One Of The Greatest Rugby Quotes

I BEGIN today's sermon with a quote. The name of the person being quoted, I know not, but, I am referring here to page 131 of Michael Aylwin and Mark Evans' book: 'Unholy Union,' “when rugby collided with the modern world.”

“I couldn't give a fuck about the good of the game.” Thus sprake if not Zarathustra, at least one of the millionaire owners of one of England's Gallagher Premiership clubs. These club owners, while some may be more-sympathetic than the gentleman quoted, to the overall health of the game, are wedded to the principle of market forces. These guys wouldn't give a toss if the rest of the game was on life-support, so long as their club was in the top-flight and putting bums on seats. This is the wrong road to go down, but, that's where the big English and French clubs are headed.

Losses accumulate, but, for as long as these losses can be managed, nothing will change. The rich will get richer and the poor will get nothing.

One of the measures 'Unholy Union' advocates is that the game's big northern Hemisphere leagues: The United Rugby Championship, The Gallagher Premiership and The Top 14 implement Collective Bargaining Agreements – CBAs.

As the book explains, CBAs are a basic in North American and Australian professional sports. These are the two countries in the world where professional sport makes money – big money, and the CBAs are part of the reason for this success.

In North America, basketball's NBA's CBA is 600 pages long; ice hockey's NHL has a 500-pages-plus CBA, baseball's CBA for MBL (Major League Baseball) is 400 pages long, while American football's NFL gets bye with a 300 page CBA, as does Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

It might not be a magic bullet, or a one size fits all answer, however, the way leagues with a working CBA have thrived and grown is in stark contrast to some leagues which make no effort to level the playing field and consider each member club to be the same.

Good luck to the RFU and the FFR in trying to wrestle control of their game from the big clubs, but, since nearly all the clubs in the URC are controlled by the respective Unions, maybe they should adopt a CBA and see how the competition can grown.

CBAs govern such subjects as a salary cap, a salary collar (which enforces a minimum spend on player wages), minimum wages to be paid, whether or not the league is open (promotion and relegation) or closed, squad sizes, prize money and distribution . Basically, however, the idea is “equalisation,” ensuring the league is as competitive as can be, with no big fish or little fish.

Even then, as happens everywhere, some clubs will be better-run, better-coached and be at the top, but, the notion is – on any given day, any team can beat any other team. This concept, for instance, would never be allowed to happen in Scottish football!!

NOW – HERE'S a thought. Suppose we go for a CBA in the URC, might the SRU be able to give us the third professional team we need to really take the game in Scotland forward?

I know the current thinking is that they stick with two teams, but increase the tier below that, Super6 rugby to Super8 and even Super10. It's the worse-kept secret in Scottish sport, but, they want to go to S8, asap and one of the chosen expansion franchises will be London Scottish.

How this will be managed will become clearer later this month, when Conor O'Shea reveals his findings on the state of the English game below the Premiership. But, the presumption is, Scottish will no longer be tied to having to have a high percentage of their paid match-day squad “England-qualified,” and will be free to join an SRU-supported competition – provided their amateur sides remain within the orbit of the RFU.

We hear rumours of a sort of modified British Isles Cup, featuring English Championship sides, our own Super sides, teams from the Welsh Premiership and some say – some of the top teams from the All-Ireland League. That's all very well, and it could be a great competition, but, unless we get the third professional side, we will end up producing good players with nowhere to go in Scotland – since our two full-time pro sides can only employ so-many.

Right now, Glasgow employs 40 Scotland-qualified full-timers; Edinburgh has 36 Scotland-qualified players, while there are at least 35 Scotland-qualified players spread across the top leagues in England, Ireland, Wales and France. There are also 19 Stage III Academy players who are full-time with our two URC teams. That's a total of at least 131 Scotsmen earning a living as full-time players in Europe.

I accept, we will not get some of the bigger-earners back if a third professional team was to be established soon, but, say ten per-cent of the exiles decide to say “No thanks” to a “please come home” request from the SRU – that would still leave us with enough players to staff each of the three teams with 40 Scotsmen. Add Academy players and the best from Super Rugby and each squad could have sufficient depth to get bye.

Unfortunately for home-based rugby fans, the best place to locate the third pro team would be -LONDON. Make Scottish the third pro side, the URC would love it, the Irish, Italian, South African and Welsh teams would love it – their London-based exiles would turn up to watch their sides, and the many Scots in the Sudentenland would love it too.

More importantly, I think CVC, who have made such a significant financial contribution to the URC, would absolutely love having a presence in London, and the television companies would love it too. The SRU might even be able to persuade them to weigh-in to offset the set-up costs.

Why don't we be bold and give it a go?

NOT PERHAPS what old Rudyard Kipling meant, but I was reminded of his quote: “What do they know of England, who only England know?” when listening to Ben Kay and Austin Healey in the build-up to yesterday's Saracens v Sale match on BT Sport.

OK, anyone with the slightest interest in Rugby knows, for all his occasional flashes of insight, Healey is the Prat's prat, but, I am afraid, Kay was demonstrating that he wore his IQ on his back, when he tried to argue that Maro Itoje is: “arguably the best player in the world.”

Maybe in the wet dream of a former England four or five Ben; but, in the real world, he isn't even the world's best in his position. That's before you factor-in the one place where he MIGHT be the best? In the world – that of penalty conceder. He certainly gives away too-many to be a truly great player.

By the way, I noticed, in the same broadcast, four Saracens' backs, including oor ain Sean Maitland, were wearing tights on Sarries' artificial surface. Clearly more than a fashion statement.

I Could Get To Enjoy Just Being A Supporter

SATURDAY was a different experience for me, as, for the first time in decades, I was at a rugby match merely as a spectator. No need to file a report, not constrained by deadlines. I enjoyed it.

Friend of the blog: Left Field, invited me to be his guest at the excellent pre-match lunch, before taking in the Match of the Day in the Tennent's Premiership – Marr v Currie Chieftains at Fullarton Park. I even coerced Number One Daughter – Big Red to act as chauffeur, that drink might be taken – and the Malbec at lunch was excellent.

The lesson of the lunch was – be careful having friends who are lawyers, since main speaker Colin Adam didn't miss his target and hit the wall as he used Tony Peters – Marr's Vice-president, known across Troon as: “TP the VP” as the butt of his humour.

Since M'learned friends can only act on the brief given them, it was evident Colin was firing them but his MAD Law colleague Glenn Davis - Jack to Tony's Victor, had made the bullets.

It was good to chat to Marr captain Conor Bickerstaff (pictured above), at the lunch. He is on crutches following his ACL surgery on Thursday, but is already planning to be back early next season.

Conor was presented with a 200 Club tie and a crystal bowl, to mark passing the landmark of 200 games for Marr earlier this month. The Troon team have had some great servants over the years and in that 200 Club, Conor and brother Scott are in good, indeed illustrious, company

Left Field and I watched most of the game in the company of Currie President Phil Thomas, who is always a joy to meet with and talk rugby. It was also good to see Ben Cairns, the Stirling County Super Six Coach, there checking out his brother Mark's side.

Currie, on the back of a rocket-powered start, had the game effectively won by the end of the first quarter. But, away wins at Fullarton are rare and Marr came roaring back in the second half, but, that poor start was too big a handicap to overcome.

Both sides were willing to run the ball at every opportunity, and, if the match lacked the sheer physicality of S6, if wasn't that much slower and, overall, a terrific advertisement for the top of the club game.

A word too on the match officials – David Sutherland, Callum Lazenby and Alistair Watt. They were very-good and their professionalism added to the entertainment value.

Currie's 34-26, bonus-point win, leaves them nine points clear at the top of the table, with seven games left. It's now a case of catch us if you can, to prevent the title going to Malleny Park.

Result of the day in the Premiership, however, was surely Aberdeen Grammar's38-13 win over Glasgow Hawks. Grammar are still ten points adrift at the foot of the table, and it will take one almighty effort for them to stay up, but, that win could offer hope in the remaining games.

Marr head up there on Saturday – they have already taken notice of what happened to Hawks.

I AM NOT and never have been, a Danny Wilson fan. I suppose he is a competent enough coach, but, to me his teams have always looked inconsistent and “fragile”, an opinion which I feel has some traction following Glasgow Warriors' loss to Benetton on Saturday.

Not for the first time under Wilson, the team's discipline failed in the second half on Saturday and they shipped daft penalties in the final 90 seconds to allow the Italian side to snatch a 19-18 win, courtesy of a penalty goal from Leonardo Marin.

Gone, seemingly, are the days, when the two Italian sides were “gimmees” to our two pro teams. They are competitive now. In fact, given how the United Rugby Championship is now organised, games against Benetton and Zebre are now what I would call “Tier One” games for Glasgow and Edinburgh – more-important than clashes with Leinster and Munster.

The two Scottish sides and the two Italian ones are now in the same sub-group of the URC. Win your six games, top the group and, even supposing you don't win another game all season – you're in the Heineken Cup the following season. So, the Italian Jobs are definitely a case of doing more than simply blowing the doors off.

After back-to-back defeats, to Leinster and Benetton, Warriors really have to put-on an impressive, winning show, against Dragons on Saturday night – if only as a confidence-booster before the big Heineken Cup and 1872 Cup games later in December. I would not say they're hanging over a cliff edge going into this game, but, the Warrior Nation expects a big, confidence-boosting victory.

NOW THAT he has handed-on the baton of being “The World's Best Rugby Referee” to Wayne Barnes (come on, admit it, did anyone see that one coming seven years or so ago?) Nigel Owens is seemingly seeking a new role in the game.

Some see the Welsh whistling wizard as being well-equipped to become the game's Jiminy Cricket – the official conscience of the game, and it's a role I think Nigel could carry-off with distinction.

However, I am surprised that he has been quoted as saying he would have disallowed that controversial Nick Tomkins try for Wales against Australia. That sort of quote does no good whatsoever, and that he should make it, somewhat diminishes Nigel in my view.

Surely he realises, better than most that: “The referee is the sole judge of fact during the game.” Therefore – it was a try, because that was the view of Mike Adamson.

Now, I thought, initially, Mikey had got it wrong. Indeed, it wasn't until the Monday, and I saw a previously unused TV angle, that I realised, the ball had gone backwards off Tomkins' hand, and the try was therefore a good one.

It took me three or four viewings to see that – Mikey got it right first time, in a split second. Therefore, him being contradicted, over a week later, by Nigel Owens, does nobody any good.

Nigel: This is not soccer. Such trials by television might work in the gentlemen's game played by hooligans, we gentlemen who wish to play at being hooligans have higher standards in debate.

Take Your Pick - There's Plenty To Choose From

I THOUGHT I would continue my look at how we manage our two full-time professional teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow, by looking at player use during the past five years. Unfortunately, while it is very-easy to get the necessary details – how many games each individual player played for Glasgow, the same details for Edinburgh appear to be a state secret. So, I have only got details on Glasgow; however, I doubt if Edinburgh's figures will be much different.

Over the past five completed seasons (2016-17 to 2020-21), 108 players have pulled on a Glasgow jersey. One or two only got a few minutes off the bench – I seem to recall in hooker Robbie Smith's case he got less than a minute on the park – while, in the five years I am looking at, Rob Harley has pulled-on the Glasgow strip 115 times.

Positionally, these players break down:

• 9 loose-head props

• 10 hookers

• 9 tight-head props

• 17 locks

• 17 back row

• 12 scrum-halves

• 8 fly-halves

• 10 centres

• 11 wingers

• 5 full-backs

I appreciate a few, such as the afore-mentioned Mr Harley have played in more than one position, but, these are the positions they are generally supposed to fill.

Seventeen of these players have been with the club for all five seasons – that's 16%; 13 players – 12% spent four seasons with the club, the same percentage as spent three seasons at Scotstoun.

Twenty-one percent, 23 players, came and went in two seasons, while 41%, or 45 players only spent one season with the club. However, these 45 include the 16 newcomers for season 2020-21, ten of whom are still with the club, so the actual figure for “one-season wonders” at Scotstoun is 35 players – 32%.

Of the 108 players in this five-year period, 29 – 27% have been non-Scottish-qualified. Sixteen of the one-season wonders were NSQs – 15% of the grand total, but, 55% of the total of NSQs recruited.

These 16 players, between them featured in 128 games, an average of eight games each; this breaks down to three starts and five appearances off the bench.

• When you consider the costs incurred in recruiting a non-Scottish-qualified player, particularly from overseas – air fares, the costs of obtaining a work permit, international clearance to play, agents' fees etc, the question has to be:

• Given the costs involved, and the fact more than half the players thus recruited stay for only one season and only start, on-average, three games – why do we recruit NSQs?

I don't have a problem with a X-Factor player such as Leone Nakarawa (first time around), Niko Matawalu, DTH van der Merwe or Bill Mata at Edinburgh. I don't have a problem with the likes of Petrus du Plessis, recruited to do a specific player-coach role, but, the SRU has to accept, their recruitment of non-Scots hasn't been great.

As that great philosopher Miss Dolly Parton quipped: “It's hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world,” unfortunately, the SRU recruiters have too-often been choosing rhinestones when we wanted them to find diamonds.

A normal season for the two clubs lasts between 18 and 30 games (18 league games, 6 European games, plus a possible 3 more European and 3 League knock-out games).

Let's call that 24 games in the average season. Sixty-six of the 108 Warriors' players in the last five years failed to achieve that seasonal median of 24 games for the club – that's 61% of the players.

OK, I accept, professional rugby is a hard game, in which the players take a lot of knocks. I can even accept the premise most professional players are playing through pain most games, but 61% of the players in a given period not playing more than one season's average of games – either the guys picking the team like tinkering, or the players are sustaining a lot of knocks.

The entire SRU management plan is based around a successful Scotland team, playing attractive rugby and filling BT Murrayfield each time they play. We are not there – yet, but, we are getting close.

The raison d'etre for the two professional teams is to keep our international-class players up to speed, ready for the internationals, while preparing the other professional players to step-up to the Scotland squad, should they be required.

The Junta running the SRU are surely aware – the two professional teams are loss-making. They are not at all willing to admit how much they lose each year, but, they are loss-making.

However, the paid officials at BTM have a responsibility to their stakeholders – the thousands of individual club members who support the club game by their subscriptions and the money they spend at their clubs, to try to make these losses as small as possible. ARE THEY DOING THIS?

They want their own wee Bailliewick to be seen as important in the big picture, which can mean, they are keeping-on players who are not really contributing, or recruiting from abroad, because having a former All Black is seen as being better than giving a young Scot a chance.

Next question: Do we need such big squads?

Yesterday, the two squads for the weekend games were announced, they were:

Edinburgh v Dragons, at Rodney Parade, Saturday evening (in 1-23 order): B Venter, A McBurney, W Nel, M Sykes, J Hodgson, N Haining, L Crosbie, M Bradbury; B Vellacott (captain), B Kinghorn; R Moyano, J Lang, M Currie, D Hoyland; E Boffelli. Substitutes: D Cherry, H Courtney, A Williams, C Boyle, B Muncaster, H Pyrgos, C Savala, C Hutchison.

Edinburgh list nine players: Mark Bennett, Luan de Bruin, Henry Immelman, Mesu Kunavula, Pierce Phillips, George Taylor, Ben Toolis, Jaco van der Walt and Glen Young as injured.

In addition, Darcy Graham, Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson are rested following four weeks of Scotland duty. A further 11 players and the ten Academy players who are full time with Edinburgh are standing idle. Although, I accept, some of the Academy plaeyrs may well find themselves playing in the Tennent's Premiership.

Glasgow v Benetton Parma, at Stadio Monigo, Saturday afternoon (again in 1-23 order): J Bhatti, G Turner, O Kebble, R Harley, R Gray, M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey; G Horne, R Thompson; R McLean, S Johnson (captain), S Tuipulotu, K Steyn; C Forbes. Substitutes: J Matthews, N McBeth, E Pieretto, K McDonald-Siran, T Gordon, J Dobie, D Weir, O Smith.

Ewan Ashman (recalled by Sale Sharks), Simon Berghan, Fraser Brown, Scott Cummings, Peter Horne, Tom Lambert, Ewan McQuillin and Ryan Wilson (playing for the Barbarians), are listed as unavailable, while Robbie Fergusson is in Dubai captaining the Great Britain Sevens squad. Ali Price and Zander Fagerson are rested following a month of Scotland duty, which leaves 13 players, plus the nine Academy players standing idle – with the usual caveat about possible Premiership game time for the Academy nine.

Leaving aside the Academy contingent, this means, this weekend: eight full Scotland caps are being rested – which is fair enough, but a further 24 players are deemed surplus to requirements by the two clubs, while 15 players – 16% of the total combined strength are injured.

Edinburgh has a “slackness capability” (players deemed fit but not required) of 22% of the wage bill, while Glasgow's “slackness capability” is 28%.

Perhaps TCD would like to tell the Council, the Clubs and us – the Poor Jocks of the Tartan Army (Rugby Division) if having 25% of the employees who are paid to play rugby, standing around doing nothing while games are on, is good use of the available personnel?

Getting Into a Spin Over Squad Rotation

FURTHER TO my previous post, on squad depth; there is another key part of running our two full-time professional squads which will be crucial over the next pod of games; and that is squad rotation.

The players from Scotland's Autumn Internationals squad have now gone back to their clubs. These clubs now have ten fixtures, with full squads – barring the injured – before the start of the Six Nations 2022 – when they again lose players to the national team.

Gregor Townsend and his management team cannot do a lot to influence how the players playing outside Scotland are handled over these ten fixtures, but, I dare say, they can have a say in how Mike Blair and Danny Wilson rotate their squads to balance the slightly differing needs of their club side and the national XV. How they do this could have a bearing on how we perform come the Six Nations.

I have had to absorb a bit of incoming flak, for questioning the sense of Glasgow signing Ewan Ashman for the remainder of the season. I am not questioning his talent, merely asking: Do they need him?

Here we are, in the final week of November, here is a breakdown of Glasgow's front row use thus far this season, during which they have played just five games:

• Game 1 – Ulster: 1-2-3: Brad Thyer – Johnny Matthews – Simon Berghan

• 16-17-18: Jamie Bhatti – Fraser Brown – Murray McCallum

• Game 2 – Cell C Sharks: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Brown – McCallum

• 16-17-18: Thyer – George Turner – Murphy Walker

• Game 3 – Lions: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Brown – McCallum

• 16-17-18: Bhatti – Matthews – Oli Kebble

• Game 4 – Zebre: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Matthew – Kebble

• 16-17-18: Thyer – Brown – Enrico Pieretto

• Game 5 – Leinster: Bhatti – Matthews – Zander Fagerson

• 16-17-18: Kebble – Turner – Pieretto

Looking at that as an individual break-down, we find:

Brad Thyer: start – bench – idle – bench – idle – 1-2-2

Johnny Matthews: start – idle – bench – start – start – 3-1-1

Simon Berghan: start – idle – idle – idle – idle – 1-0-4

Jamie Bhatti: bench – start – start – start – start – 4-1-0

Fraser Brown: bench – start – start – bench – idle – 2-2-1

Murray McCallum: bench – start – start – idle -idle – 2-1-2

George Turner: idle – bench – idle – idle – bench – 0-2-3

Murphy Walker: idle – bench – idle -idle -idle – 0-1-4

Oli Kebble: idle – idle – bench – start – start – 2-1-2

Enrique Pieretto: idle – idle – idle – bench – bench – 0-2-3

Zander Fagerson: idle – idle – idle – idle – start – 1-0-4

Nathan McBeth and Tom Lambert (loose-heads), Grant Stewart (hooker) and Ewan McQuillin (tight-head) have still to play this season.

I accept, because of the Lions tour, Zander Fagerson is a special case, however, both he and George Turner have started more games for Scotland this season than for their club – that's not right somehow. Also, surely there is some way that the four guys who haven't even seen bench duty this season can be afforded game time.

Might it be that our two wholly-owned full-time professional teams' managements have contracted the Murrayfield virus – they are busy empire-building and not delivering what we at the clubs are looking for – value for money.

Question – do we really need such large squads? And, are all our full-timers good enough for full-time contracts? Just asking.

To perhaps answer this, I split the squad into its component parts:

Glasgow have 45 full-time players (47 when you include new arrivals Ewan Ashman and Josh McKay); Edinburgh has 43 players. The squad category splits are:

• Currently in the Scotland squad: Glasgow 17 (37%) - Edinburgh 13 (30%) of squad

• Past Scotland internationalists: Glasgow 7 (16%) - Edinburgh 7 (17%) of squad

• Not Scotland Qualified: Glasgow 7 (16%) - Edinburgh 10 (23%) of squad

• Uncapped Scots: Glasgow 14 (31%) - Edinburgh 13 (30%) of squad.

• The 17 Scottish Internationalists, currently in the national squad, between them have racked-up 54 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 85 this season – that's a 47% involvement record from 37% of the Glasgow squad

• The 7 past Scottish internationalists, no longer in the national squad, have between them racked-up 23 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 35 this season – that's a 20% involvement record from 16% of the squad

• The 7 Not Scottish Qualified players have between them racked-up 16 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 35 this season – that's a 14% involvement record from 16% of the squad

• The 14 Scottish Qualified but uncapped as yet players have between them racked-up 21 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 70 this season – that's a 18% involvement record from 31% of the squad.

A similar exercise with the Edinburgh squad produced these results:

• The 13 Scottish internationalists currently in the international squad have between them racked-up 38 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 65 this season – a 33% involvement record from 30% of the squad

• The 7 past Scottish internationalists, no longer in the national squad, have between them racked-up 18 starting or bench appearances this season out of a possible 35 – that's a 16% involvement record from 17% of the squad

• The 10 Not Scotland Qualified players have between them racked-up 28 starting or bench appearances this season out of a possible 50 – that's a 24% involvement record from 23% of the squad

• The 13 Scotland Qualified but uncapped players have between them this season racked-up 27 starting or bench appearances, out of a possible 65 – that's a 24% involvement record from 30% of the squad.

These figures lead me to believe, the management's thinking when it comes to team selection is:

• Glasgow: first choice – a current Scottish cap; second choice – a past Scottish international; third choice – an uncapped Scot; fourth choice – a Non-Scotland Qualified player.

• Edinburgh: first choice – a current Scottish cap; second choice – a Non-Scottish Qualified player; third choice – a past Scottish internationalist – fourth choice – an uncapped Scot.

In England and France, where the clubs are all-powerful and promotion and relegation is a reality (although relegation is currently frozen in the Gallagher Premiership) – the need to survive means the top players are used more-often. This is such a problem the RFU has had to negotiate a deal with the clubs, whereby, in return for only playing their England internationalists in a set number of games, they get a nice wee bung from HQ. The non-English players such as Messrs Hogg, Gray, Skinner and Hidalgo-Clyne at Exeter Chiefs therefore have to perhaps play more games to take-up the slack.

In Ireland, as to some degree in Scotland, all the top players are owned by the Union, so HQ can to an extent dictate which games and how often they play. This has over the years seen copious “It's not fair” features in the English rugby press, bemoaning the fact the top Irish stars are only ever seen in the colours of Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster in the big European games and the matches at the sharp end of the League season.

The Irish certainly appear to be more-willing to blood young players and give them experience than our two clubs, for whom the youngsters are third or fourth choices for league games.

My own view is – We do not need to recruit non-Scottish players to the extent we have been. There is no relegation in the United Rugby Championship, so the statements from BT Murrayfield that we need to recruit non-Scots to keep us competitive when our internationalists are away with Scotland – THAT'S PISH.

The URC has done away with matches during the Autumn Tests and the Six Nations, which knocks the reasoning for recruiting experienced non-Scots into the long grass. Indeed, maybe it is time the strategic thinkers at BTM looked at their strategy for this league.

The 18 game regular season will see Edinburgh and Glasgow play each other twice – home and home. They will also play Zebre Parma and Benetton home and home in the Italian/Scots Shield Group. They also play the other 12 teams once, either home or away to complete the regular season.

Route One into Europe the following season is to win your Shield Group, thus guaranteeing a place in the following season's Champions Cup. If you don't win your group, which European competition you play in depends on your overall league place.

So, under this system, the most-important games in your season are the six against the other three teams in your group. Even if these are the only games you win all season – it gets you into Europe.

I would suggest, if nowhere else, you want your best players fit and firing on all cylinders in those games. For the other fixtures, you can play around with squad rotation as you wish.

So, maybe we should be following the Irish lead and giving our young talent a chance to show what they can do.