Overall A Disappointing Weekend

FROM A Scottish perspective, this hasn't been a good weekend: Under-20s lost, A game called off because of a Covid outbreak, a somewhat low-key Lions game at Murrayfield, marred for the few fans allowed in by a miscalculation on how much beer would be needed, then disappointment for Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray as Exeter lose – followed by even bigger disappointment for Gray, when he didn't get the Lions' call-up to replace the injured Alun Wyn Jones.

Poor Jonny must feel like Rikki Fulton in the old Agnew's STV advertisements, selling his lucky white heather.

I honestly didn't have high hopes for the Under-20 team. It has been so long since these kids have had a game, I am not surprised that they lost to Ireland (with 14 men) then to England – who also had to play with 14 men. But, this tournament, for the boys, is all about getting back to playing. Looking ahead, however, can we look forward to a new Redpath and Townsend half-back partnership a few years down the line?

The Lions' game was well-hyped, but, it was a warm-up game, featuring a team who had had minimum time together in which to start to gel. There were some encouraging signs, and also signs that some hard work will have to be done once they reach South Africa.

The loss of AWJ was a blow, but, to be honest, I could never see him lasting the pace any way, at his age. I have no complaints about Josh Navidi replacing the injured Justin Tiporic, it's pretty-much a like-for-like change and doesn't weaken the squad. I fail to see the logic in calling-up Adam Beard to replace the injured Tour Captain, however. For me, there are better options, including Jonny Gray out there, but, as ever, Warren Gatland has gone for a player he knows. I still feel, as I have done since the squad was first named, the big loss in the boiler-house is Joe Launchbury, he'd have been my first pick at lock, but, he is out with a bad ACL injury.

I am perhaps most-gutted at the cancellation of the A team game against England, due to have been played at Leicester on Sunday. There are some exciting new names in the Scotland squad and it would have been good to see them in action. The cancellation has a knock-on effect when it comes to Mike Blair's options for the two matches, against Georgia and Romania.

I do feel, restoring the Six Nations A team games would be a good move for the game. Now the URC has done away with club games on international weekends, there is an opening for this, let's hope the Six Nations can grasp the opportunity.

As I said above, the Lions' game at Murrayfield was in reality a glorified pre-season friendly, albeit a very-costly one for the Lions. The Gallagher Premiership Final at Twickenham, on the other hand was a genuine, old-fashioned, no-holds-barred cup tie; and wonderful entertainment into the bargain.

The English game is slowly evolving away from the arm-wrestle which has, for so-long, epitomised English rugby. This was still intensely-physical at the breakdown, but, we now have coaches and players in England who are prepared to try things and set-out to entertain.

If the RFU high heid yins ever catch-up with what is going on in clubs like 'Quins and Chiefs, England will become a bloody hard team to play against.

I have been a Chiefs' fan since I watched them beat Warriors, at Ayr, a decade ago. Plus, with Hoggy and Jonny Gray in their team, I so wanted them to win. But, Harlequins lived up to their old club's reputation for playing running rugby and with young Master Smith at ten running the game, they thoroughly deserved to win. That kid is the English Finn Russell – let's be thankful, Eddie Jones is unlikely to pick him any time soon for the Six Nations team.

Also, I have never been a big Joe Marler fan, but, I will say this: since he started to listen to Adam Jones and apply himself, he has become a much-better prop. He truly deserved his Man of the Match award. It's good to see one of the “piano shifters” recognised in a big game for once.

We Scots like to think of ourselves as the Brazilians of European sport: “You score three and we will score four” and all that. Harlequins, I feel, have nicked our story. Who'd have thought it, a bunch of “posh city boys,” winning the battle.

RANGI JERICIVICH, GHA's Director of Rugby and a trenchant supporter of the club game penned a guest column in The Offside Line in which he championed his club's support for a return to the old system, from the amateur era, of a return to a mainly club-based game, with a revamped Inter-District Championship replacing the FOSROC Super6 competition.

GHA is sponsoring a motion to this effect, to be debated at the SRU AGM. Now, much as I admire and respect Rangi, I think in this case, he is wrong and backing a loser.

Super6 is not perfect, but, as I have said since it was first mooted, any faults are down to the SRU making a mess of how they have set it up and run it. There is nothing wrong with S6 which cannot be cured by a bit of tinkering.

Since Rangi's piece deserves a more-in-depth analysis, I will return to it in a few days' time.

Still on the subject of S6, Ayrshire Bulls are clearly intent on winning this season's competition. I am very impressed by some of their new recuits and looking forward to the new season, since I expect some of the other clubs will also be making some exciting new signings.

Bad News For Its Naysayers, But, Super6 Is Back

 

DELIGHTED to see the new season's FOSROC Super6 fixtures released. I am a firm believer in this competition, which of course, will have the usual suspects from the club game frothing at the mouth at its revival.

S6 is here to stay folks – just look at SRU Performance Director Jim Mallinder's stout defence of the concept in his interview with the ever-excellent The Offside Line. It is already paying dividends, as witness the impact of the likes of Ross Thompson, Ollie Davidson and Rufus McLean at Warriors and Jack Blain, Jamie Hodgson and Cameron Hutchison at Edinburgh.

However, the guys who do know how S6 works are all telling me, the real improvement in standards will come once they get to lock horns with the top Welsh clubs in the cross-border fixtures at the end of the coming season. Meanwhile, bring it on.

THE WAY the media works in getting your news to you is often incomprehensible, even to some people inside our strange little world. In some ways, we get there in spite of a series of internal battles: the elite guys – the sports writers, hate the news hacks, who reciprocate in kind. Everyone hates the big-name columnists, many of whom have kissed arse to get where they are. The writers and the sub-editors are permanently at odds; while the photographers, whose work can often lift a mundane story out of the ordinary, are looked down on as an inferior species. But, by and large it works.

Few and far between are the guys who can both write and sub. Believ e me, having worked with some exceptional subs, some of whom could barely do joined-up writing, a good sub can make a bad story good.

But, just occasionally, we writers get a kick out of seeing a sub-editor who is out of his or her depth, being found-out. There was such a case this week, with a rugby twist, as the picture below shows.

However, I am given to believe, the cracker which turned “hooker” into “prostitute” was actually the fault of an algorithm in the paper's system. Whatever, it is still a genuine laugh out loud moment when you read the heading. Enjoy:

 

AFTER Allan Wells won his Olympic gold medal in Moscow, back in 1980, there was a lot of damning with faint praise – about the American boycott and so-forth. It was pointed-out at the time, someone opening the Book of Olympic Games gold medal winners in 2080 would not encounter a wee asterisk above Allan's name, leading to a foot note: “no Americans took part.”

It will be the same, in 2121, when some rugby historian comes across an entry saying Benetton Rugby won the Rainbow Cup in 2021, beating The Blue Bulls (or whatever commercial concerns is calling them this season). No, it will merely say, Benetton 35 Bulls 8, end of.

Saffers can argue all they like about this being a Bulls B team – their A team was apparently on Currie Cup duty – but, Benetton could only play what they faced, and they won well.

I am delighted for them, this result will be a great boost for Italian rugby's sense of self-worth and, it is a handy warning to the two Scottish teams looking ahead to the URC competition next season.

I WAS delighted to see five Scots named in the Team GB Olympic Games Sevens squads. In particular I was chuffed to bits to see the name of Scotland Sevens Captain Robbie Fergusson (pictured) on the list.

 

Robbie was playing stand-off for Ayr while still at Wellington School,

and it has always seemed to me, his talents have been a bit under-appreciated; add his successful fight against Cancer and he has certainly worked very hard to get where he is.

I hope he and Team GB has a good tournament in Tokyo, although it will be hard to match the silver medal won by their 2016 incarnation, who of course included Robbie's old centre three-quarter partner Mark Bennett.

FORM and track record might indicate that Exeter Chiefs will beat Harlequins in the upcoming Gallagher Premiership Grand Final. However, 'Quins are on a definite roll and their “Brazilian ethos” - you score three, we'll score four, might make for a very-entertaining final.

Already the RFU are probably working on how they can avoid this and a subsequent outbreak of entertaining rugby in England – that will never do.

Goodbye PRO14 - A New Name And New Challenges Beckon

 

FAREWELL then PRO14, hello United Rugby Championship, as the South African invasion begins in earnest. Today's announcement of the new format for our top level of the professional club game certainly gives us food for thought.

Basically, instead of the two, seven club pools which we have had over the past two or three seasons, we now see an additional two South African teams added, giving us 18 clubs, who will initially play in four pools:

• Irish Pool – Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster

• Scottish/Italian Pool – Benetton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Zebre

• South African Pool – Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers

• Welsh Pool – Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys, Scarlets

In the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in its pool home and away, and play each of the other teams once. At the end of the regular season, this will produce one league table, ranked one to sixteenth.

The top eight teams in the table will then play down to the Grand Final, the result of which will produce the annual Champion team.

The top team in each pool will qualify for the following season's Heineken Cup, except, in this first season, the four South African teams will be unable to qualify. However, in season 2022-23 and subsequently, the South African sides will be able to qualify for the two European Cup competitions. In season one, the top eight non South African clubs will qualify for the Heineken Cup, with the other European-based sides qualifying for the Challenge Cup.

One other change will end the situation whereby league games clash with international weekends, these weekends will now be kept free from club games.

The arrival of the “big guns” South African sides from the former Rugby Championship in the southern hemisphere will certainly challenge the two Scottish clubs to a greater degree. But, against this, the end of playing league games on international weekends certainly helps us, with our smaller player pool.

The Saffer invasion will make things harder for us, but, if our two teams rise to that challenge, it will surely benefit Scottish Rugby in the long run.

Just a thought, with this closer integration with the South Africans, how long before South Africa enter the Six Nations?

WHEN the Scotland squad for the Summer Tests was announced, there was wide-spread disbelief at the absence of Rory Hutchison of Northampton. Regular viewers of BT Sport's coverage of the Gallagher Premiership had grown used to seeing young rory pulling-off some wonderful stuff on a weekly basis, and questioned his absence from the squad.

Now, however, he has been brought into the party and will hopefully get a chance to strut his stuff in navy blue over the next month.

But, if the call-up was good news for Rory, there was disappointment for Matt Fagerson, who will miss the summer frolics as he recovers from surgery on the arm he broke in Glasgow's final game of the season, against Leinster. This will side line the younger Fagerson for three months.

Celebrate - We Might Get A regular Season Soon

THE NEWS, released last week – we can expect the new club rugby season to kick-off in September – was hugely welcome. We really needed, after such a long lay-off, to see signs of a return to normality.

We should not, however, take this as a sing that things will get back to normal then. It all depends on the continuing fight against Covid, and, with this present SNP-led Scottish Government, they are proving to be a bunch of control freaks who will shut things down at a minute's notice, so, let's keep our fingers crossed.

The next big date to watch for will be next Monday, 21 June, when the fixtures for the new season will be released. I am really looking forward to seeing these, as a sign that we really are getting back to normal.

I AM indebted to The Guardian's 'Breakdown' column for publishing the Gallagher Premiership Team of the Season. Two Scots feature, not unexpectedly Stuart Hogg is named at full-back, while named at seven and handed the captaincy is London Irish's Blair Cowan (pictured).

 

The now 35-year-old “Kilted Kiwi” has had a sterling season for The Exiles, leading from the front throughout. His Scotland days are firmly behind him, but, it is good to know that, should we ever need to call him up in an emergency, he can still cut it at the highest club level.

Interestingly, those much-hyped (vastly over-rated in my book)
England props, Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler didn't make the cut, the numbers one and three shirts going to two of the older masters of the dark arts – Joe Marler and John Afoa, showing yet again, props are like fine wine, they take a wee while to mature.

Afoa certainly handed Genge a huge lesson in that final scrum in the Leicester v Bristol game the other weekend.

LEGEND has it that, after returning home from his outstanding form for the 1955 British Lions in South Africa, Jimmy Greenwood didn't turn out for his club, Dunfermline, until December. That game was his only club outing of the 1955-56 season.

He is rumoured to have only played eight games that season: that one club game, one game for the North and Midlands, the two Scotland trials and the four internationals in early 1956.

After the 1971 Lions Tour, which for him ended with a serious knee injury in the fourth Test, Gordon Brown did not reappear on the field until the final Saturday in November, and it was a similar story after the 1974 Lions Tour, which also saw him injured, with a broken hand.

Today, with rugby being professional at the top end, the leading players are almost rushed back into action following summer tours. OK, for countries such as Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where the Unions tend to have a degree of control over their top players, return to play protocols allow the top men to have a bit more rest, but, in England and France, where the clubs rule the roost – player burn-out is a genuine concern.

When you consider the inflated wages these clubs are paying the top players, it cannot be a surprise when they are encouraged to get back playing sooner rather than later, after international duty. It is also no surprise that, every year, we seem to see more and more players opting out of the international game for the riches of the club game. It's a short career, and if you can make more money with a top club rather than playing in internationals, why not take that money?

Rugby is now an all-year-round game. Player burn-out should therefore become more of an issue each year. Maybe we should be looking to have our top talent playing fewer games, over a shorter season, to preserve the quality of the play.

Maybe we should be going back to the old pattern of a season lasting from 1 September until 30 April. After all, in several games, it is now accepted player rest is as important as actual playing time.

A maximum 40 week season is surely sufficient time to play the game, and allow the players recovery time before the following season.

SATURDAY'S final regular season Gallagher Premiership clash between Exeter Chiefs and Sale Sharks was a cracker, with 14-man Chiefs coming from behind to snatch victory and home advantage, against the same opponents, in this weekend's semi-final.

I thought Chiefs' Dave Ewers was incredibly lucky to avoid a red card, while oor ain Sam Skinner unlucky to cop one. The cynic in me feels it was a case of referee Karl Dixon bending over backwards to NOT red card an England squad member, then, feeling obliged to rectify his error by sending-off a Scot.

A great game for all that.

Flak Jackets and Tin Hats Might Be Needed At This Year's AGM - Unless It's A Virtual One

I WILL not be at the 2021 Scottish Rugby Union AGM – assuming we are back to normal by August – as I continue to maintain my status as Public Enemy Number One to The Murrayfield Junta.

If I cared enough, I suppose I could always slip in unannounced as a club representative, or perhaps I could persuade some newspaper or magazine to get me a press invite, but, I think I am washing my hair that day. I mean, when you get into your seventies and still have hair, it has to be protected.

Because, this one, unless The Junta decides it would be easier and less embarrassing to hold it in front of a virtual audience, promises to be a cracker, thanks to a couple of motions which have been revealed in the past week.

The first, proposed by GHA, seconded by Hawick, calls for the abandonment of the S6 experiment in favour of a return to Inter-District games. The second, proposed by Haddington and seconded by Currie, calls for a review of the function of the SRU's in-house legal team.

The first motion reads:

Motion:

That a modernised version of the Scottish Inter-District Championship (with the inclusion of a potential Scottish Exiles squad) be reinstated from season 2022/23 onwards for senior men’s rugby.

A consultation on the format and criteria for participation in the Inter-District Championship should be instigated by the SRU Council with the aim that the competition format be agreed by 31st January 2022. The competition format and timing should take into consideration the needs of the player development pathway and the objectives of the role currently fulfilled by Super 6.

Resources currently directed by Scottish Rugby from the Domestic Rugby budget towards the Super 6 tournament should be reallocated to support the Scottish Inter District Championship and club rugby in order to support the player development pathway.

The second motion reads:

Motion:

That the Scottish Rugby Council shall convene a review of the efficacy, efficiency and propriety of the in-house legal and Secretarial function of the Scottish Rugby Union and Scottish Rugby Union Limited (“Scottish Rugby”), which shall include consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages of continuing such functions in-house when compared with outsourcing to a third party or third parties, in part or in whole.

The review shall also consider the potential for conflict to exist between the Union and Scottish Rugby in a manner which compromises the same individual holding the Secretarial position in each entity, and in-house Scottish Rugby lawyers advising both entities.

Following such review Council will use their powers under the Bye-Laws to make any necessary changes, including if necessary bringing a motion, or motions, to a general meeting or instructing the Trustees.

  

I would reckon the second motion will pass “on the nod,” as it were. Received wisdom is, the only friend “Howzat”, SRU "Legal Eagle" Robert Howat (pictured above by Craig Watson) has inside Scotland is TCD. If the SRU had been a well-run organisation at the time, he (and TCD) would have been dumped following the mess of “Russellgate,” while their performance at the subsequent AGM has left a malodour which still hangs around Murrayfield.

Mind you, knowing someone needs to be got rid off, and getting rid, are two entirely different things. Let's be hopeful, however.

The real debate will, I feel, centre around the first motion – on a return to Districts. There is a hard-core of support for this within the club game, the below the line comments on these pages have, for years, been packed by the views of die hard opponents of Super6. These club-men have never accepted, nor will they ever I suspect accept, S6.

The rationale for the motion, set-out in detail, makes one or two convincing points, but, crucially in my view, it completely ignores the realpolitik of present-day rugby.

The old Clubs – Districts – International system worked, because it was the basically same system as England (Clubs – County Championship – International) were using; or Ireland's Club – Provincial – International system.

Australia (Club – Inter-State – International); New Zealand (Club – Inter-Provincial – Inter-Island – All Blacks); South Africa (Club – Inter-Provincial – Springboks) also used a broadly-similar system. Only Wales and France of the top nations went Club – International.

But, as the song says – these days are past, so, I do not see the benefit of going back to them.

The rationale does make one claim which is indisputable – the launch of S6 was badly botched by the SRU:

They originally envisaged – six franchises, with no more than two in any one Region.

They came up with three franchises in Edinburgh.

They placed no franchises in the North and Midlands and only one in West Region – the largest region.

The expectation was that The South, where inter-club rivalries are the fiercest, would get behind the single franchise, based in Melrose.

These mistakes upset a lot of people. The fact, in their typically bull-headed way, The Junta opted for their usual: “Our way or the highway” approach meant a simmering discontent which has led to this motion.

They rushed S6 into being, they never properly explained the thinking behind it and trying to fob the clubs off with S6 being part of the club game, when it was clearly part of the Union's performance game, well that was just another in the long list of BT Murrayfield cock-ups.

I had initial doubts about S6, but I now believe, given the management model the SRU favours, it has its place, and that place – under the current management model, is a more-fitting one than reverting to Districts.

It is, however, good that this motion has been tabled. Finally, three years too late, we may get a chance to see S6 properly debated and explained. However, this is just one of many recent decisions, foisted on the clubs by a combination of a weak, some might say toothless Council, an out of control Junta - made up largely of unelected, paid officials, and sometimes, by the clubs taking their eyes off the ball. This need to be sorted out.

IF we were to fully-embrace the reality of Open Rugby, we would have, like Ireland and Wales, four fully-professional District or Regional sides competing in the multi-national Celtic League, against the Irish, Italian, South African and Welsh sides.

But, we are telt, the SRU cannot afford to run four sides, and they cannot or will not form partnerships with commercial organisations to make this happen. Maybe we could afford to have a third full-time side, but, any debate around that would involve The Junta opening the books to the scrutiny of the clubs, and I cannot see that happening.

In which case, Super6 makes sense as a development grade. Where S6 wins over Districts is: it guarantees at least ten games per season, in a concentrated time frame.

Now, in theory an inter-District Championship, even with five teams, playing home and away, only guarantees eight games. Would the clubs wish to lose their best players even for such a concentrated spell? What happens with the cross-border element of S6 – the clubs would lose their players for another concentrated spell?

Each District would need a home ground, and a central training ground, I can see arguments about this arising?

Either way, there are problems, and whatever is decided, self-interest will come into the equation. Also, the time frame, as explained in the rationale for the change indicates, nothing will happen until the end of the initial five-year franchise period.

Maybe we should give S6, which has had a troubled birth and early couple of seasons, time to show what it can do. After all, in spite of its teething troubles, S6 has already sent the likes of Ross Thompson, Rory Darge and Ollie Smith upstairs to Glasgow, and Marshall Sykes, Jamie Hodgson and Cameron Hutchison upstairs to Edinburgh.

And, what happens if, as has been suggested, S6 expands to S8 during the initial five-year term? That will make it even harder to bring back Districts.

OR – how about this set-up:

Tier One – the national side

Tier Two – four full-time District sides playing in the Celtic League

Tier Three - eight semi-professional S8 sides – two per District

Tier Four – a fully-amateur regionalised club game

If we take that as the ideal and work back from there to one which Scottish Rugby can afford, perhaps we could move forward #ASONE.

Actions And Consequences

A COUPLE of social media posts have captured my attention in the last week. They are linked, so, I thought I should maybe post a blog inspired by them.

The first was when someone shared a situations vacant advertisement from the rahrahrugby.com website. This read:

“A Scottish club in the beautiful west coast are on the lookout for experienced front rower and 2nd rowers. Need have proven experience in Semi/pro-environment.

The club is playing in the newly formed Super6 competition. The FOSROC Super6 launched November 2019. It is played by six franchise teams, with part-time professional players and full-time coaches and is the top tier of domestic rugby in Scotland.

Super6 aims to improve playing standards, by better-developing Scottish players, coaches and match officials to feed talent into the full-time professional game.

The contract length would be May 2021 - June 2022, with a break for our off-season Nov - Jan. Based on the player and his level, experience, accommodation, and travel requirement the retainer will range from £300 - £550 per month. There will also be a Play and win bonus in place for the right type of player.

UK passport holders essential OR British Ancestry Visa OR have experience on an International level.”

The second post was the announcement of the Scotland squad for the three summer internationals – the A game against England and the two games in Europe, against Romania and Georgia.

The link is this: the S6 side is clearly Ayrshire Bulls – unless one of the other five franchises has located to the west coast and not told anyone, and, among the 17 uncapped players named are two props – Robin Hislop and Javan Sebastian. Both of these props, as the pictures below prove, are former Ayr players.

 

Javan (top picture, above) spent a season with Ayr on a partnership deal with Warriors. This meant, he was training full-time at Scotstoun, but, he never got a sniff of game time with the Glasgow outfit, and spent the season playing, and playing very-well, with Ayr in the Premiership.

At the end of the season, Warriors decided not to continue the arrangement, so Javan went back home to Carmarthen Harlequins, from there to Scarlets and now, into the Scotland squad.

“Bomber” Hislop (bottom picture) was released by Edinburgh following some injury concerns. He then sent south to Rotherham Titans, was then picked-up by Ayr, where he performed well and was offered a better contract with Doncaster Knights.

His displays for the Knights, earned him a short-term deal at Saracens, before a return to Doncaster, where his form in the English Championship this season has won him a contract for next season with Wasps.

You have to congratulate both players on overcoming career setbacks and fighting on to win international recognition. They deserve their chance on the big stage, but, you have to question whoever is making the decisions within Scottish rugby as to gets or does not get a professional contract.

I am also willing to believe that Javan Sebastian and Northampton's Nick Auterac, another of the 17 uncapped players in the summer squad, have benefitted from the SRU's wish to tie them into the Scotland system, before in Auterac's case England, and in Sebastian's case, Wales, come calling.

At 26, Javan Sebastian still has, in propping terms: some growing to do; he is young for a man who plays his position. Auterac, at 28, is probably in the peak period of his career. No harm to the lad, but, it seems a pointless pick, particularly when you have the likes of the already capped Murray McCallum at Edinburgh and Darcy Rae at Glasgow (although soon off to Bath), who could have been picked, or the young, uncapped, septet of Edinburgh's Dan Gamble, Sam Grahamslaw, Shaun Gunn and Angus Williams, and the Glasgow trio of Adam Nicol, George Thornton and Murphy Walker.

Maybe, if the SRU didn't have such an obsession with recruiting props from outwith Scotland, either as development projects, or as simply NSQ mercenaries, our younger tight forwards might get a proper chance to develop, via a fit-for-purpose development programme, and Ayrshire Bulls would not be looking overseas for players, while claiming: “We cannot find players of the required standard in Scotland.”

Speaking of “project players, Was Pierre Schoeman of Edinburgh not due to become Scotland-qualified this summer? If so, surely he should have got the call for the three internationals.

I accept, for as long as we only have two full-time professional teams, then hard decisions need to be made as to which players are, or are not, given contracts. It is hard on players but, as things stand, there is little wriggle room to allow for later developers, or guys suffering temporary injury setbacks.

The fact Super6's introduction was botched, then hit hard by Covid, hasn't helped either, but, if we ever do get back to “normal” - whatever normal is – let's hope the SRU somehow finds a player development programme which works better than the present one.

Then maybe players would not vanish out of the system, only to be brought back years later – as Hislop and Sebastian have been, or the franchise clubs would not need to be recruiting outside Scotland to the same extent as at present.