A Flurry Of Signings for Super-6 But Still All Quiet In The Capital

AS I HAVE been saying since TCD first sprung Super-6 on an unsuspecting world back at the 2018 AGM – if any organisation can totally fuck-up what is an idea worth trying, it would be the SRU.

The big announcement – of the six playing squads, is due to be made tomorrow – Wednesday, which has meant some of the clubs being forced to re-jig the programme they had come-up with to drip-feed the signings and create a bit of interest.

So, last night, and again today, some of the clubs have been announcing a raft of new signings, proving, when it comes to media relations and creating a demand for a product, the SRU could not run a menauge.

Ayrshire Bulls made a further four signing announcements on Monday night – bringing their squad total up to 23, with the remaining names due to be announce during today. The four names released yesterday were those of two old favourites: Grant Anderson and Danny McCluskey – both of whom were key men in last season's double-winning team. Anderson, who it seemed was about to depart Millbrae in a blaze of glory at the end of last season, has been persuaded back by the chance to be part of the new tier of rugby. Already Ayr's most-honoured player, he is keen for at least one season in S6.

McCluskey, who was Ayr's vice-captain last season and led the side in several games when Pete McCallum was unavailable, has steadily established himself as a key man for his only club, for whom he has played since his days in mini-rugby.

The first of the new names announced last night was former Leeds Beckett University and England Students back three player Chester Duff. Originally from Heathfield, in East Sussex, 22-year-old Duff is Scotland-qualified through his grand-parents.

The second newcomer announced is Australian hooker Sam Kitchen. From Sydney, Duff is a Shute Shield winner with Northern Suburbs, and has played for the Sydney Rays in Australia's National Rugby Championship.

Sam Kitchen

Bulls' Head Coach Peter Murchie said of the new signings: “Grant has been perhaps the most-successful player in Ayr's history, so we are delighted to have his experience available to us, while Danny was one of our most-consistent players last season. I am delighted both have agreed to play for the Bulls.

“As for the new boys: Chester is a strong-running wing or full-back, who knows his way to the line, and, being Scotland-qualified is a bonus; while Sam has a great skills set and I am sure he will fit in well to how we play.”

Bulls are planning to announce further signings before the SRU launch tomorrow.

SOUTHERN KNIGHTS also released a raft of signings last night. The four new players they named are all, however, weel-kent faces around The Greenyards, having played for Melrose. They are: Gavin Woods, Callum Crookshanks, Mak Wilson and Harri Morris.

Wood has come through the ranks at the club since first playing aged five. He has been a squad member since making his first team debut in 2015. Crookshanks joined the club when in the first year at Earlston High School and has come through the ranks to make his first team bow in 2016. His Melrose experience was also expanded when he spent a season in New Zealand, playing for Southbridge RFC.

Former Scotland Age Group cap, prop Wilson, joined 'Rose from Duns in 2017. He played for Scotland Under-20 in the 2018 World Cup. Morris began playing rugby at Southport, but, when his family moved to Scotland, he won Scotland Under-18 caps at George Watson's, prior to linking-up with Melrose in 2018.

The new signings take the Knights squad up to 33 of the 35 they are allowed. These players are: Craig Jackson (Captain), Grant Shiells (Co-vice-captain) Fraser Thomson (Co-vice-captain), Andrew Nagle, Finlay Scott, Fraser Renwick, Dalton Redpath, Jacob Henry, Nathan Sweeney, Bruce Colvine, Angus Runciman, Struan Hutchison, Murdo McAndrew, Ruaridh Knott, Neil Irvine Hess, Alan Gregory, Ciaran Whyte, Dylan Taylor, Iain Moody, Russell Anderrson, James Head, Rory Darge, Shaun Gunn, Iain Sim, Patrick Anderson, Tom Galbraith, Ewan McQuillin, Michael Mvelase-Julyan, Connor Young, Gavin Wood, Callum Crookshanks, Mak Wilson, Harri Morris.

Ewan McQuillin is back at The Greenyards with Southern Knights

OF COURSE, the big reveal will hopefully finally answer the $64,000 question – are there 105 Super-6 quality players in Edinburgh? There has been absolute silence from the three capital clubs involved, tomorrow will tell us much.

As I have long said, Super-6 is basically an idea thrown together by the SRU to save their own erses, once they realised they were unable/unwilling to set-up and support a proper development bridge between the club game and the two professional sides. It cannot be as-good as having at least one more full-time professional side, under-pinned by three or better still four semi-pro development sides.

But, if the six clubs could have been seen as “District” teams in all but name, I think it could still work – I certainly believe at least the three provincial sides are going down that route.

Three clubs in Edinburgh will never work, however, and that is Super-6's Achilles Heel.

But, TCD and The Junta have decided to, in the words of Jean-Luc Picard to: “make it so.” They will, as TCD has been almost sincethe plan's inception – absent from direct press questioning, when the big player reveal takes place tomorrow.

Good luck to the clubs and players, but, my gut feeling is still – the SRU couldnae run a gird, or a bath for my younger readers.

We Are Definitely Back On Track In Japan

THERE is only one subject worth blogging about today – the Rugby World Cup meeting with Samoa, which has only just finished, in a fine Scotland win - 34-0.

Jamie Ritchie - outstanding and, for me, should have 

been named as the official Man of the Match today

For me, not a perfect performance, but, in difficult conditions, we got the job done, and, it is always better to “win ugly” than to lose playing “champagne rugby.” And, we must not forget – we HAD to win today.

Let's look at the positives:

• for once we started well
• we always tried to be inventive and positive
• we kept a clean sheet
• we got the bonus-point try
• we have discovered a back-row combination that works
• our World Cup is back on-track

Negatives:

• our handling was not great, but, perhaps a result of the conditions – the ball looked like a bar of soap
• we have to hope Allan Dell is ok after being removed for an HIA

Now, Gregor Townsend has a big decision to make about which players to rest for the game against Russia. Everyone expects us to win that one, with a bonus point, but, with a four-day turn-round for Japan, player fatigue will be a factor, and Toony has to get his selection right.

The referees have come in for a lot of criticism during this World Cup, and, a lot of it has been justified. I could not give him 10/10 for his performance today, but, I thought Pascal Gäuzère did ok. He missed one or two side entries – usually by a Samoan, and a couple of Samoan high tackles, but, otherwise he was fine.

He got terrific support from Nigel Owens, who had crucial input into one or two decisions, however, I thought, with our third try, English TMO Graham Hughes was trying everything he knew not to give it to us.

The red card was a stick-on; you simply cannot make that sort of “tackle” and expect to get away with it.

Of course, the Pacific Islanders, and in particular the Samoans, have a reputation for tackling which either borders on the illegal, or breaches these borders by miles. To be fair to them, they have curbed their “head-hunting” instincts in recent years, but, there was an element of that back today as they realised they were getting nothing from the game.

Jonny Gray - got the official call as Man-of-the-Match

Finally, Jonny Gray was the official Man-of-the-Match. The Big Man was a high standard of performance for club and country, below which he seldom dips and he was right on that today. However, how Jamie Ritchie didn't get the nod, I will never understand – he was absolutely outstanding and came of age as an international player today.

Now, we have nine days to recover, re-group and get the job done against the Russians. Win that, with the bonus point and it is all to play for against the Japanese.

However, we always suspected it would come down to that.

A short blog post today – we will get back to the stair-heid rammy of domestic rugby politics tomorrow.

Little Can Marr The Troon Team's Season At The Moment

EVERY TIME something good happens for Marr Rugby Club, and they have had a lot to celebrate these past few years, I immediately think of my old mate Broon From Troon.

Snapper extraordinaire Ken Ferguson got this superb

shot of Colin Sturgeon slaloming through for one of

his two tries against Currie on Saturday.

Big Gordon may be a true legend for the Lions, Scotland, Glasgow and West of Scotland, but like the other Troon Gods of the pack – his elder brother Peter and Billy Cuthbertson, Gordon was first and foremost a Troon boy. He never forgot where he came from and his heart was always at Fullarton.

So, I imagine the other inhabitants of the legends clubhouse in the sky were maybe getting a tad fed-up with Broon as he celebrated yesterday's win over Currie.

Top of the Tennent's Premiership, with a four-point cushion, custodians, for the time being, of the magnificent Bill McLaren Shield, life is good for the Troon lads at the moment. As a Cumnock member, this is, naturally said through gritted teeth, but, well done boys, and long may it continue.

We hear these days of clubs struggling to put out teams. I was chided yesterday, by Marr Director of Rugby Kevin Quinn, for using the old-fashioned term: “Coarse Rugby” to describe lower XV play. Kevin prefers: “Social Rugby.” I will not fall-out with the energetic Mr Quinn over semantics, call it what you will, it's all about guys enjoying a game.

And that's true of Marr. The Second XV is lying third in West Reserve League 1, one point off top spot, while, on the second pitch at Fullarton on Saturday, Marr's Third XV beat Annan Seconds 33-24, to take a two-point lead at the top of West Reserve League 3.

That's a Third XV leading a Second XV league, think about that. That Marr v Annan game was one of only two of the five matches scheduled for that league on Saturday.

The other three games were called off because one club could not raise a XV. OK, one of the teams unable to fulfil was Dalziel's Third XV, but of the other two, both Uddingston and Cumnock are clearly struggling to put-out even two teams on a Saturday.

The fact is, in this division, the lowest level of competitive rugby in the vast West Region, 12 of the 20 scheduled matches – 60% - have not been played during September.

My old sparring partner, Ron Evans, is the man who collates the results for the SRU on a Saturday, Ron has a theory: if we have a lot of games off on the final Saturday of September, we have serious problems.

I have crunched the numbers for yesterday. A grand total of 97 Adult Male games were scheduled. Of these 76, or 78% were played. Of the 21 unplayed games, one was called-off because of extreme weather, the other 20 were off because at least one team could not raise a team.

Worryingly, two of these games called off due to not being able to raise a team, were First XV fixtures. The other 18 were Second team fixtures. Overall, these 18 unplayed Second team matches amounted to 51% of the matches scheduled.

This raises the question – is it worthwhile to play competitive Second team matches?

Maybe we should go back to the protocols of the old days – roughly speaking: get at least ten players willing to play, then see how many players the opposition has. If you can borrow guys who would otherwise be watching, good and well; if not, even-up the sides by mutual agreement and get the game played.

To be fair, one or two unplayed Second team matches were subsequently played as “friendlies” or “development” games. I have no problem with that – just get the guys playing, and do your best to keep them playing.

FOLLOWING Japan's defeat of Ireland the other day, there has been a lot of fevered speculation as to how the rest of the World Cup will pan-out for Scotland. I am taking my cue from the Bard himself: “Furrit, tho Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.”

With my long and painful experience fo seeing Scottish teams – both football and rugby – mess things up on their game's biggest stage, I find myself wondering what ridiculous means of not reaching the quarter-finals, the squad will come up with over the three remaining games.

If the games go to form, we would expect Scotland to beat Samoa tomorrow, to take us onto four points – I honestly hae ma doots about our ability to get a bonus point against the Pacific Islanders. We would then face the Russians, and, surely we can beat them with a bonus point.

This would see us going into the crucial final game against Japan, on nine points.

Ireland too, will surely beat the Russians, to leave them on 11 points going into their final game, against Samoa. Japan will fancy themselves to beat the Samoans, not perhaps with a bonus point.

That would mean, Ireland would go into their final game against the Samoans, on 11 points and looking to win and top the group with either 15 or 16 points.

Japan would come out to face us on 13 or 14 points, against our 9 or 10 points (more likely 9). Which means, we would need to beat the host nation – with a bonus point, to qualify for the last eight.

That's the scenario, assuming things go to form. But, hey, this is Scotland at a World Cup, so, we must expect the unexpected. The question now is – what interesting new way can we come up with to fail to qualify.

Anyone fancy Scotland to beat Samoa and Japan, with bonus points, but draw with, or perish the thought - lose to Russia, to fail to qualify.

I would not put that unlikely scenario past us.

This Has Been A Bad Week For The SRU

THIS HAS not been a good week for the SRU. With the Scottish Rugby Family still on an extreme downer – and nobody does woe, woe and thrice woe and doomed, we are awe doomed with quite the extreme emotion of the Scots – some of BT Murrayfield's decisions didn't help.

Sheila Begbie - had to take a hospital pass with the player numbers

Sheila Begbie is one of Scottish sport's finest administrators, and I believe, given time and resources, she will be seen as a great Director of Rugby Development, but, she was given a hospital pass with the figures she had to release for player numbers, through the new SCRUMS data.

Nobody I have spoken to believes there are anything like 11,000 active adult rugby players in Scotland. Indeed, I have had senior club administrators tell me – if there is even half that number, we are doing well.

I have kept a check on the number of unplayed matches already this season, and well over half of these are 2^nd XV matches – some clubs are really struggling to raise more than one team – this is unsustainable.

I know Sheila and her staff are trying to help the clubs, but, quite clearly, fewer and fewer of today's young men are willing to play competitive rugby these days.

I had to give-up serious rugby at a young age, but, I continued, whenever the demands of journalism allowed, to enjoy social, or to be more accurate and to use my old pal Michael Green's wonderful description: “Coarse Rugby,” for many years.

It was an enjoyable way to work up a thirst – I don't see that level of rugby, low though it was, but still enjoyable, being played today.

Now, the SRU's overall management plan for the game is simple:

• We concentrate our resources on producing a winning Scotland team, playing attractive rugby
• This fills BT Murrayfield
• Thereby generating the funds to keep the game going

BUT

• If the SRU is unable (or more-correctly unwilling) to find commercial partners to offset the huge costs of funding professional sport
• Running the professional game eats up more and more of the income
• There is less to feed down to the clubs – the ultimate owners of the SRU
• The club game withers on the vine
• We don't produce good enough professional players
• Scotland loses more and more games
• The fans stop turning up at Murrayfield
• We are on our way to Hell in a hand cart

That is the reality. We are not in trouble at the moment, but, the portents do not look good and as one influential club man said to me before heading off to Japan: “We are maybe two bad Six Nations away from disaster.”

And, The Junta need not think the perceived riches from CVC will save the jerseys, some people are already beginning to whisper, if we don't get a grip and sort out the Governance issues – which Bill Gammell and Norman Murray are already looking at, perhaps as early as the 2027 Rugby World Cup:

SCOTLAND COULD BE A TIER TWO NATION.

We need to sort ourselves out – URGENTLY.

I don't have the answer, but, I do feel we need to separate the competitive/performance side of the game from the social or “community side”; get more people playing for fun – those with the talent and drive to succeed in a competitive, semi-professional or professional game will still come through, but, we will have more people enjoying fun rugby.

Here's an idea which has been buzzing around my massive rugby brain this week.

I used to cover ice hockey, that's a game which, at professional or semi-professional level, is even-more brutal than rugby. But, there is another type of ice hockey, which can still be enjoyed by pensioners of my age.

Recreational ice hockey is a very popular game. The participants still need the padding and safety equipment of the full-fat game, but, the rules have been amended to take-out the really hard hits, the body checking and the fighting of the real game.

Surely there are enough great brains inside the rugby family to come up with a form of recreational rugby which emphasises the good points of our great game, but eliminates the bad stuff. Now, there's a challenge, coming up with an amended game which people want to play and enjoy playing.

It perhaps suits Murrayfield's intentions to have more spectators than players - “Fewer but stronger” anyone – but, we still need to have people playign rugby of some sort if the game is to flourish.

Right now, I am starting to worry if the game has a future in Scotland.

Another worrying trend which I have spotted is the mismatch.

To date this season, in club rugby, between adult male games and male youth and schools rugby, 527 games have been played. Of these 112, or 21% have seen a 40 points plus winning margin.

That isn't healthy, heavy defeats soon make the players on the receiving end question why they play, and wonder if it worth the pain. This leads to a drop-off in numbers and the death spiral continues.

What has been worrying has been – some of the teams being thrashed are well-known, long-established clubs. OK, I accept, form is cyclical, but when you see the same, well-respected clubs, being thumped every week, it is a major concern.

I have also noted, in the Schools conferences, great rugby-playing schools, which have been producing full internationalists for as long as Scotland has been playing the game, struggling to fulfil fixtures.

Murrayfield – you may have a bigger problem coming

And don't get me started on the Glasgow Warriors' game.

Are these figures acceptable?

YESTERDAY, I looked at the percentage of players who were actually playing, basing these percentages on the data released by the SRU through their new SCRUMS registration service.

Today, I am going to concentrate on the percentage of matches played in both adult and youth male rugby. I have looked at games played since the new season kicked-off with the first youth games on the weekend of 24/25 August.

The figures were:

	Week ending	Games scheduled	Games played	% played
Adult male	24/08/19	0	0	0
Youth male	24/08/19	84	62	74
Adult male	31/08/19	55	45	82
Youth male	31/08/19	131	100	76
Adult male	07/09/19	106	86	81
Youth male	07/09/19	227	166	73
Adult male	14/09/19	116	93	80
Youth male	14/09/21	189	165	87
Adult male	21/09/19	112	92	82
Youth male	21/09/19	147	101	69
Adult male	overall	389	316	81
Youth male	overall	778	594	76
School games	overall	301	211	70
Youth games	overall	477	383	80

So, overall, over the opening weeks of the season – the time when you might expect enthusiasm and fitness to be at its peak, we find that one-fifth of the scheduled adult male games remained unplayed, while around three-quarters of the scheduled youth male games were also unplayed.

In the case of 84% of the unplayed adult games, the reason for the postponement was a shortage of players by one or both teams.

When it comes to a shortage of players causing postponement of youth games, the percentage was 67% - lack of players the reason for 135 of the 203 cancellations thus far.

The percentages when it comes to schools games versus club games are: a lack of players caused 60% of the schools postponements, at club level, this rose to 72%.

It should also be noted, in the various conferences, there are some clubs or schools who are struggling at one or two age groups – or are suffering a shortage of front-row forwards. These tend to somewhat skew the figures.

The question is: Is seeing between 20% and 30% of scheduled games postponed each month acceptable, or not?

I appreciate the default position of many people out there in clubman is to blame the SRU for everything that goes wrong – including unplayed games. My position is, if I think the SRU are messing-up, I will say so, but, I don't think they can be blamed for the unplayed games.

The Union arranges leagues and youth conferences, and the divisions within these according to information they receive from the clubs. It is not their fault if a club, having committed to entering a certain league, then discovers it does not have the players to live up to their pre-season expectations. It is up to the club to either, bite the bullet and withdraw, or, work harder to address the player shortage and hang-in there.

It is noticeable that, in the schools field, there are various instances of “Development games' being played when there are not enough players to get a full match done and dusted. It would be no bad thing if the clubs began to play more such games when faced with a player shortage – better to have a game of some sort rather than a blank weekend.

I can recall, from my own playing days, way back last century, down at “Coarse Rugby” level, you could safely trot off to an away game, maybe up to five players short, and be able to either pick-up spare players from your hosts, or play a short-handed game.

I doubt that today's players are less-keen than we were and am certain, if they had the opportunity to play a fun, short-sided game, they would take it.

Of course, today's obsession with playing in leagues, or competitive games may have something to do with this. We played for fun and some of the most-enjoyable games were played short-sided.

AUSTRALIAN scrum-half Nic Groom has been named as Edinburgh's captain – on his debut – for tomorrow night's Guinness PRO14 opener, against Zebre, at BT Murrayfield tomorrow night.

Richard Cockerill has named the following squad, as always here in 1-23 order, for the game:

Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Pietro Ceccarelli, Fraser McKenzie, Murray Douglas, Lewis Carmichael, Luke Crosbie, Nick Haining; Nic Groom (captain), Jaco van der Walt, Duhan van der Merwe, Matt Scott, Mark Bennett, Jamie Farndale, Damien Hoyland. Replacements: Mike Willemse, Jamie Bhatti, Murray McCallum, Mesu Kunavula, Ally Miller, Charlie Shiel, Simon Hickey, George Taylor.

Groom is joined in making his Edinburgh debut by Number Eight Nick Haining, while Mike Willemse, Jamie Bhatti and Mesu Kunavula are all poised to make their PRO14 debut for the club off the bench.

SPEAKING of the PRO14, I am more than a tad upset at the lack of commentary on BBC Radio Shortbread on tonight's Warriors' game in South Africa. Certainly, the match is not being advertised as being covered. Indeed, there is absolutely no mention of either the Glasgow or Edinburgh league openers on the BBC Scotland Sport website. Not good enough BBC.