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.