Aristotle Lets Rip And Says What He Was Thinking

WHEN commenting and pontificating on the game, I occasionally see things which are maybe worth a short paragraph of comment, but cannot run to a full blog. So, here is the first of what I intend becoming a regular series, of me just saying what I think.

Watching my recording of the Sale Sharks v Harlequins game on Friday, I thought:

• If Manu Tuilagi wasn't English, he'd never be mentioned. I thought he was the least-impressive three-quarter on the park. But, he's a “big-name” England player who the BT commentators seem contractually-obliged to hype-up.

• We now have professional scrum-halves skilled at feeding the ball into their own second row. We also have professional hookers skilled at throwing-in down their own line, so their jumpers merely have to jump vertically – and, they mostly get away with it. Time the referees smartened-up on this.

• Was their ever a softer try than that one Harlequins scored, seven seconds into the second half. I felt for Sale's Cobus Weise when he missed that gift of a kick-off.

• I agreed with one of Austin Healy's comments during the game. Should I seek treatment?

On Saturday afternoon, I watched the Exeter v Wasps game, again, the BT commentators were obsessed with the English players – well, understandable. I thought Robin 'Bomber” Hislop put in another cracking shift for Wasps – he really looks at home at that level – makes me wonder why the SRU had to import so-many Saffer props when they didn't play fair with that level of home-grown talent?

Good to see Sam Hidalgo-Clyne coming off the bench for the Chiefs, his star had dimmed somewhat at the back end of last season, but, where is Jonny Gray? Is he injured? If so I must have missed it.

I probably spend too-much time on Facebook. One of the things I have noticed in the various rugby pages thereon which I follow, is the shrieks of outrage from Saffer fans, at the way their poor wee players are being refereed out of games in the URC by those biased northern hemisphere referees.

We now have a new rugby saying, to go alongside: “You never beat the Welsh, you only score more points than them.”

This new saying is: “You never beat the South Africans, you only appoint biased referees to undermine them.”

Or, might it be: “van der Merwe is too-thick to learn from being repeatedly pinged for the same offence.”

This stooshie, I think, reinforces something I have been saying for a while:

• The fault doesn't necessarily lie with the officials, but, with the Laws themselves – and the guys at the top who are enforcing how the match officials operate.

• Sort-out the Laws, then agree a universal interpretation of these laws and the problem will vanish.

• But, for as long as we have match official supervisors in the URC telling their officials to do one thing; their contemporaries in the Gallagher Premiership telling their referees to do something else; the French officials being given different guidance, ditto the Australian, Argentinian, New Zealand and South African officials being told something else – chaos will ensue.

• Sort this out World Rugby.

WHILE WAITING for the Watsonians v Stirling County match to start on the BBC iplayer on Friday night, I watched the intro to that night's URC game at the Kingspan. This got me thinking:

• How come BBC Ulster can show Ulster's home games LIVE and also have a weekly programme focussed on the game in the province?

Well, BBC Northern Ireland has signed a three-year deal which means they will show six live Ulster home games per season. This will consist of two derby matches, two matches versus South African teams, one versus a Welsh region and one versus an Italian team. Should Ulster reach the URC Grand Final during the agreement, BBC Northern Ireland will broadcast the game. (No mention of the two Scottish teams you may note).

BBC Northern Ireland, to my mind, gives more coverage to sport in the Province than BBC Scotland does up here. OK, perhaps we cannot make BBC Scotland cover Scottish Rugby, but, I think we deserve better from our supposed national broadcaster than coverage of the Women's team on the Gaelic service BBC Alba (welcome though this is).

On Sunday night, on the BBC Scotland channel, BBC Shortbread put out a very-good programme covering the final week of the Super6. If they can do this once – why not EVERY week? Why is the incentive not there?

Well, we know the Old Firm cabal who seem to run BBC Scotland's sports output would be most put-out. But, I am sure there is a market for a weekly rugby programme on BBC Shortbread. So, why are we in the Scottish Rugby family not shouting from the roof tops for such a programme?

I have said before, if BBC Scotland will not cover Scottish Rugby, then the SRU should maybe say: “Fuck them,” and become their own rugby media. I am sure they could afford to set-up their own Scottish Rugby Television Service and give the game the coverage it deserves. We are certainly not getting this at the moment.

Mind you, while Chris Paterson has developed into a polished TV performer, for such a service to really work, they would need to have at least one maverick prepared to do something the great Graham Spiers has long accused me of doing – indulging in hermeneutics – that is: questioning the veracity of what is considered “gospel truth.”

IF the SRU was ever to take-up my suggestion and launch their own TV channel, they would need to avoid suggestions of being a Union mouthpiece, so, prepared to say the unsayable.

I'm probably too old, and definitely not acceptable to The Murrayfield Junta, but, I can think of one young rugby writer who could fill the bill.