A Great End To A Terrific Season For Super6

 

THE FIRST full season of the FOSROC Super6 competition has ended. I dare say the naysayers who will never see merit in S6 – yes you Glenn D – will dismiss it as irrelevant, but, guys, this is the future, embrace it now or later, but, it's here to stay.

In physicality and competitiveness, in the ferocity of the collisions and the speed of the games, S6 has definitely been a step up from the old Premiership. It's not yet at United Rugby Championship level, but, it is getting closer. There hasn't been a single game which was like watching paint dry, and, the standard will go up even higher, of that I am sure.

Friday night's Watsonians v Stirling County third/fourth play-off was another cracker. In that wee purple patch before the break, I feared Watsonians might have broken County, but, whatever Ben Cairns and Eddie Pollock said at half time clearly worked, as County came back to win the second half and come within one failed conversion of snatching a draw.

Highlight of that fight-back was Archie Russell's long-range try. For me, the other Russell has been the outstanding three-quarter in the competition; I am a definite fan. I also, as an old prop, enjoyed the second-half arm wrestle between Sam Grahamslaw (Edinburgh and Watsonians) and Murphy Walker (Glasgow and Stirling County). I do not think it will be long before these boys are pushing the more-established props for a Scotland place.

When Sandy Carmichael came along, he was simply a different beast from anything we had previously seen in Scottish rugby. The first time I ever clapped eyes on ABC, he was sitting, wearing wellingtons, jeans and a donkey jacket, in a transport cafe just off the then being built M8, at Harthill. He was working with SLDC at the time. He seemed immense. Grahamslaw has the same physical presence – we simply seldom grow guys that size up here.

Saturday's fifth/sixth play-off ended in a 21-15 win for Boroughmuir Bears over Heriot's. This win was in a way salvation for the Bears, who have not perhaps had the luck their play deserved this season. 'Muir President Stevie Douglas did tell me, that result helped lift his spirits on Saturday night – he had missed the game to travel with the “Muir National League 1 team to Millbrae, where they were thumped by Ayr.

Kaleem Barreto had another immense game for the Bears, and, as a closet 'Muir fan, I was delighted for the Meggetland men. As for Heriot's, they have a lot of thinking to do before S6 resumes. They, in my view, kept faith this season with too many players who were on the downward slope of the hill and, in the end, this cost them dear. Some big decisions to be made around Goldenacre in the months ahead.

A final wee point re S6, good to see the Edinburgh management willing to release their fringe players to get game time – a different mind set from the past, when club coaches used to moan: “Aye, Edinburgh will let you have a player, provided you promise to deliver him back, fit to hold a tackle bag, on Monday morning.” I may be wrong, but, I feel at the moment, Edinburgh is more-willing to release a fringe player than Glasgow.

SUNDAY'S final didn't quite finish as I thought it might. I fancied there would be fewer than five points between the two teams. But, as an Ayrshireman, I am delighted that the Bulls won, 26-16 – although, had it gone the other way, I would not have been too-upset, Knights are also a very-good team.

However, as at Millbrae a week or three ago, it was the superb Bulls' defence wot won it. “Defences win trophies,” is more of a football than a rugby truism, and that was the story for Bulls.

The final had its moments of great skill, but, it was mostly about uber-commitment. You have to feel for Tom Everard, he boobed badly in flattening Jacob Henry and rightly copped a red card, to spoil a terrific performance on the day. But, as Coach Pat McArthur told Dougie Vipond post-match, the card was down to his defensive commitment – ok, he mistimed the challenge, but, he was going to get there.

Finally, here is my FOSROC SUPER6 Team of the Tournament, which in 1-15 order is:

1. George Thornton (Ayrshire Bulls)

2. Fraser Renwick (Southern Knights)

3. Euan McLaren (Southern Knights)

4. Tom Everard (Ayrshire Bulls)

5. Michael Badenhorst (Watsonians)

6. Ryan Sweeney (Ayrshire Bulls)

7. Yaree Fantini (Ayrshire Bulls)

8. Blair Macpherson (Ayrshire Bulls) (Captain)

9. Kaleem Barreto (Boroughmuir Bears)

10. Jason Baggot (Southern Knights)

11. Jordan Edmunds (Boroughmuir Bears)

12. Tom Jordan (Ayrshire Bulls)

13. Archie Russell (Stirling County)

14. Robbie Nairn (Ayrshire Bulls)

15. Jacob Henry (Southern Knights).

On the bench I have chosen: 16, Reynard Kennedy (Stirling County), 17, Grant Shiells (Southern Knights), 18, Dan Gamble (Boroughmuir Bears), 19, Grant Runciman (Southern Knights), 20, Rhys Tait (Boroughmuir Bears); 21, Caleb Korteweg (Stirling County), 22, Andrew Mitchell (Southern Knights), 23, Joe Reynolds (Watsonians).

OK, I accept there are going to be loud calls of “BIAS” when you see so-many Bulls in my team. But, I honestly believe, when the Bulls are on-song, they are the best team in the competition and this reflects in the selection and in the final outcome. Bulls' excellence showed particularly in the back row, where the excellence AS A UNIT of the Bulls' trio trumps some consistently good individual performances from the likes of Connor Gordon and Dean Taylor-Menzies of Stirling County, Sam Daley of Watsonians and Jack McClean of Heriot's.

How good too to hear Dougie speaking to SRU High Performance Director Jim Mallinder after the match, speaking so-passionately about the concept of S6.

Well, that's the first full season of S6 done and dusted. Onwards and upwards.

THIS MAY be treason, but, I've thunked it any way so I may as well get it out there. As regular readers will be aware, I have been suggesting for a wee while now that the game of Rugby Union should perhaps look at taking an idea from ice hockey, where there is the full-fat version of the game, with hard hits and frequent punch-ups, and 'Recreational Ice Hockey,' where very little of the uber-physical stuff is allowed.

I have been advocating the inception of “Recreational Rugby,” for the grass-roots, wherein a lot of the physicality, but hopefully none of the running, is taken out of the game. The major plook on the visage of Rugby Union today is 'The Breakdown,' so, if we are looking at sorting-out the breakdown for recreational, grass-roots play, what should we do?

Well, here I go:

• Why don't we, at grass-roots level, borrow the play-the-ball rule from Rugby League? Immediately, we have done away with the breakdown and all those bodies rolling on the ground and out of the game. Only problem I can see is, we may have to modify RL's six-tackles law to stop one side simply monopolising possession – or can we count on the average grass-roots side being unable to string together six passes before somebody knocks-on?

DISCUSS