NEW YEAR – new hopes and expectations. It may well be a case of: “an' forrit tho' Ah canna see – Ah guess and fear,” but, surely, 2021 will not be as dire as 2020 was.
Gazing into my admittedly cloudy crystal ball, I see a long, slow, climb out of the abyss of misery we are currently in. We may well see actual match action, at BT Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon – a 3pm kick-off no less for Edinburgh v Glasgow. This will see our two full-time professional sides in action in the PRO14 and the Heineken Cup over the remainder of January, prior to the Guinness Six Nations getting underway with the Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham on 6 February.
However, the way things are going, we are unlikely to see crowds in attendance until later in the Spring, if at all this season. With the club game abandoned until Autumn 2021, the nearest we might get to local rugby is, IF, Super6 can get going in March. Ah hae ma doots aboot that too.
I also harbour serious doubts around the Lions Tour going ahead.
In some ways, the ongoing hiatus isn't a bad thing for rugby – provided we use the time productively and set about righting a few of the wrongs, while we are not distracted by having to actually play the game.
With little or no action to record, I have found myself reflecting on how we might make our game better – certainly, I have deduced:
Making young Scottish talent Second-Class citizens, behind imports from South Africa is not the answer to our continued lowly slot in the northern hemisphere rankings
We have not yet – 20 seasons into the Celtic League - got squad rotation right in respect of our professional sides
Super6 can be our game-changer in respect of young player and young coach development – if we give it a chance
At club level, we have too-many “National Leagues” and “National League teams”
We need to close the gap between the private and state schools, and use the schools to get more kids playing the game
The SRU needs to get its finances sorted-out. I can accept their need to spend on the professional and performance end of the game – that's where they make the money which drives everything, but, they need to become a leaner, fitter machine
And they definitely need to adequately ring-fence funding to underwrite the club game and keep it fertile. If the roots are withering, the crop at the top is useless
Some of the mini-empires within BTM need to be cut down to size, and the Governance Review Group needs to report ASAP, to give the body of the kirk time to fully consider and reflect on their report
The clubs need to perhaps look at themselves. Ask, how are we going to re-energise our membership once the current restrictions are lifted?
How do we address player drop-out in late teens, and get more people involved?
The current pandemic has been a massive blow to every aspect of Scottish life. I fear: we will lose one or two clubs; those clubs which do survive, some will probably lose a team or two; some regular spectators will be difficult to entice back, at least in the short term. Getting back to the old normal, will be a protracted process.
The next two or three years are going to be challenging in the extreme for Scottish Rugby. In the immediate short term, as we move into 2021, I intend going into greater detail as two what I feel we should be doing to address the issues I have highlighted.
REGULAR followers of this blog, particularly those who know my real identity, will be aware, I have for some years been the Scottish Media's go-to man for sporting obituaries. I felt very honoured to be handed that particular torch by the great Bob Crampsey, when his deteriorating health forced him to stop penning obituaries. I trust I did Bob proud.
But, the Scottish Media has changed. The Herald no longer uses freelance obituarists, while The Scotsman now has a protocol of: “We will consider commissioning an obituary, if we don't get one off the wires.”
Additionally, I am now into my seventies, so have no time for “office politics.” Thus, I have told both papers, I will no longer be doing obituaries for them. If they cannot support Scottish-based journalists, this Scottish-based journalist cannot support them.
I will, however, continue to produce obituaries of weel-kent Scottish Rugby faces for the blog First up:
Richard 'Dick' Allan
Dick Allan feeding his back division
DICK Allan, who passed away, aged 81, in early December, holds a unique place in Scottish Rugby history, as the only Hutchie boy to play a full international for Scotland, while playing for Hutcheson's Grammar School FP.
Allan and Gordon Bulloch were definitely Hutchie boys – indeed their father Jimmy was a team-mate of Dick Allan's, but, they were not capped out of the school's FP team.
Dick was a regular in the Glasgow District XV throughout the 1960s, but, such was the competition for the number nine jersey in the national side, he only got one crack at it – in the game v Ireland, at Murrayfield, on 22 February, 1969.
If ever a game deserved football commentator David Francey's trademark “Disaster for Scotland” line, it was this one. The 1969 Five Nations had started for Scotland with “The Miracle in Paris,” when, although largely out-played, Scotland somehow hung-on. Ian McCrae of Gordonians had come off the bench to replace Gordon Connell at scrum-half, and Jim Telfer scored the match-winning try.
Euphoria gave way to gloom, as Wales came to Murrayfield and won 17-3. McCrae was dropped for the Irish game and finally, three weeks before his 30th birthday, Dick Allan was given his chance in the key role.
Skipper Jim Telfer had to go off, concussed, after 20 minutes, to be replaced by Peter Stagg – with Alistair McHarg dropping back to number eight and Roger Arneil assuming the captaincy.
Allan, however, received some encouraging praise. In his match report, the Herald's Bill McMurtrie wrote: “Allan seldom received tidy line out possession, while at the scrummages, the Scottish heel often disrupted by the Irish wheel, he was given much worthless ball. In such circumstances, the scrum-half did well to prevent the effect of bad ball from being multiplied by the close attention that Colin Telfer was paid by the destructive Davidson.
“Allan's game had to be brave and selfless, and only once had he the chance to attempt a close quarter break.”
After that chastening loss, first-choice scrum-half Connell was brought back for the Calcutta Cup game and Dick Allan took his place among the many “one-cap wonders” of Scottish Rugby history.
He had a long reign as Glasgow scrum-half in the Inter-District Championship, captaining them to a share of the title in 1964-65. With Glasgow, he formed a very good half-back pairing with Brian Simmers, with the pair honoured, by being chosen in tandem for the Scottish Districts XV which lost 14-35 to Brian Lohore's 1967 All Blacks, at The Greenyards.
Donald McNab
Donald McNab, with another very good Friend of Scotish Rugby
HIS NAME probably means little or nothing to the majority of the Scottish Rugby family, but, Donald McNab, who, aged 87, lost his brave battle with Pancreatic Cancer just days before Christmas 2020, did more for the game up here than many.
Born in Charlton, on the London/Kent borders, he was educated at Fettes College, and soon after leaving, following an ignominious early exit from St Andrew's University, he found himself on active service, as a Second Lieutenant in the Second Battalion, The Black Watch, during the Korean War.
He was wounded in action, catching some shrapnel in his hand, but he survived to begin his lengthy business career. He joined the Royal Marine Volunteer Reserve, with the rank of Captain, in 1956 while establishing his own business intelligence service company – amidst rumours of a connection to the James Bond world of the British Secret Service, and definite connections to the Royal Household.
Donald was a weel-kent figure around Richmond Athletic Ground, but, he felt simply being involved with London Scottish was not enough, so, in 2000, having retired, he founded the Friends of Scottish Rugby and threw his energies into fund-raising in an effort to help the game in Scotland.
Since then FOSR has raised over £600,000 – money which has gone to 34 junior Scottish clubs, and to the running of the London Scottish Academy, but has also contributed to such worthy causes as the Dunblane School Massacre fund, the Solway Harvester Disaster fund, and to Erskine Home.
In 2016, at a gala dinner, held in his honour in London, in the presence of the SRU's patron, HRH The Princess Royal, Donald was elevated to the position of Honorary Life President of FOSR – with no less than five people having to take-on the duties he had covered single-handed up to then.
David Mackay, himself a weel-kent figure in Scottish Rugby, the current President of FOSR said: “Donald was a truly remarkable man. This is the passing of a legend.”
His marriage failed, but he was consoled by a “harem” of charming ladies over the years, while, alongside rugby, he became an accomplished wood-worker, making cromachs and turning out fine wooden sculptures.
Then, in his final difficult days of his cancer battle, daughter Fiona and grandson Greg came back from New Zealand, where Fiona has a thriving equine business, to nurse him.
Scottish Rugby has lost a great servant.
FINALLY, I wish all the blog's followers and readers a happy and prosperous 2021, and at the very least a better year than 2020 was.
Let's hope for a Scotland win in the Six Nations, and our best representation this century in a Lions' squad, which hopefully gets to South Africa.
Dee Bradbury OBE
Can I finish this first blog of the New Year by congratulating Dee Bradbury on her well-deserved OBE and wish her a better 2021 than 2020.n And also former Scotland captain Mike Biggar, who was made MBE for his own fund-raising effort for the NHS.
Mike Biggar during his fund-raising walk
Happy New Year AA
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