Dom Will Find, At Times He Will Walk Alone In His New Job

 Picture courtesy of craig watson

 

DOMINIC McKAY off to Celtic, jings, crivvens, help ma Boab. Well, he is an Old Aloysian, so, in a way he is going home. I wish Dom well; we have had our disagreements over the years, but, he has always, unlike most of The Junta, been approachable, he has kept communication channels open, and, as far as I am concerned – of the paid executives on the main Board, Dom was the one with the functioning brain cell.

I have already dropped him a wee line, wishing him well, but, I feel he might have to recruit Chewin' the Fat's Rab McGlinchey, so he can communicate easily with the Green Brigade.

 

 

Dom might have to hire Wee Rab, here in the insert,

to communicate with the Green Brigade

He's made a good start, toeing the party line, telling the fans what they want to hear, by promoting the lie that he has joined Scotland's top team. Naw Dom, don't believe what the priests telt ye at St Al's – yer still Avis to the other lot's Hertz.

Dom's departure will perhaps mean a vacancy at HQ. But, I don't think, in the present climate, replacing him is an urgent priority. In fact, I wonder if we need a Chief Operating Officer, as well as a Chief Executive Officer.

His way-going will create a vacancy on the main board of the SRU, and that might, indeed I feel should be an excuse – since we apparently need four paid executives on that body – to promote Jim Mallinder, the Director of Rugby onto the board. In case The Junta has forgotten, they are a rugby body, so another full-time rugby man on the board would be no bad thing.

They could go down the road of advertising the post and going through a transparent recruitment process, but, hey, this is Murrayfield we are talking about – they are just-as/more-likely to find a pro-Junta patsy in a lesser job and promote him so they can try to keep control of the SRU Titanic.

REGULAR readers of this rubbish will be aware, I am not Jamie Bhatti's biggest fan. But, I do believe in praise when praise is due, and I certainly think, although John Afoa did him fair and square in his first scrum after he came on for Bath last night; thereafter, Bhatti had an impressive 20 minutes or so and definitely made an improvement to his team's forward game.

Well done Jamie, keep it up.

THE LATE Earl of Stockton – or Harold Macmillan as he was when UK Prime Minister in the 1950s and early 1960s, is remembered for three particular quotes:

1. His “Winds of change” speech.

2. His “You've never had it so good” speech.

3. His comment: “Events dear boy, events,” re the unpredictability of politics.

Events dear boy, events, are certainly coming into play in the delicate balancing act between Scotland's two full-time professional rugby teams. Of course, both Edinburgh and Glasgow are, if you like “nationalised industries.” And nationalised industries, by their very management model, tend not to keep their brightest and best for long – before they are attracted away to the private sector, where they will make more money – yes, that's you I'm talking about Dominic.

But, to get back to events. When Glasgow won the old PRO12 back in 2015, there were hopes that that might be the start of a consistent place at the top table, leading to better form in Europe.

Then, events conspired, not least the decision to promote Gregor Townsend to Scotland coach. The subsequent loss of Glasgow's two “X-factor” players, Finn Russell and Leone Nakarawa, plus the fact Dave Rennie, who replaced Townsend as Head Coach, failed to bring his coaching magic with him from New Zealand, rather put a damper on things, notwithstanding another Grand Final appearance in 2019.

The return of Nakarawa had the Warrior nation hoping his brilliance might get Glasgow back to the top, but, again, events – injury, family problems, Covid – conspired to make the hero's return less than heroic. Now, the big man is off to Ulster at the end of the season.

 

Not that I blame him, this may well be his last big-money move, so, fair play to him and his agent, and, his departure should create an opening for another young Scot. 

Somebody at Murrayfield really has to start influencing events, or I fear for Glasgow's future. However, the question has to be asked – do they really care about Glasgow? Because, a few of us here in the wild West are beginning to wonder about this.

We Have Lost A Great Servant Of Scottish Rugby

I AM probably the last person who should be writing a tribute to wee Ron Evans, who passed away, aged 75, in Ayr Hospital on Tuesday. However, needs must.

 

 

You see, Ron and I have history, going back 60-years to Ayr Academy v Cumnock Academy games. At Cumnock, we were the “bastard children” of Ayrshire rugby – a plook on the face of the fair game, to be tolerated rather than loved, and only to be acknowledged under duress.

We in many ways relished our notoriety, and when it came to local rivalries in schools rugby, we liked beating Marr College, or Kilmarnock or Irvine Royal Academy, however, we absolutely LOVED beating Ayr Academy. They were our main enemy, and, while it would be fair to say, they tended to beat us more than we beat them, those wins, either at Cumnock or in Ayr, were to be specially celebrated.

Rivalries established at school then intensified at club level. Ayrshire Derbies were never for the faint of heart, and, where they continue today, that is still the case.

Now Ron was a scrum-half, half-Welsh, half-Scottish. With that mix of blood and background, he could be, and frequently was, a really annoying wee so-and-so. I remember once, in a lower XV club game, finding him at the bottom of a ruck, complaining loudly about having just been worked over by the entire Cumnock pack, and doubting our collective parentage.

I carefully placed the sole of my right boot on his nose, before telling him: “Naw Ron, you're not worth it.” It would have made no difference, he'd still have been chippy, had I put weight on him. However, I have to admit, wee nuisance or not, he loved the game of rugby, was highly-knowledgable about that game and he cared deeply for its good name.

He only got into writing about the game after I had to temporarily leave Ayrshire to work in England, taking on one of the gigs with a local paper which I had formerly held.

To be honest, Ron was a bit too-wordy for print journalism – I remember once, when the loss of a couple of pages brought a “slash and burn” instruction from the Editor, just hours before publication. The only subs still on duty – this was a late night job, were myself and the Chief Sub, who admitted he knew nothing about sport. Thus I had to hard-sub a lot of the sports copy to shoe-horn two pages-worth of reports into one – with Ron's rugby among the stuff to be drastically trimmed.

I got it up on screen, just under 1500 words, which I managed to cut back to 150, without losing anything important, before press time.

The paper came out and almost immediately after it hit the street, I saw Ron enter the front office. He saw me and immediately realised who had butchered his precious copy. Cue steam coming out of his ears.

He was, however, a terrific broadcast journalist, on both radio and television, particularly Scottish Rugby TV. He painted great word pictures and deserves credit for his mastery of this genre.

Ron did great work behind the scenes at Glasgow Warriors, helping to build a media presence for the club. In fact, I reckon when they had Ron and the marvellous Bill McMurtrie working on press relations, Glasgow was very-well served by two men who knew their jobs.

However, he found his real niche when he took on the mammoth task of collating club results for the written and broadcast media. This seems simple enough, but is actually a huge job, with many hidden pitfalls.

OK, you're the guy who has to gather the results for say National League III. You therefore have to have good, trust-worthy contacts, to ensure you get the right results.

Ron had a marvellous and thorough database of numbers: clubhouses, mobile numbers for club officials, referees and so forth. It should be easy – telephone the club, ask for the result, get it, send it on up the line. Except, supposing the telephone at the club is answered by a third XV prop, who thinks it is clever to have the home team win, when they lost, or to come up with a false result. This, believe you me, can happen.

Ron overcame this possibility by building and nurturing a list of trusted contacts right across the country – in fact, I believe he probably had the most-inclusive contacts book in Scottish rugby.

Collating results is also a time-sensitive activity. Ron had roughly two hours after the final whistle blew in which to gather-in all the results from every game being played in Scotland on any given Saturday – and he always delivered. But, at National League level, he also had individual scorers to collate. It was a massive job, which he did with calm assurance.

Someone else will now have to take on that task. They will, whoever gets the gig, struggle to perform it as well as Ron did. I wish them good luck, trying to live up to the standard he set.

He cared deeply about where rugby is going, and, in these difficult times for Rugby Union, his knowledge and passion will be missed.

I personally will miss the wee bugger greatly. If we ever get back to watching rugby at Millbrae, it will not be the same without him. And, if Ayrshire Bulls ever do relocate to Dam Park, I will do all I can to keep my promise to him. If I have anything to do with it, there will be a Ron Evans Memorial Media Room there. He deserves that accolade at least.

Rest in Peace Ron, and, my sincere condolences to his 100-year-old mother, to his sons Greg, down there in Invercargill, on New Zealand's South Island, and Glynn in Paisley, and to his wider family.

The One About Fixtures And International Choices

ON FACEBOOK this week, there was a mischievous wee post from a paragon of the Scottish Rugby Union Writers, playing dumb about how the PRO14 is organised, in respect of the cross-conference games – such as Edinburgh v Glasgow.

The poster, trying in vain to kid-on, since he's a Leither he must be thick – which he isn't, he's actually a very-sharp cookie – was suggesting these games might confuse the casual fan. Ah hae ma doots about that, the cross-conference concept is easy to explain and understand.

Such games are a new concept in UK sport, but, have been a staple of North American sport for decades, understanding how it works is easy. Also, cross-conference games are not new to the UK. I can remember cross-conference games in ice hockey some 20-years ago.

The basis of such games is to pad-out a season. After all, what are the alternatives?

If the PRO14 was run like a football competition, the season would only be a 26-game one – each team playing the other 13 clubs home and away. That would work for me. Of course, the modern game seems to demand a cash-generating play-off tournament, involving at least the top four sides. To me, these are cynical money-making exercises, I'm old-school, if you're having leagues, the team which finishes top of the table at the end of the campaign has to be the Champions.

Also, a 26-game campaign is longer than the 22-match regular season currently in-use, offering each team two more home games of gate and sundry income.

This assumes the PRO14 remains a 14-team competition. There are rumours of expansion, with more South African teams coming in, to make it a PRO16 or PRO18. If that happens, then, further changes might be called for.

[That said, if I were to suddenly be appointed CEO of European Rugby, with the powers such a job properly deserved, I would instigate an MLB/MLS/NBA/NFL/NHL-style pan-European league, in which the top players played; leaving the various National Leagues below that to develop players.]

But, self-interest among clubs and Unions would make such a league all but impossible to organise. So, it looks as if we will be stuck with the current set-up, with some minor tinkering, for a few years to come.

Maybe, by the time the real, necessary changes come in, the public will all recognise how the current set-up works.

I DO NOT have a lot of time for The Guardian's Robert Kitson, but, he has produced an interesting wee piece this week, listing the large number of players picked by Eddie Jones, then discarded after one or two games, and cast into outer darkness.

Among the considerable number of names Kitson listed were those of: Ruaridh McConnochie, Fraser Dingwall, Gary Graham, Cameron Redpath, Zach Mercer and Ben Vellacott. Graham has already been capped by Scotland, Redpath surely will be during the forthcoming Guinness Six Nations, McConnachie and Mercer we have lost to England, but, Dingwall and Vellacott could still get to wear the thistle.

I appreciate, there are several people in Scottish Rugby circles who would rather we upped our game in developing young, Scottish-born and raised talent. Nothing wrong with that. However, the fact is, we have a smaller, shallower talent pool from which to pick uor national side, and while I am not a fan of non-Scots “project players,” I see nothing wrong with fishing in the deeper waters of the Caledonian Diaspora when it comes to finding players for Scotland.

One of the advantages Scotland has is, we may have fewer players from which to choose, but, that means – provided we pick the right guys - we have more chance of being able to nurture almost a “club” feeling in the national squad.

The problem with this is, there is the danger, and Scotland in the past has fallen into this trap, of having to keep capping players who maybe were not truly “international class,” but, because of lack of options went on to win more caps than they might have with other countries with a deeper talent pool.

Then there is media interference, and here, thanks to the way the mainstream media has side-lined rugby to be almost treated like a “minority sport,” this is not so-much of a problem for Scotland.

Craig Brown has admitted, when he was Scotland football team manager, he occasionally capped a player in the face of a concerted media campaign for that player's inclusion in a Scotland squad, simply to prove to the media – the guy wasn't Scotland-class to begin with. I don't see Gregor Townsend ever having to do that – but, I think Eddie Jones has done this in the past, and will do it again.

In the course of Kitson's Guardian piece, he came up with this little gem: “If Jones, as he keeps saying, does not rate the Premiership as preparation for Test rugby,”..... There you have it, the England Coach, does not rate the league which his national rugby press corps keeps insisting is: “The Best League in the World.” What can we make of this?

Of course The Gallagher Premiership is over-rated, every top English league, in whatever sport, is over-rated – it goes with being English. Of course, their media will never believe this, they will go on pushing their Tina Turner rubbish to a gullible public.

In football, England's record in the top two tournaments – the World Cup and the European Champioships is a stunning 3% - 1 win from 33 tournaments. In rugby, it's better, 11% - 1 win in 9 tournaments and in terms of Cricket World Cups, it's 8% - 1 win in 12 tournaments (and that win was definitely pauchled).

Thus, at the highest level, in the three world-wide sports largely originating in and being first organised in England – the home country's success rate is 5.5% - 3 wins from 54 attempts. That compares badly to the records of Australia, 20% – 7 wins from 35 tournaments; New Zealand, 9% - 3 wins from 34 tournaments; and South Africa, 12.5% - 3 wins from 24 tournaments. (I cannot count France, who don't play international cricket.)

So, England are not as-good as they like to think they are. But, then again, we Scots have been trying to tell them that for almost 150 years.

Back in the amateur era, playing careers at the top end tended to be shorter. When I first went to a live Murrayfield international, Scotland's record caps holder was the great (Lord) John M Bannerman. (He was also virtually Mr Scottish Rugby at the time).

Bannerman won 37 caps, between 1921 and 1929. Back then, there were perhaps five internationals per season and, with the need to earn a living, most players could only give maybe five seasons of the commitment necessary to play at the very top end of the game, before career and family considerations forced them to step down and only play club rugby.

Then there were some strange SRU edicts. Bannerman, for instance, declared that Anglo-Scots forwards could only be considered for Scotland if they played for London Scottish.

British Lion Ernie Michie, for instance, could not be picked for Scotland while an integral part of a very-good Leicester pack, but, when his work saw him move to the Borders, and join Langholm, he was back in the Scotland team – while playing in a weaker club team than he had been down south. Then, there were an awful lot of players in the immediate post-war period who were capped on the basis of a good performance in the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match, who vanished into the City of London after their first cap and a season in the London Scottish XV.

Today, with professionalism, careers last longer, there isn't the same turn-over of capped players, so, to stay at the top level, requires hard work – both to get there and to stay there.

In the amateur era, England, like Scotland, had a massive turn-over in players – again a Varsity Match Blue, a cap, a move to Harlequins, two or three years at the top, then off to be “something in the city” was a common career trajectory. Also, the ups and down of the County Championship and selectoral bias was in play.

For instance in the 1950s – the Calcutta Cup matches between 1950 and 1959, Scotland used 83 different players in that single annual fixture. Of these only four players: Hughie McLeod (6 matches), Grant Weatherstone, Hamish Kemp and Adam Robson (5 games each), played in half of the fixtures.

England used 79 players in the same ten fixtures, with only Jeff Butterfield (6 games) and Eric Evans (5 games).

In the early part of that decade, perhaps because selection was slewed by performances in the Inter-District Championship up here and the County Championship down south, you had players from some fairly small clubs winning caps.

Today, if a player is not playing regularly in either the Gallagher Premiership, the top 14 in France or the PRO14, he's not getting capped. Back in the amateur era, with some 20 counties involved in the County Championship, the selectors could spread their net wider. However, you had to be an outstanding talent to get picked from one of the lesser counties; so, in reality, it has always been a case of the England team coming from around a dozen teams. Thus, selectors' whims came into play.

Today, Jones might still be selecting his squad from a dozen clubs, but, they are all of a more-similar standard, so, he still has to make the hard choices, and, some guys might fail their audition and find, he has no way back.

That's the thing with selection, it is not an exact science and, at the end of the day, it comes down to one man's – the national team coach's – opinion; and we are then free to agree or disagree with that.

Not that it matters to us. He's being paid the big bucks to make the big decisions, and, if he gets these wrong, someone else will get their chance to pick their choices for the national side.

It really is a case of: “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

SRU Decision-Making: Could That Lot Pick Their Noses? I Often Wonder.

IN A previous writing life, I penned a Saturday column on the back page of the newspaper which then employed me. The final section of each week's column saw me awarding the much-coveted “Mince For Brains” award, which went to whatever local sports man or woman had made the biggest boob that week.

Were I to bring back the MFB as it was known to this blog, well, I feel I would have a tough job not giving it each week to some apparatchik beavering away on behalf of, or even a member of, The Murrayfield Junta.

Taking a quick swatch at the excellent The Offside Line this morning, I noticed, Jamie Bhatti is set to return to Glasgow Warriors for next season. (shakes head in disbelief).

When I watched Bhatti on a regular basis in the old Premiership, I didn't rate him – there were better club props out there who didn't get the breaks he got. I admire how he has taken his chance when it came, but, to me, he has never been and never will be “Scotland Class.”

My first question on the Bhatti signing is a simple one: why him?

According to Danny Wilson, the Warriors' coach, quoted in the TOL piece: loose-head prop is a position where Glasgow needs greater depth.

So, let's take a look at Warriors' squad depth at loose-head:

1. Oli Kebble – Scotland cap.

2. Alex Allen – Scotland cap.

3. Aki Seiuli – uncapped New Zealander.

4. George Thornton – Scotland age group cap.

5. Tom Lambert – Scotland age group cap.

I doubt that Warriors need six loose-heads, so, we have to presume at least one of the five currently on the staff will be leaving, to free-up a spot for Bhatti. I wonder which player will be surplus to requirements

If you look at the other side of the scrum you find:

1. Zander Fagerson – Scotland cap.

2. Darcy Rae – Scotland cap.

3. Enrique Pieretto Heiland – Argentinian cap.

4. Adam Nicol – Scotland age group cap.

5. Murphy Walker – Scotland age group cap.

So the club already has ten props on the books, which seems to me to be a wee bit of over-kill. Even with Kebble and Zander Fagerson away on international duty, they still have eight players jostling for four places in any match-day squad, which strikes me as a wee bit of belt and braces over-kill.

If Glasgow do need to bolster their forward resources, I would suggest, that need is in the middle row of the scrum rather than the front.

After all, before they released Bhatti to his current short-term deal with Bath – where, by the way, he has yet to even make it onto the bench – he was one of five loose-heads and four tight-heads on the capital side's books:

1. Pierre Scheoman – South African-born project player

2. Rory Sutherland – Scotland cap.

3. Dan Gamble – Scotland age group cap

4. Lee Roy Atalifo – Fijian cap.

5. Simon Berghan – Scotland cap.

6. W P Nel – Scotland cap.

7. Murray McCallum – Scotland cap.

8. Sam Grahamslaw – Scotland age group cap.

being the others.

He wasn't getting enough game time at Murrayfield. Will the situation be any better for him at the other end of the M8?

It is a drawback of the SRU's management model that we only have two full-time professional sides and these have to operate with lower budgets than comparable sides.

With so-few openings each season, and the current lock-down's on-going effect on Super6 – which ought, if operated properly, to be the bridging tier between age group rugby and the professional game, those people at the SRU who make the decisions as to who gets a contract and who doesn't, MUST make the right choices when it comes to recruitment.

The evidence is, over the past decade, they have made a few wrong ones, and the system, once they are picked-out as perhaps having the right stuff, has been flawed for years.

The current shut down has given us a rare chance to rip things up and start again. Sadly, that chance does not appear to have been taken and I can see the lengthy list of players who didn't “train-on” from youthful promise to actually making the grade growing even longer.

When it comes to player development, the SRU's system is, like so-much of the SRU – not fit for purpose. I do not see this position changing any time soon.

This Would Not Have Been My Squad - But, It Will Do - I Hope

A WEE quickening of the pulse this lunch-time, as Gregor Townsend took the wraps off his Six Nations squad. The players named were:

FORWARDS (20)

Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks) - Uncapped
Simon Berghan (Edinburgh) – 28 caps
David Cherry (Edinburgh) – Uncapped
Alex Craig (Gloucester) - Uncapped
Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps
Allan Dell – London Irish – 32 caps
Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 34 caps
Gary Graham (Newcastle Falcons) – 2 caps
Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) – 42 caps
Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) – 61 caps
Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 65 caps
Oli Kebble (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
Willem Nel (Edinburgh) – 40 caps
Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) – 23 caps
Grant Stewart (Glasgow Warriors) – 3 caps
Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) – 11 caps
Blade Thomson (Scarlets) – 9 caps
George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 12 caps
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh) – 36 caps

 

 

Stuart Hogg - again captains the side

BACKS (15)

Darcy Graham (Edinburgh) – 15 caps
Chris Harris (Gloucester) – 23 caps
Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs) CAPTAIN – 80 caps
Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) – 26 caps
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) – 25 caps
James Lang (Harlequins) – 5 caps
Sean Maitland (Saracens) – 50 caps
Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks) – 10 caps
Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 37 caps
Cameron Redpath – (Bath Rugby) - Uncapped
Finn Russell (Racing 92) – 51 caps
Scott Steele (Harlequins) – 1 cap
Duncan Taylor (Saracens) – 28 caps
Jaco van der Walt (Edinburgh) – 1 cap
Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh) – 5 caps

It's not the squad I would have picked, regardless of the constrains Toony is operating under – being without his two front-line hookers, for instance. At the risk of having Scott's parents nip up the road and take me to task on this, I would have chosen Sam Hidalgo-Clyne ahead of Scott Steele, and Sam Skinner ahead of Grant Gilchrist.

I realise the centre selections must have been a close call. I applaud Cameron Redpath's change of mind, having previously got into an England squad. But Toony might also have given Rory Hutchinson a call – although, I feel his form has dipped a wee bit from when he was first capped. I also welcome the recall of Gary Graham and Richie Gray.

Traditionally, we go into the 6N with great expectations, which rarely bear fruit. Let's hope, this year, in what will be a very-different tournament from normal, we can see these expectations realised. It's maybe not the squad I would have chosen, but, it's a pretty good one for all that.