in action v Heriot's, again leads the Under-20s

THE Scotland Sevens squad will be hoping to complete the IRB/HSBC Sevens circuit on a high with a third straight victory in the London event, at Twickenham, over this weekend.

Last season's victory was the grandstand finish to end all grandstand finishes with that memorable extra time win over South Africa, as the Scots retained their London crown. Those final 90 seconds or so are a must see on You Tube as the Scots came from behind to pit the Bokke. Let's hope they can again put on a show for the many members of the Sudentenland Caledonia Diaspora who will turn-up at the cabbage patch.

The squad which John Dalziel takes to London is (in 1-13 order):

Scott Riddell, Darcy Graham, Nyle Godsmark, Bobby Beattie, Nick Mclennan, Jo Nayacavou, Jamie Farndale, Harvey Elms, Robbie Fergusson, Gavin Lowe, Max McFarland, Jack Cuthbert, Ally Miller.

Normally, London would signal the end of the globe-trotting Sevens circuit, but, not this year. They will still have the IRB Sevens World Cup, in San Francisco, which kicks-off on 20 July. All those air miles, changes of time zones, new hotels - plus the added distraction of all those nubile athletic young ladies at the Commonwealth Games, the Sevens squad will be ready for their holidays after that little lot.

A Volunteer Is Worth Ten Pressed Men

MY wee history lesson from yesterday's blog rattle a few chanties, as they say in some of the less-leafy parts of the Dear Green Place. The bit which attracted the most comment was my comment about the lack of volunteers within the game.

I particularly referred to the lack of old-style teachers, prepared to give-up their Saturday mornings to keep the game going in State schools, but, another of the venerable band of rugby scribes, who, like me can reference the amateur era, reminded me, the voluntary sector is one of the foundations of the club game. He likes me sees problems ahead, even for that group of gilded clubs, the Stupid-6.

Let's look at the budgetry requirements of a Super-6 franchise:

• 35 players at up to £12,000 per player per season
• A Head Coach – salary unknown
• A Strength and Conditioning Coach – salary unknown
• A Forwards Coach – salary unknown
• A Backs Coach – salary unknown
• A Defence Coach – salary unknown
• Club Doctor – perhaps not salaried but at least an Honorarium to be decided
• At least one – usually two physiotherapists – salaries unknown
• A team manager/administrator – at least an Honorarium to be decided
• A kit man – at least an Honorarium to be decided
• “Fourth Official – to oversee substitutions and sin bin times pitch-side (the SRU does not always supply such a person).
• Most Premiership clubs also have a couple of general assistants at games – looking after the tackle bags, cones etc for the warm-up, subs' bench coats etc and generally helping-out.

So, on match-days, you have the 22 guys in your squad, plus another team on the side-lines; and while not all of these are being paid they have to be “looked-after” in some small way for their time. At the moment, these posts are filled on a mainly-voluntary basis, can the clubs be sure that state of affairs will continue in a “semi-professional” environment.

And, as my old press box colleague added: “At the moment, guys will happily do something for the club, because, it is THEIR club. Will they feel as emotionally-tied to Ayr Raiders, Stirling Sharks, Boroughmuir Bears or Stockbridge Stallions, as they do to Ayr, Stirling County, Boroughmuir or Heriot's?

What about the unseen army of helpers?

Now consider the often over-looked match day volunteers, who:

• Man the car park (I use “man” in a non-gender specific way there – the ladies also do this work, and do it well)
• Man the turnstiles
• Sell the programmes
• Act as stewards
• serve-up the post-match players' and officials' meals
• Make sure the game runs smoothly

These people, in rugby, form an unseen mainly voluntary army without whom the game at the top level could not run smoothly. In football, a lot of this work is paid, admittedly at a low level of remuneration, but if a part-time senior football team is forced to pay to attract ancillary staff on a Saturday, how long before a part-time rugby team has to do likewise?

I have, at various Scottish grounds, and at different times, been directed to my car park space by: a past British Lion, a past-president of the SRU, a then-current, albeit it injured Scotland cap. Can we be sure of their contiuned assistance the more "professional" the game becomes?

Allan Hosie- runs the Millbrae car park as efficiently as he once ran international matches

Another point which was made to me by a weel-kent veteran with one of the Stupid-6, who has real concerns about how the allocation of SRU funding will affect his beloved club, was this.

As he said: “At the moment, we have some fantastic sponsors, who love the club, and want to see us being successful. These guys see some benefit for their companies in being associated with us, and many of our best sponsors are former players, who look on their sponsorship as a sort of large donation.

“Now, suppose one of these guys, a long-time sponsor, is finding business conditions a bit difficult, but, he will, while he might be forced to tell us – 'sorry guys, things are a bit tough this season I can only give you £X instead of my normal £Y,' - he will still contribute.

“With the well-publicised SRU money, he has a get-out, he can say: 'You don't need my four-figure sponsorship,you are getting a six-figure grant from the SRU.' Two or three of these, and that's a bit of a hole in your figures for the season.”

The “little people” (and to call them that is not to belittle them), have to be looked after. They need to feel they belong in the club and their efforts are appreciated. I doubt if any one of the many “little people” on the periphery of our present top clubs begrudge any payments being made to top Premiership players. The ferocity of the challenges and the impact of the collisions when say George Hunter is tackled by Ross Miller, or Rory Drummond runs into Grant Runciman are I would wager, no less serious that if it were Magnus Bradbury tackling Matt Fagerson, or Tim Swinson halting Grant Gilchrist. The fan/club match-day helper appreciates this.

Ayr team manager Dougie Stanley - one of the "Unseen Army" who keeps the club game going

But, if that same match-day helper is stuck in a changing room, an hour or more after the final whistle, collecting discarded shorts, trying to marry-up abandoned socks and pack them away, while some snotty mercenary import to his club, who is wrongly convinced he is the next Finn Russell of better than Jonny Gray, and acts as though he is entitled to a valet or batman – well, that's gong to reflect on the “little person's” attitude.

“Is this still MY club, the one I once bled for and have served loyally for years? Or is it now a commercial organisation, who will dump me in a second if they can find somebody to do this for less money and less consideration?”

The Stupid-6 clubs may well have awkward questions such as these to answer. When cash enters the question, attitudes change – this is true of any profession; professional rugby is no different.

I have some interesting further thoughts on the part volunteers play in rugby - posted in btl comments - to follow in future blogs.

Aristotle Thinks Aloud During A History Lesson

BOTH are forms of football – the one: Rugby Union Football, or “Rugby” – calls for a match to be contested by two teams of 15 players per side, they are allowed to handle the ballm which must be passed backwards, and a match lasts 80 minutes, divided into two halves, each of 40 minutes duration.

The other: Association Football, or “Football” is played by two teams of 11 players, who can propel the ball in any direction with any part of their bodies other than their hands; (although one designated player on each side, identified as “the goalkeeper”, is allowed to handle); and each match lasts 90 minutes, divided into two, 45 minute halves.

 

In Association Football, the object of the game is to propel the ball through the frame of the goal at either end, thus scoring “a goal”; the side scoring the most goals is the winner.

In Rugby Union Football, the object of the game is to carry the ball over the opposition's goal line and touch it down, thereby earning your side the right to “try” to “convert” that touch-down into a goal, by kicking the ball over the cross-bar in the H-shaped goal at either end of the pitch.

There, in fewer than 200 words, you have a description of both games, and their differences. Those are the basics, everything else is an add-on.

But, what type of football

Elsewhere in the world there are various alternative forms of football, the most-common of which are: American Football, played mainly at schools and colleges and in professional leagues – principally the NFL or National Football League – in the United States of America.

There is: Australian Rules Football, played almost exclusively within Australia. There is Canadian Football, played almost exclusively in Canada and virtually indistinguishable from American Football. We have Gaelic Football, played mainly on the island of Ireland, but with off-shoots wherever the Irish diaspora have travelled. This code is strictly “amateur” (no payment allowed) and is administered by the GAA, the Gaelic Athletic Association.

The other main code of football is Rugby League football, strong in its founding heartland, the North of England, in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and in small pockets in France and South Africa. An off-shoot of Rugby Union, “League” is played by two teams of 13 men each. It has many similarities with “Union”, but began because, back in the late-Victorian era, when Rugby Union was a strictly-amateur code, the mainly working-class players in the top North of England clubs could not be paid “broken-time” payments, when they had to take unpaid time of work to play Rugby Union.

Their clubs thought this was wrong and broke away from the governing RFU (Rugby Football Union), to form the Northern Rugby Union – later the Rugby Football League – to play; dropping two players and doing away with lines-out, to make their game different. Later law changes have served to further define the differences between the two codes.

Today, in this here United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and indeed throughout the world, most forms of football are “open”, i.e. at the highest level, the players are paid, how far down the levels in both games player payments extend is a matter for the negotiating powers of the players at that level.

What school did you go to?

If we stick to the basics in this country – Rugby and Football: both are winter sports as far as when they are played in the calendar, both began in the second half of the 19^th century, and both sprung from the English Public Schools system. The handling code, as its name implies, began at Rugby School, where a pupil – William Webb Ellis – in defiance of the laws of the time, picked-up the ball and ran with it, thus making Rugby Football different.

Some of the other great Public Schools – Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow and Uppingham for instance, had their own particular codes of football, and, when all the old boys of these schools got together at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, there was confusion as to what laws applied. Thus, in 1848 a standardised code of laws: “The Cambridge Rules” were adopted. These were further modified in 1863 and, when the Football Association was formed later that year, they adopted the Cambridge Rules as the recognised Laws of the Game.

Rugby continued down its own path, the Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871, with the first international, between Scotland and England, played in Edinburgh that year. The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) was formed in 1873, other Unions soon following as the game expanded.

Football embraced professionalism – the idea that players could be paid – in 1890, Rugby held out for a further 105 years, before going “open” in 1995. In the 23-years since that decision, Rugby has started to discover, what Football has known since 1890, once you start paying players, the need to pay them becomes an ever-expanding “bubble” which has to be fed.

Both are team games. You pay one player in a team, his 10 or 14 team mates (depending on which code you are playing) will soon be demanding: “Well you are paying, Tom, or Dick, or Harry, you should be paying me too.” Suddenly, the club is paying all their players, so, to fund these payments, they have to start charging the spectators to watch them playing.

Perhaps one player decides: “I am the most-valuable member of this team,” so, he asks for more money, or I am going to the club down the road – who will pay me what I feel I am worth.

So, to fund these increased payments, the admission charges go up; then one or two other players hear that Tom, Dick or Harry is being paid more – so they want more, and the wage bill expands, and on we go onto a roundabout whereby clubs are sprinting to stand still.

Paying players then leads to paying the auxiliary staff. Whereas, when running a club was fun, and maybe a crusade to improve, you played for fun, then, when you no longer could play, you gave of your time, freely, to ensure those coming behind you could enjoy the same playing fun you had. This is no longer the case – now, your valuable time increasingly has to be compensated for.

The Expanding Bubble

The professionalism bubble grows, and to keep it growing you have to put in more air, only this air is in monetary form. However, like every bubble, there comes a point whereby the extremities cannot be sustained – the bubble bursts.

Football's “bubble” is bigger than Rugby's, it has been going longer. Initially, in this country, through the maximum wage, Football's rulers kept control of the bubble. However, following its repeal in the 1960s, there was a sort of “big bang” which saw the bubble expand rapidly.

That expansion intensified and accelerated into a bigger bang, when Sky TV got involved, and seems set to expand further. However, already, through its financial fair play rules, football is trying to slow down the expansion, Rugby expansion, which began later and has probably happened far faster has not been as controlled as football's.

Therefore, Rugby's bubble may well burst sooner, and, already, there are signs of this. Australian professional Rugby is in a sorry state, ditto South Africa's. In the professional part of English rugby, losses are horrific and growing – of the 12 major clubs, only Exeter Chiefs are not loss-maing. Welsh Rugby is similarly cash-strapped – Ospreys have just announced a half-million pound loss, and cumulative losses of over £3 million.

Even in New Zealand, the most-successful Rugby nation on earth, all is not well, with player numbers dropping below the top level and support in the stands evaporating.

And, here in Scotland. The SRU has been unable to secure the funding it needs to keep the professional arm of the game thriving, so, they have turned in desperation to the clubs, with the setting-up of six franchised “Super clubs”, who appear to be under-capitalised and setting-out on a wing and a prayer.

Below that, Agenda-3 is a still-unmapped voyage into an unknown, marked only by: “Here Be Dragons” , with the aim of making things stronger, by weakening the foundations of the game of Rugby, by having fewer clubs.

Still think we are in a good place? Enjoy what remains of this Bank Holiday Weekend.

The Regiment Aint 'Appy With Things Colonel

THE Murrayfield equivalent of Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, or COBRA as it is referred to in the mainstream media, has yet to be readied for action, but, I gather the SRU' Secret Service are busy, ears to the ground, trying to establish the extent of the rebellion.

The word in the bars is – the “suits” dream of a trouble-free AGM, with no dissent and all the Executive's motions passing as if fuelled by castor oil, look to be in vain. The natives are revolting, now the full awful potential of Stupid-6/Agenda-3 or S6A3 as I refer to it is becoming obvious, and the Murrayfield worker ants might, between now and the closing date for motions, find themselves being swept away by a tsunami of motions and submissions.

Viceroy Dodson and the Raj will maintain the stiff upper lip, stoic face of a class, who are prepared for dealing with native unrest from Year One at Fettes, the Academy, Watson's or Heriot's – a couple of hundred years of learned behaviour should mean, the centre will hold and the insurgents will be repulsed.

The SRU Council are hunting down dissidents

The trouble is, it isn't the Black Watch, the Argylls or the Royal Scots Greys who are the front line defences – it's the Water-of-Leith Home Guard out front, and Lance-Corporal Jones and the boys are screaming: “Don't panic, don't panic,” while doing just that.

The Board may be doing impressions of Sid James, Joan Sims, Roy Castle and the diners in that iconic sequence from Carry-On Up The Khyber, but, the Council, fire-fighting on several fronts to quell the revolt, are increasingly reporting back: “The regiment aint 'appy Colonel.”

While the SRU Board's upper lips remain stiff at all times

The Rumour Mill is going full chat, and, there are loud conversations – rather than stage whispers - to the effect, the Executive's tame candidate for the vice-presidency, the Doric Dan Quale, as he has been described, could face a challenge from someone other than previously-identified alternative candidate: “Jim Who?”

The close season is normally boring; once the Summer Tour is over, it drags. I don't think that will be the case this year, as the great body of Scottish Rugby wakes-up to the threat of S6A3. Popcorn anyone.

WELSH water, we all know, is wonderful stuff. After all, our Sassenach cousins have been nicking it for years. However, its healing properties were perhaps under-appreciated, until this past week.

Because, except of course for the unfortunate John Barclay, all those seriously-wounded Scarlets players who were ripped to pieces by the razor wire and broken glass playing surface at Scotstoun have made miraculous recoveries and will be ready to face Leinster in the PRO14 Grand Final, in Dublin.

Where was Scarlets' pre-game camp held – Lourdes?

All those X-certificate pictures of graze knees, torn elbows; all hose Scandinavian forests which bit the dust to fuel the righteous indignations of the Western Mail rugby writers, and, within a week it's old news. Still, it makes a difference from Fake News, which is what it was in the first place.

 

I MIGHT be wrong, but, I believe the unfortunate ACL injury which has cost young Cameron Redpath his place on England's Summer Tour to South Africa is a classic case of Kismet.

Cameron Redpath - his ACL injury is a huge blow, but, some good might come of it

Perhaps it's God's way of reminding young Craig: “You're Scottish Son, a member of the Master Race – you were born to wear navy blue and a thistle, rather than white and a rose.”

Of course, at his age, Cameron probably feels as if his big chance has gone. However, I hope, in time, he will realise his destiny and turn his back on the dark side.

THE PUBLICATION of Ospreys' accounts last week, showing a seasonal loss of over half a million pounds, and cumulative losses of over £3 millions casts further doubts on what is becoming an increasingly shaky case for full-time professional rugby in all but a few parts of the UK.

In England's top-flight, only Exeter are making money, elsewhere the debt, if not quite getting up to Premiership football standards, is still eye-watering, while the fact a lot of the costs of Edinburgh and Glasgow appear to be being obscured elsewhere on Murrayfield's balance sheet might just be protecting the “suits” from even harsher scrutiny than is the case.

It has been said, if anything happens to Sky or the Murdoch family English football could be in deep doo-dah. I might suggest, should the High Heid Yins ar BT ever fall-out of love with the sport, professional rugby in the UK will be in it up to its neck.

ANOTHER area in which Rugby is becoming more like Football is in the close-season who's going where rumour mill.

We know it will not kick-off until August, 2019, but, already, those clubs which have been awarded Stupid-6 franchises are actively recruiting. I was assured last week - by someone “in the know” - that Hawks, scandalously overlooked for one of the franchises, had already lost: “almost a full XV for next season,” so, I checked with one of my friends who is inside the loop with Hawks.

 Brendan McGroarty - going back to Fort Matilda next season

“Brendan McGroarty is going back to Greenock Wanderers, with our full blessing. We've known this was happening and we wish him well, confident he will play his part in getting Wanderers back to where they want to be,” was the response I got.

Reports of further defections from Anniesland are: “Tittle-tattle,” although one of the six franchise winners has, apparently been attempting to convince some of the young Hawks starlets of the career-enhancing properties of regular sea air!!

We hear a coach who has been enjoying regular success as a lower level has turned down an approach to coach one of the franchise's second team, which will, of course, immediately become a National League side, once S6A3 kicks in in 2019.

And the other is that a chippy veteran midfield back, who has gone from pink and black to red, white and black will be wearing black and yellow next season. From the day job at Scotstoun to evening training in the Borders, that's one helluva commute.