For Once, Let's Not Be Scottish, Let's Keep The Heid

 

 FOR ME, it was one of the most-telling clips from a wonderful documentary. There was Allan Wells, having by the thickness of a cigarette paper taken the blue riband track event of the 1980 Olympic Games, jogging round the Moscow stadium on his lap of honour. Between typically Scottish semi-embarrassed waves to the crowd, Wells can be heard reminding himself: “Keep the heid, keep the heid.”

Wells' wise words should be the litany for Scotland this Sunday morning. We must Keep the Heid. Sure, we have just beaten England at Twickenham, for the first time since 1983 – 38 years ago. (Did anyone else note the significance of those two numbers – 8 and 3? - Wilson Shaw's game – 1938; Jim Aitken's team's win – 1983; 38 year gap till Stuart Hogg's team wins.)

I digress. We are all floating on air this morning, we have got the Twickenham monkey off our back – but, this is Scotland, where do we go from here? Can we kick-on from Saturday and, no pressure here, maybe win the whole bloody thing – The Guinness Six Nations?

As I write, I am waiting for this afternoon's clash between Ireland and Wales. We must not think: “We went to London and won, with home advantage, we can beat Ireland and Wales.” That kind of thinking can only get us beaten.

We have to travel to Paris. OK, it was only Italy, but, France were more-impressive winners in Rome than we were in London. Of course, we managed that rarity – Scotland beating England without hitting the heights. A team at the top of its collective game, with the amount of possession we had on Saturday, would be expected to score more than one try, and blow the opposition away.

The fact, even on a collective bad day at the office, England could get away with a losing bonus point, shows they were still, even on an off day, a bloody hard side to beat.

We won, but, let us do what Scotland has a long history of not doing after big wins – Let's Keep the Heid.

FOR VARIOUS reasons, too-many to list here, former Ayr and Scotland B full back John Brown never got even the one Scotland cap his talent deserved. John still takes an active interest in the game, and his beloved Ayr, and his opinions are always worth seeking out when at Millbrae on a Saturday.

For years now, John has been lamenting the disappearance of the Spiral Kick from the game. John was an master of this skill, right up there with John Rutherford, another fantastic exponent of the art of the spiral.

He would regularly rail against its absence from the Murrayfield coaching book – now, however, it is back with a bang. Stuart Hogg launched several beautiful spirals at Twickenham on Saturday. These got me salivating; when you think of the distances the skipper found on a dreich London afternoon in February, what damage might his spirals do up on the high veldt in South African sunshine?

INTERESTING to read some of the reactions to yesterday's win, both in the mainstream and on social media. I did like the headline in the New Zealand Herald's match report. The report itself was a syndicated piece, penned by The Daily Telegraph's Oliver Brown. It was a very fair and measured piece too,

However, the production guys in Auckland clearly had fun, topping the piece with the headline:

Scotland dealt a grievous blow to England's inflated pride

 

Bill Lothian, one of the elder statesmen of Scottish Rugby Writing admitted on social media – he had, during the second half, been wondering how Scotland would choose to blow this one. I must admit, I was, for a time, also thinking this, but, as 20 minutes to go, became ten, then five minutes to go, my confidence rose as I realised we were playing a particularly poor England team – we would not blow this one.

As ever, that picture of the wrecked chariot was brought out, but, in the btl comments on various social media platforms, there was a distinct absence of foaming-at-the-mouth England fans, insisting we had only won because England were so bad.

It's s shame that, through necessity, the rugby club bars are closed at the moment – there would have been some wild booleys, from Shetland to the Solway, had they been open last night.

GUARDIAN headline writers hold a hallowed place in British journalism. When your back catalogue includes such legendary offerings as: 'Queen in Palace brawl,' or you come up with slick one-liners such as: 'Kevin Keegan could not lace George Best's drinks, far less his boots,' then the present-day staff are custodians of a mighty empire.

So, kudos to whoever came up with this cracker: 'Owen Farrell could tip the balance in a Six Nations defined by rival No 10s.'

That wee gem was probably wasted above another Robert Kitson puff-piece around England's armless captain. A different choice of words too, methinks. Wrecking ball GBH assaults, rather than tip tackles, are more the Farrell style. In fact, for me, Farrell should really be wearing number eight – he's my idea of rugby's Scott Brown, minus the skinhead haircut and the homespun Hill of Beath charm.

Kitson, has a serious man crush on Farrell. And, given how badly he reflected against a Finn Russell, operating at something less than “Finn-Plus” on Saturday, Farrell has to find a way of getting up to speed for international rugby, without playing at a high level between games – no easy task.

Finally, before this first weekend of the Six Nations is put to bed, I wonder how many Scots will have made it into those annoying: “If the first Lions Test was next Saturday, this would be the starting team” opinion pieces.