France v Scotland Off - We Can Talk More About England

THE POSTPONEMENT of Sunday's France v Scotland match in the Guinness Six Nations was hardly an “I never saw that one coming” moment. The game's chances of being played reduced with every positive test within the French camp. So, we will just have to suck it up and wait to see when it is played.

Well, it saves the BBC a problem. The 30 seconds they were going to give the match on Saturday can now be better spent talking-up England, and, unless Wales shock and amaze us by winning in Cardiff on Saturday – that's even more time they can allow Inverdale & Co (aka The Three Stooges) to reflect on how great Eddie Jones and his squad are in the overall highlights programme.

 

 

MAYBE we are getting through to them, and finally, The Junta has realised they cannot continue to piss all over us with trumpeting announcements of yet another non-Scot being signed for either of the two PRO14 sides. But the announcement of Glasgow Warriors' acquisition of Kiwi Cole Forbes was almost sneaked out, with less clamour as greeted the signing of Rufus McLean and Ollie Smith.

I still don't get why, with two such highly-regarded young Scots as McLean and Smith being signed, they also need to bring in Forbes and Josh McKay.

Since we are not going to see the ideal vehicle for player improvement – a third full-time side, with a heavy development focus, we really have to, when – hopefully in the second half of the year- we see Super 6 back in action, get cross-border games organised to ensure our young players get the best sort of competition.

Have clear upward and downward progression between the two full-time and the six part-time clubs. The Ayrshire Bulls, Southern Knights and Stirling County to Warriors. Have the three Edinburgh clubs – Boroughmuir, Heriot's and Watsonians tied to the city team, and have A teams playing against English, Irish and Welsh professional sides' A teams.

But, whatever they do – get the fringe players actually playing, rather than holding tackle bags and pumping iron in training. As the great Sir Bobby Robson wrote, indeed entitled his first autobiography: “Nothing beats Time On The Grass.”

That statement is as true for oval ball football as it was for the round ball game.

I AM a firm believer in Independence for Scotland, but, I am nae frien o' yon Nicola Sturgeon. Here endeth the political disclaimer.

Wee Nippy (as I prefer to call her) and her gang are emerging as a major stumbling block to the SRU's hopes of a return to something like pre-pandemic normality. I can appreciate she and her advisers are erring on the side of caution when it comes to easing the Covid restrictions, but, with the vaccination programme going well, I hope we can look ahead to an easier time.

As things stand, plans are moving ahead for a British and Irish Lions Tour this summer. It now looks as if actually going to South Africa will be a no-no, so plans are being drawn up for the South Africans to come here and hold the tour in the UK.

The Guardian ran a story that the Lions had block booked a couple of hotels in Jersey, for a pre-tour camp, while there are suggestions of four Tests – at the four international grounds, or, if Murrayfield does host the proposed warm-up game against Japan, Wembley replacing BTM for one of the games.

The attitude of the Irish Government to a possible game in Dublin isn't known, but, if the Tour can go ahead, because Baw Jaws and his boys have lifted the restrictions elsewhere in the UK, and Scotland misses out, because Wee Nippy says: “Naw,” then that will be really bad news for Scottish Rugby.

FINALLY, I had a contribution to the Scottish Rugby Supporters Open Forum deleted this week. No complaints from me, I had inadvertently breached their “no politics” rule, when I suggested the SRU should have engaged Lord Advocate James Wolfe to represent Zander Fagerson at his disciplinary appeal.

In trying to have some pretty damning evidence of jiggery-pokery by Wee Nippy taken out of the equation with Holyrood's complaints committee, the bold James was living-up to the reputation of his distant cousin Winston Wolfe as a cleaner-up of other people's shit. Surely he could have got Zander off?

Any way, the administrator on the group, one Alex Cavers, deleted my comment. I reckon I could maybe get him a gig on the Murrayfield Junta. He certainly appears well-qualified.

I don't know Mr Cavers, can anyone please advise me of his club, since I would like to put his name before my friends on the Murrayfield Junta – I reckon they could use someone as far up his own erse as Mr Cavers appears to be.

"You Scots Are A contentious Race" - Principal Seymour Skinner.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the Scotland squad for the Guinness Six Nations clash with France – assuming that match ever takes place, certainly got a few people talking.

In typically Scottish fashion, much of this chat has been negative. The famously single-minded Gregor Townsend has come under some verbal – and written on social media – fire, not so-much for his selection, but, for some of the players he hasn't picked.

Facebook and chat room sites were full of posts from irate Scotland fans, many asking: “What has Rory Hutchinson done to upset Toony?” The Northampton Saints' centre's absence from the squad has certainly got the fans talking, and not always positively.

So-much of sport is opinion. For me, Jim Baxter is the greatest player who ever wore the number six shirt. If you're an Aberdeen fan, you may well disagree, and offer Willie Miller as an alternative. If you're English, you will almost certainly put forward the name of Bobby Moore in the same argument (although, he was never as good as Duncan Edwards).

So, we all have opinions, but, when it comes to who should be in the national squad – our opinions don't matter, it is all down to what Tonny thinks.

Such theoretical selection debates are something new to Scottish rugby. For most of our history, we have suffered from – rather than a surfeit of international-class players – a shortage. We have a lot of guys, who would get nowhere near the squad these days, but in past years picked up a barrow-load of caps, because we had no alternatives.

In the current crop of Scotland players, I believe we have six players who are automatic choices:

1. Stuart Hogg

2. Duhan van der Merwe

3. Finn Russell

4. Zander Fagerson

5. Jonny Gray

6. Hamish Watson

So, that's nine places up for debate, and we all have our personal opinions as to who should fill those places. However, only Toony is paid to fill those places, so, perhaps we ought to have faith in his selections.

What I would like to see, however, is a return to us having a back-up squad, like a Scotland A team. That way we would have a means of keeping those international-class players not in the automatic-choice, or Coach's-choice category involved.

Having an A team playing regularly would also enable the back-up players to the automatic choices to put forward their cases for selection in the match-day 23 of the big team.

I would also like to see us having something like an A team, or an Under-23 team, making regular summer tours to Tier Two nations. Or, why doesn't the SRU initiate an end-of-season tournament, similar to the old Churchill Cup tournament, involving a mix of Tier One nations' shadow squads and Tier Two nations?

We have never been good at keeping our back-up players involved and playing, whether for national sides, or for the two PRO14 teams – we really need to work on this aspect of player development, I feel.

I NOTICED this week, The Guardian's Robert Kitson flying his kite on the subject of an overhaul of the Laws of the Game. His thoughts can be read at:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/feb/23/rugby-union-red-cards-premiership-law-book-refresh

The problem with the current state of the game, to me at any case, is that we have a two-prong problem:

1. Some of today's Laws are not fit for purpose.

2. The way the game is refereed exacerbates rather than cures some of the problems.

Listen to any radio or television coverage of a top flight club or international match today, and the background noise is of a referee cautioning players:

• “Stay 8 or 12,” or whatever, whenever a kick goes up – and you can be sure at least one player is advancing from an offside position.

• “Use it nine,” is the normal instruction to a scrum-half, at every ruck.

• “Hands away,” again heard at every ruck.

• “Out of there,” the general call at every maul.

Don't warn them – penalise them. OK, at first we would have a lot of stop-start games and penalties galore. However, I wager, it would not take too-long for the coaches to realise, if they didn't get their players playing to the Laws, it would prove costly.

I would also like to see, as happens in games such as basketball – team breaches of the laws counted up, and, after a certain number of fouls against a side – every subsequent foul gives the opposition a penalty kick at goal. That would soon, I warrant, improve player discipline.

Then there are the calls which are not made:

• When the scrum-half feeds the ball virtually to his second row's feet.

• When a hooker throws into a line-out from inside the pitch.

• When a kicker uses the penalty mark as the starting point of his run-up, rather than as the mark through which the penalty should be kicked.

• Add your own pet bugbear as you see fit.

In an extreme contact sport such as Rugby Union, safety has to be paramount, and, if you give the players an inch to stretch one law, they will take a mile to stretch any law they can possibly get round.

I have long maintained, modern rugby is too-complex a game to be controlled by one man – with the limited input referees enjoy from their assistants.

American Football, which only has 22 players on the field, has seven officials in action during games. On that basis, rugby, with its 30 players, could certainly use more officials, I feel.

I would also like to see technology used – let's have drones, or those “spider-cams” I think they are called, giving officials a bird's-eye view of the scrums and catching-out those props who cannot or will not push straight.

Additional officials would also catch out those frequent examples of defenders being offside as they stretch their line across the park.

World Rugby needs to do something – carrying on as we are is not an option.

Ignore England - Let's Look At Ireland

CECIL RHODES, long before he became a target for the ire of those of a left-wing bent and born a century or so after old Cecil cashed-in his chips, famously said: “To be born English is to hold a winning ticket in the lottery of life.”

We Scots didn't get that, but, we did get the English as the noisy, annoying neighbours. Was this a good thing: maybes aye, maybes naw, as one of our own great philosopher poets remarked.

One thing we Scots have learned, living next door to Rhodes' Master Race, is perhaps best encapsulated in the wise words of Sir Richard Starkey, of Dingle, Liverpool, who wrote: “You know it don't come easy.”

Old Ringo got that right, particularly when it comes to Scottish Rugby. To we devotees of the handling game, north of the Tweed and Solway, to quote one of my sainted mother's favourite auld Scots truths: “it is aye either the mint or the midden wi' you.” Basically, there is no happy medium - we veer between being on top of the world, or struggling to cope.

Right now, we appear to be slithering around in the midden. On the back of the Zander Fagerson red card and our failure to convert pressure into points, we lost to a fairly-average Welsh side, wiping out the feel-good factor from winning at Twickenham.

We needed a boost on Friday night at Scotstoun, but, Glasgow Warriors huffed and puffed, before losing at home to Ulster.

I had a look at the squads in that night's game. Both sides were depleted by the fact, the fixture came in the middle of the Six Nations campaign, so, both were minus some big names.

Glasgow, however, were still able to field 12 full internationalists – 9 Scotland caps and 3 overseas ones. Ulster could only field 8 full internationalists – 7 Irish, plus one-cap All Black Alby Mathewson.

Ulster, however, might have had an advantage from the fact, 12 of their 23-man squad were locals and had come through the prolific Ulster Academy. Only 8 of the Glasgow squad were “locals” inasmuch as they had been introduced to rugby at a club within the Glasgow catchment area.

It was deja vu again at Murrayfield on Saturday night, when Munster came, saw and conquered Edinburgh. As the previous night, both sides were forced to field depleted squads. Breaking down the squads in the same way as for the previous night's game at Scotstoun, we find: Edinburgh fielded 12 internationalists – 9 Scotland, 3 Fiji, while the Munster split was 12 Irish caps and 1 South African. When it came to a local tinge to the teams, Edinburgh had 9 locals in their 23-man squad, Munster had 15.

Overall, there is little difference between the two Scottish and the two Irish squads over the two games. The two Scottish teams were able to field internationalists in 52% of their combined squad – the two Irish sides only had 46% capped overall.

However, when it came to giving locals a chance, the Scottish teams had 50% local players, agains the two Irish sides' 59% locals.

I am not suggesting, following the Irish pattern, of having four strong provinces, given a lot of freedom by the Irish Rugby Union, would make a difference, that is not proven, but, I have a feeling it might.

The IRFU perhaps realising long ago, the natives never liked London rule, and are just as unhappy taking all their orders from Dublin, allow a degree of autonomy to their four provinces which would never be allowed by The Murrayfield Junta.

“We ken best,” is the unchanging message from EH12, in spite of a growing chorus of “Dae ye fuck,” from their ever-increasing band of critics.

• Everyone furth of Murrayfield knows the SRU Academies are not working as well as we would want them to.

• Everyone furth of BTM knows a clear-out of the Performance Department might be a good idea.

• Everyone furth of BTM knows, when it comes to player development, there is a lack of joined-up thinking.

• Nearly everyone furth of Murrayfield wonders what Performance Director Jim Mallinder does for his comfortable salary.

• Since joining the SRU, he has become an invisible as his predecessor – The Lesser Spotted Johnson.

• Maybe not everyone, but, an increasing body of the Scottish Rugby Family are beginning to question is buying-in cheap foreign imports is the way forward.

OK, these are not normal times – we've got no rugby going on beneath the full-time, professional level, but, even with furloughs etc, surely a wee bit of thought should be going into where we are and where we are going.

I don't see us having either of our teams in the Heineken Cup next season, so, we might as well write-off what remains of this one and use it to give our young players more experience, ready for a right good, two-pronged attack, on the Challenge Cup next season.

THE TWO big rugby talking points over the weekend were the growing number of positive Covid-19 tests among the French squad – offering the tantalising glimpse of maybe, Scotland being awarded a 28-0 win, if the weekend's game cannot be played. (Naw, it will never happen for Scotland); and, the five red cards flashed during Gallagher Premiership games in England – three of them in one game.

I fear we are gong to see more reds shown this season, because as yet, I fear the: “get low in the tackle” message might take a little while to filter down through the various level of coaches to the players.

Nobody likes to see reds given, however, it is a safety issue, so we will have to put up with it until the message gets through – which could take some time.

Don't Do As We Do - Do As We Tell You

I AM sampling my inner Jimmy Cricket today. Jimmy, for the benefit of my younger readers, was a not particularly funny Irish comedian of the 1970s, known for his catch phrase: “And there's more.” Well, when it comes to mis-spending our money by the SRU – there's definitely more.

Further to yesterday's release of steam, on the subject of The Junta's hiring policy for the two PRO14 teams, I had one or two calls from concerned club men – whose clubs are suffering from the blanket SRU ban on recruitment – well blanket everywhere but at Legoland and Scotstoun.

Apparently, this recruitment ban extends to bringing onboard Development Officers; I heard from one club chief whose club has an opening for just such a person – able to take the rugby message out to schools and hopefully increase the number of youngsters playing the game in the club's catchment area.

This club knows the man they want, they are keen to get him in place, he is keen to join them, BUT, while the SRU are minority stakeholders when it comes to funding the position – because of their recruitment freeze, he cannot be appointed, until the freeze melts.

Ok, at the moment, with the schools still shut and the club game in lockdown, it doesn't seem such a hardship to not have the new DO in place. But, what happens when we get the go-ahead to start playing again?

Perhaps, by then, the keen recruit has gone elsewhere? Even is he is still keen to take the job, how long will it take for him or her to be put in place and be ready to go?

I understand too, the bloated SRU pay roll has been somewhat reduced, rumour has it at least 20 staff members have moved on since Covid hit and the lay-offs and furloughs began.

Can we be sure those who have gone can have their jobs covered by those who remain, or, might we find, we are missing one or two key people when the return to normality begins?

It reminds me of the Ayrshire Junior football team who got some much-needed finance, on the grounds they needed urgent plumbing work done on their clubhouse – only for the guy who had funded the work to discover, via the next week's edition of the local paper, the club had recruited, at some cost, a Junior Scotland international defender.

“I trust he's a good plumber,” was how the fairy godfather raised the recruitment with the club secretary. By the same token, I ask if any of the latest crop of mercenaries to come on board are multi-skilled?

PROJECT EDEN – the building of what I have dubbed: Legoland” - the new home for Edinburgh, was completed, to a huge fanfare from BT Murrayfield last week – except, all is not what it seems.

Because, buried in the small print of the redacted minutes of last month's meeting of the full SRU Board, was this little beauty, from section 7.3, Chief Operating Officer Dominic McKay's report. In paragraph I of the report, the bold Dom wrote:

“It was noted that as the costs of playing a behind closed doors game in the new stadium were not very different to playing behind closed doors in the main stadium BTM, and bearing in mind the risk associated with expanding the bubble environment to include an additional facility, thought would be given to whether the new stadium was used for competitive matches meantime.”

Fair enough, safety first and all that, but, so-much for the big announcement, if it doesn't happen for some time.

I also noted, further down the minutes, Vice President Colin Rigby has, as one prominent club official of my acquaintance noted: “Been clamped.” The window has been slammed shut on the breath of fresh air which the bold Colin blew through the corridors of power, with his publication of Council minutes. He has been telt in effect: “nae mair of this telling the clubs what is going-on, that's on a need to know basis, and the clubs and stakeholders don't need to know.”

What happens next will be agreed: “pending a discussion involving the Chairman, CEO, President, Vice-President, COO and Company Secretary on how best to approach the provision of information to Council about Board meetings and any onward reporting of that.”

So, basically whether or not we are telt anything depends on how Ian Barr and Colin Rigby get on in meetings with TCD, Dom and The Consigliore. Good luck there lads, the defenders at the Alamo and Rorke's Drift faced better odds.

 

 

 

FINALLY, I hear whispers of a possible split between the Performance and Club games. This is somethng I have been advocating for a wee while now; I like to point to the differences in how competitive and recreational ice hockey is played – with rule adaptions.

Given the physicality of the performance game – from S6 upwards – I think some tinkering with the Laws, mainly on safety grounds, would be no bad thing. I could also live with the club game being run by a rugby equivalent of the Scottish Junior or Amateur Football Associations.

And last, but not least; I hear a turf war is about to break out inside BT Murrayfield. The Junta appears to think, the Board owns Murrayfield, the Clubs appear to think they own it.

I know which side I am on here - “Come on you Clubs.”

Well Done SRU - Continuing The Piss-Take

I AM thinking of changing my pen name from Aristotle Armstrong to John the Baptist – since I increasingly feel, I am a voice crying in the wilderness of Scottish Rugby. I also think the bampots along the sixth-floor corridor at Hampden Park should also raise the white flag – when it comes to being the silliest sports administrators in Scotland, they have to give best to the SRU Junta.

What has brought on this latest rant, you ask? Quite simply the overnight news of New Zealand full-back Josh McKay (pictured above) signing for Glasgow Warriors.

The best comment I can come up with on this one, I steal shamelessly from a Welsh legend.

Rugby is not soccer, but, signings such as McKay – and I have nothing personal against the boy, demonstrates to me, Warriors' management – with the approval of their masters in the EH12 Junta – appear to think they are running a third arm of the Old Firm.

Salaries in the top rugby union leagues vary greatly, depending on which team, in which league, and which position on that team the player plays. Given he is joining from Super Rugby, and is probably being seen as a five-year “Project” player; Going from what information we have on salaries etc., McKay is at least a £1 million investment by the SRU.

There has been a lot of “talking-up” of McKay's abilities since the announcement. However, the Highlanders let him go – the Crusaders only picked him up as injury cover, and he is playing in the Mitre 10 this weekend. Realistically, he's nowhere near the top ten full-backs in New Zealand.

So, the SRU are investing £1 million in a second or third-rate New Zealander. Is that the best use of our (the ordinary clubs') resources?

I will continue to insist, since there is no relegation in the PRO14, we should be giving young Scottish players their opportunity to sink or swim. I accept, the fans want to see a winning team, but, I also think they would prefer to see a really Scottish team, with players that they could identify with – perhaps from that player coming through their own club, rather than second or third-rate imports.

OK, the shut-down of Super 6 has hampered playing opportunities for the ono-automatic choices for Edinburgh and Warriors, but, I still believe, Super 6, or better still Super 8, with properly-regulated flow upwards between there and the two PRO14 teams, and downwards to the Premiership, would better prepare our young players for full-time rugby.

Go with Scottish-qualified players. With the residency qualification now being five years, going with players like McKay will cause a blockage and do nothing for Scottish rugby.

As I have said before – and I will go on saying it: The SRU's player recruitment policy is a piss-take on the club game. In fact, if they are going to go on like this – why doesn't the Junta go the whole hog and adopt this as the SRU flag: