Should We Take A Broadsword To Danny Boy?

DANNY WILSON, the Glasgow Warriors' Head Coach, was quoted earlier this week as being in negotiations to add new players to his squad – why does this fill me with dread?

I honestly fail to see the sense in the SRU's and its two wholly-owned professional clubs' fixation with recruiting average players who are NSQs (non-Scotland qualified).

We are told the SRU's financial management model is based on:

• A winning Scotland team

• Filling BT Murrayfield

• As the main driver of the Union's finances

Since the National Team is therefore the Alpha section within the governing body – the two professional sides are subsidiary – their function is to keep the national squad members playing at a high-enough level so they can function properly in the 12-12 internationals they will play in any calendar year.

The two professional teams also have to bring young Scottish talent up to speed, so they can compete at professional club level and then at international level. OK, they might learn something playing alongside a proper “marquee” signing – i.e. a genuine world-class star with that X-factor. Trouble is, the SRU cannot afford to recruit at that end of the market.

So, rather than recruiting a journeyman professional, who, regardless of how many caps he's got for a tier two nation is probably no better than a Scottish professional, why don't we trust in our systems and give young Scots a chance?

I am fed-up saying this:

• There is NO RELEGATION in the United Rugby Championship.

Therefore, there is NO NEED to recruit a capped non-Scot to fill-in during internationals. Losing up to half a first team to Scotland duty does not mean relegation – but, it does give young Scots a chance to show what they can do.

Certainly, the Irish Rugby Football Union can afford to subsidise the acquisition of marquee players for their provinces. Ireland is an independent country, they don't have to work within the constraints of HMRC when it comes to paying players. But, while they have acquired some good Southern Hemisphere players over the years, their system for bringing through young home-grown talent pouts the SRU's efforts to shame.

Shouldn't we be finding out what they are doing correctly, and we are doing wrong, then copy them?

ROB HARLEY is leaving Glasgow Warriors at the end of the season, after over 260 games for the club, over the past 12 seasons. I don't know what Rob's long-term post-rugby career objectives are, but I wish him well. He has been a fantastic servant to his native city club and he leaves a wonderful legacy at Scotstoun.

 Rob is already installed as one of Pete Horne's coaching team at Ayrshire Bulls. I would like to see him perhaps stepping down to play out his career in an onfield player-coach with the Bulls, rather as Andy Henderson did with GHA. A couple of seasons of playing with Rob would benefit the younger Bulls' players I feel certain.

TO CONTINUE with my theme of the SRU's management model and how it works. I've turned up some interesting information on our Guinness Six Nations campaign.

Gregor Townsend used 36 players over the five matches:

• 13 were with clubs outside Scotland

• 13 were Edinburgh players

• 10 were Glasgow players

• The 13 from clubs outwith Scotland played a total of 2014 game minutes – an average of 155 minutes each, or 31 minutes per game.

• The 13 Edinburgh players played a total of 2154 minutes – an average of 166 minutes, or 33 minutes per game.

• The 10 Glasgow players played a total of 1859 minutes – an average of 186 minutes – or 37 and a half minutes per game.

• Only two players – Captain Stuart Hogg and winger Darcy Graham played every minute of every match. Hamish Watson missed the French game through injury, but, played every minute of the other four games.

• Busiest forward was Grant Gilchrist, who played 352 minutes across the five games.

• Least used player was Cameron Redpath, who played just one minute.

• 11 players featured in the match-day 22 in all five matches

• Our optimum Six Nations match-day squad, chosen in terms of minutes used is: Hogg, Graham, Harris, Johnson, van der Merwe, Russell, Price; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, Skinner, Gilchrist, Darge, Watson, M Fagerson. Replacements: McInally, Sutherland, Nel, J Gray, Bradbury, White, Steyn, Kinghorn.

As the tournament unfolded, the home-based Scottish players became more influential:

• v England – start – 6 Exiles, 5 Glasgow, 4 Edinburgh; bench - 2 – 1 – 4.

• v Wales – start – 6 Ex – 7 Ed – 2 Gl; bench – 3 – 1 – 4.

• v France – start – 5 Ex – 6 Ed – 4 Gl; bench – 2 – 4 – 2.

• v Italy – start – 4 Ex – 4 Ed – 7 Gl; bench – 2 – 5 – 1.

• v Ireland – start – 3 Ex – 5 Ed – 7 Gl; bench: 5 Ex – 2 Ed – 1 Gl.

Or, in round terms:

• v England - start – 6 Exiles -9 Home Scots; bench 2-5. (Blair Kinghorn didn't get on)

• v Wales – start – 6 Exiles – 9 Home Scots; bench – 3 – 5.

• v France – start – 5 Exiles – 10 Home Scots; bench – 2 – 6.

• v Italy – start – 4 Exiles – 11 Home Scots; bench – 2 – 6.

• v Ireland – 3 Exiles – 12 Home Scots; bench – 5 – 3.

The official Guinness Six Nations website includes a list of the leading performers in the tournament. A Scot leads just one of these individual listings: Stuart Hogg made the most metres of any player in the tournament – 653 metres, second placed was Italy's Monte Ioane, who carried for 498 metres. Our Captain was also second in carries, making 56, nine fewer than the leader, France's Gregory Aldritt. He was also third in the metres kicked chart, gaining 1612 metres, a figure only exceeded by Antoine Dupont, who kicked for 1930 metres and Paolo Garbisi (1787 metres).

Other Scots listed were:

• Finn Russell – fifth in points kicked (33); third in try assists (3); third in conversions (6); third in penalty goals (7); fifth in metres kicked (1402).

• Ali Price made the second-greatest number of passes (287), a total exceeded only by Ireland's Jamison Gibson-Park, who passed the ball 390 times.

• Hamish Watson's 70 successful tackles placed him second in the tacklers' table

• No Scots featured in the following categories: Individual try scorers, turnovers won, off-loads made, line-outs won.

The team statistics are also broken down into 25 different aspects of the game. Too-many to list here, but, if you're interested, go to the official Six Nations website, then to the Statistics section and you will find it all there.

Suffice to say, we lead in only three of the 25 categories – Broken Tackles (128), Penalties Conceded (61), and joint-first in Yellow Cards (2). I Don't know, however, if that broken tackles figure was tackles made on Scots, but broken by us, or our own failed tackles, probably the latter.

A Meander Through Some Passing Thoughts

I ENJOYED Sunday's Exeter v Leicester offering from BT Sport, but, one thought struck me – at the moment, it seems to me, Jonny Gray is failing to bring his A game with Exeter to the international side. He was a stand-out in a losing cause in this game, and was, to me, unjustly denied a try in the second half. It looked to me as if he got the ball down, but, TMO and referee decided otherwise – a blot on an otherwise good display from Luke Pearce.

Chris Ashton has never been a player to whom I have warmed – I always wanted him to drop the ball when doing his outrageous dive for a try, but, to equal Tom Varndell's Premiership try-scoring record demonstrates, he knows his way over the line. It would be disrespectful not to acknowledge his feat – well done.

WE HAD a multitude of Youth Cup Finals over the weekend, at both National and Regional level. Too-many for an old-timer like me to keep up with, but, congratulations to the winners and commiserations to the runners-up.

Success at youth level this season has been a fillip to one or two clubs not enjoying the best of fortune at adult level. Still, there is promise for the future – provided they can do the very-difficult job of transitioning their promising young players into the adult game.

I was just wondering if, maybe, there is a case for making these youth finals warm-up games before the likes of Edinburgh and Glasgow matches in the URC, to give the kids experience of performing in front of bigger crowds. And, in the process, raising the profile of youth rugby.

THE CLOCKS sprung forward at the weekend, which means lighter nights. I know the FOSROC SUPER6 is returning soon, we've got some unplayed league games to be got rid of, plus the Sevens tournaments.

However, I cannot but remember my young days, when,, certainly here in Ayrshire, we had midweek Ayrshire Cup and Ayrshire Junior Cup games to look forward to in April, as well as the crunch matches in the old Glasgow Knock-Out Cup.

I was pleased to see, on Facebook the other week, Bishopton celebrating victory in the Renfrewshire Cup. If the Renfrewshire clubs can organise their County Cup, why cannot clubs elsewhere?

I was around back in 1973 when the Unofficial Championship became Official. The opening games in the first official Rugby Union leagues in the world were played on Saturday, 6 October, 1973. That was the sixth week of the season 1973-74. Delaying the league games until October was a deliberate act by the SRU, as this allowed clubs to play “traditional and long-standing friendlies.”

The season had actually started, as was normal then, on Saturday, 1 September, where The Glasgow Herald, who back then realised they had a lot of readers who were interested in rugby, sent Bill McMurtrie to Old Anniesland to cover Glasgow rugby's own Old Firm game – Glasgow High School FP v Glasgow Academicals.

John Downie meanwhile, was at Fort Matilda for the Greenock Wanderers Centenary Game. This featured a tasty front row battle – Struan McCallum, playing for the Greenock Wanderers President's XV locking horns with Ian McLauchlan for the SRU President's XV, a clash which meant a rare outing at tight-head for the visitors for Ayr's Jock Craig. Andy Irvine in the backs, Al McHarg at lock and a back row of Watt Davies, Nairn McEwan and Jim Telfer were some of the sterling names in the SRU XV.

In other local derbies that day, Kelvinside Academicals entertained Hutcheson's GSFP, Hillhead HSFP played hosts to Allan Glen's and Wigtownshire took on the club closest to them in geography – Larne from Northern Ireland.

In the East of Scotland, Edinburgh Wanderers thumped the touring Chicago Lions, while in The Borders, Hawick beat Ballymena.

I then checked the first week following the clocks change in 1974, and discovered ten midweek rugby fixtures announced on the Monday's Herald – these included an evening sevens tournament.

If we could play such games back then – why not today?

Interestingly, The Herald of Monday, 25 March, 1974 includes a wee snippet of Scottish Rugby history – announcing the personnel who would make up what the paper dubbed 'A Scotland C XV' to face The Netherlands. The team marked the senior representative bow of one JY Rutherford of Selkirk, who was paired at half-back with – you'd never guess – RJ Laidlaw of Jed-forest; the first time that esteemed pairing (pictured below) had been announced in a Scotland selection. It took over five years, however, for that illustrious duo to reach the national team together. Not trusting young players is apparently a long-standing SRU tradition.

 

Later that week, The Herald ran a report on the Paisley Grammar School Sevens at Penilee. In the final, a George Heriot's School VII, with a certain IG Milne listed in the forwards beat a Stewart's-Melville College VII, whose two props were F and JH Calder. I wonder how Jim enjoyed propping, even in Sevens, against The Bear?

Sorry, I went off on a meander there, but, to get back to my main thread: Early season and late season midweek matches used to be fun. I can remember, back in the day, turning-up early at Bellsland to lay-out the Ayr kit, before they played Ardrossan Academicals in an Ayrshire Cup Final.

The game was being played on 30 April, the very-last day in which the SRU back then allowed 15-a-side games. That day was also Day One of the Ayr Show and when I entered the dressing room assigned to Ayr, I found two of the Ayr forwards and two of the Ardrossan pack carrying-on from where they had left off – in the bar tent at Ayr Racecourse.

If not “fu”, the quartet were well on their way there, as Rabbie might have put it: “ower awe the ills o' life victorious.” Let's just say, the opening forward exchanges were interesting. The late Jim Hepburn, who played for Ayr that night, went to his grave with no idea how he got across the stepping stones on the River Ayr, en route to his home, after the Ayr victory celebrations. Rugby was more fun back then.

During my spell with the Scottish Missionary Service, in West Yorkshire, I played for Morley, at a time when they always went far in the Yorkshire Cup. This competition was played almost in its entirety on midweek nights, and there was a tradition whereby, once your club was knocked-out,you followed the team that beat them, until they got knocked-out, where you switched to the team that had beaten them.

This meant, by the time the finalists locked horns, usually at Headingley, in the final, a good number of otherwise uninterested fans had a dog in the fight and turned-up for the final. If we could get something like that going in revived cup competitions up here, it would be great for the game.

Or is it, we Scots are just too-parochial to maintain an interest after our own club has gone from a competition?

Humility In Victory Is Not The English Commentator's Way

I HONESTLY thought, pre-match, Scotland's Women's best hope against England yesterday was a good damage limitation job, the narrower England's margin of victory, the better for us. I had no expectations of our girls beating a team of full-time professionals – the best women's side in the world.

This was one of those games, you're hoping England has a bad day at the office, while our girls surpass themselves. Sadly, it didn't happen. I felt neither side hit their straps and, an England side at perhaps 90% was always going to thrash a Scotland one at maybe 80-85%. But, we had some terrific performances from our girls.

I felt our scrum stood-up well, mind you – can someone please explain to me how come the girls can produce tidier scrums than their male counterparts? Also, when we got quick ruck ball, we looked dangerous – a lesson here too for our men's team.

It was tough to get the Number One team first up, but, I sense we might have our best Women's Six Nations for a year or two.

I didn't catch her name, but, I thought the match commentator was a disgrace. She almost had an orgasm every time England attacked, she embarrassed herself. Meanwhile, beside her Brian Moore was as entertaining and incisive as ever. I particularly liked his wee dig at the SRU and their lukewarm support of the women's game. Well said “Pit Bull.”

SOME YEARS BACK, after Craig Brown put Billy Dodds, Simon Donnelly and Craig Burley in the same Scotland starting line-up, and we won, I told old 'Bleeper,' “See what happens when you get New Cumnock, Auchinleck and Cumnock singing off the same hymn sheet.”

Well, it wasn't quite the same thing but, putting Cumnock's Mark Bennett in-charge of Edinburgh on the field, in their win over Sharks, in Durban, again demonstrates the benefits of trusting the men of the old Number Five Area of Ayrshire.

A first win in South Africa by one of the northern hemisphere United Rugby Championship sides has to be celebrated. Let's hope the capital side can now go on and make it two from two, against The Lions in Johannesburg this weekend.

HOWEVER, lightning failed to strike twice, as Glasgow Warriors saw a 13-point lead overturned by their hosts in a topsy-turvy match in Cardiff.

Glasgow started slowly, went behind, but wakened-up got back in front and seemed on-course for victory early in the second half. Then, however, Sebastian Cancelliere was harshly yellow carded and, not for the first time this season, Glasgow collapsed in the final half hour, to lose 32-28.

These collapses are becoming an upsetting habit with Glasgow, one which, if they don't sort it out, and soon, could be the difference between a good and an indifferent season.

Glasgow are a better side than Cardiff, even in Wales, they ought to have enough to win.

WELL, WE KEN NOO, it's Currie Chieftains v Marr in the Tennent's Premiership Final. Apparently, from the early reports I have read, the semi-finals were cracking games, with the two losing sides proving difficult to subdue. However, Currie and Marr have been the pace-setters throughout this season, so, it is fitting they should be contesting the final.

In National 1 the result of the day was probably Biggar's 38-14 win at Meggetland. This almost certainly condemns Boroughmuir to relegation. It isn't arithmetically certain, but, old Lazarus had better survival odds than 'Muir.

The victory also keeps Biggar in the three-way title chase, alongside leaders Gala and Heriot's Blues. The Braw Lads now face what are, in effect, back-to-back “cup finals” - at Hartree Mill on Saturday, then at home to the Blues on 16 April. Win them, they're up, simple when you see it written down.

In National 2, GHK are almost home and hosed after Newton Stewart did them a huge favour by beating Dumfries Saints in the Dumfries and Galloway Derby.

Stewart's-Melville can still match GHK's 83 points total, but, the Old Anniesland swanks have such a massive points difference advantage, and no longer swan off skiiing at the sharp end of the season, so, it probably aint gonna happen and promotion seems assured for Peter Wright's men.

SCOTTISH RUGBY has a proud tradition of families being involved in individual clubs – think of the Milnes at Heriot's, the Hastings at Watsonians, the Calders at Stewart's-Melville and so on. However, a possible bit of history was made at Millbrae at the weekend, when teenager Jamie McLauchlan came off the bench for his first-team debut for Ayr.

By getting onto the park, Jamie became the fourth generation of his family to play for the club's first team. Great Grand-father Edward R Ecrepont was an Ayr captain, who played for so long, some of his team mates would only address him as: “Mr Ecrepont.”

Grand-father Eddie Ecrepont was on-hand to see Jamie' debut. Eddie is a former long-serving Ayr committee man. Mother Louise is a former captain of Ayr Ladies and today maintains the family presence on the Ayr committee. There cannot be many families who can claim four generations having played for the same club.

To complete the fairy story element, Ayr won 39-14, even Coach Stuart Fenwick was smiling at the end.

Jamie's first-team debut gives me a chance to re-run this picture of Big Lou-Lou doing her Most Embarrassing Mum In The World Act.

 

The Play-Offs - Purritch And Auld Claes or Squeaky Bum Time

AFTER a week of navel-gazing, opinions and general unhappiness, today, we're back to the purritch and auld claes of the club game – and the Play-Off Semi-Finals in the Tennent's Premiership. At Malleny Park, runaway regular season league leaders Currie Chieftains take-on Edinburgh Academical, while down at Fullarton Park, Troon, Marr College entertain Hawick.

My own particular feeling is that home advantage will play into Currie's hands and they will be heading for a Murrayfield final. The game at Troon, however, I am not so sure about. Obviously, as an Ayrshireman who has many happy memories of playing against Marr, and who regularly enjoys the wonderful hospitality at Fullarton, from the likes of Scottish Rugby's answer to Jack and Victor, I would love to see them win, but, it's Hawick they're facing and I have a wee uncertain feeling about this one – the Greens could well turn them over.

The big televised match of the weekend, at least in Scotland, will be the opening game in the Tik Tok Women's Six Nations, with Scotland entertaining England at the DAM Health Stadium.

It's a big day for Scotland number eight Jade Konkel (pictured), who will win her 50^th cap. England will, naturally start as hot favourites, however, the majority of the Scotland team play in England's premier competition, so, the match might not be the walk-over which England has enjoyed in the past. Certainly, Bryan Easson has forged Scotland into a formidable side, who will give the English girls a game. The match will be live on BBC Two, kick-off noon.

While it's “squeaky bum time” in the Premiership, National League 1 is coming to the boil nicely. League leaders Gala entertain Highland at Netherdale, second-placed Heriot's Blues play host to Dundee at Goldenacre, while across the capital, Boroughmuir desperately need a win against third-placed Biggar.

National 2 could be won this afternoon. If GHK can beat Kirkcaldy with a bonus point, at Old Anniesland, and neither Dumfries Saints nor Stewart's-Melville pick up additional points against Newton Stewart or Gordonians, the OA boys will reach an unassailable 83 points and be assured of the title.

EDINBURGH and Glasgow are now engaged in the sharp end of the URC's regular season. Edinburgh are in South Africa for a couple of games, starting against the Sharks in Durban. The South African sides have hitherto proved unbeatable on home soil in the URC, so that's a huge challenge for Edinburgh to overcome.

Mark Bennett leads a strong side, bolstered by a raft of players back from Scotland duty. But, a Sharks XV which includes Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi, Ox Nche and Bongi Mbonambi will be a tough nut to crack.

Glasgow meanwhile are in Cardiff, somewhere Coach Danny Wilson, as an old Blues hand, will be keen to win. The Warriors too welcome back a host of Scotland caps from international duty, plus Jamie Bhatti back from injury.

Lock Lewis Bean (pictured above), misses the trip. In his other guise, as Corporal Bean of 2 Rifles, he's playing for The Army v The Royal Air Force, at Gloucester's Kingsholm ground.

THE FOSROC SUPER6 is due to start-up again next month, for their new sprint season. This afternoon Ayrshire Bulls take-on Jersey Reds in a pre-season match, in Jersey. Last time the Millbrae men were on the largest of the Channel Islands, it was on British and Irish Cup duty, and that trip was one of the most-enjoyable I've been on. The Jersey club's hospitality was wonderful and while the match was ruined by a totally out-of-his-depth Welsh referee, M'Lady and I enjoyed a great long weekend.

I was sent the Bulls' squad list earlier this week, on the strict understanding it was not for publication; apparently the SRU are planning to announce all six squads at once. However, nobody told Jersey Reds that, and they have published the following squad list on their website; the Bulls squad is listed in 1-25 order: Andrew Nimmo, Alex McGuire, Michael Scott, Ewan Hamilton-Bulger, Ed Bloodworth, Rory Jackson, Blair Macpherson (captain); Cam Jones, Matt Minogue, Aaron Tait, Tom Jordan, Bobby Beattie, Elias Caven, Liam McNamara. Replacements: Rhodri Tanner, Ali Rogers, Calvin Henderson, Hamish Bain, Tim Brown, Lewis McNamara, Matt Donaldson, Thomas Glendinning, Tom Lanni, Ratu Tagive.

By my count, 13 of that squad were there last season, while it is interesting to see Hamish Bain and Ratu Tagive (pictured above), released by Glasgow Warriors – perhaps we are going to see more movement between the pro teams and S6 than we saw last season, where Glasgow were nothing like as accommodating to the S6 sides as Edinburgh. OK, Covid was a factor then, but, it seemed that Edinburgh were more-willing to release fringe players to S6 than Glasgow.

Some new faces, recruited from the Premiership, while the squad does not include any of the Academy guys.

PROFESSOR Lorne Crerar CBE has hit the ground running, since he succeeded Gavin MacColl QC as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Governance (SCOG). That's the conclusion to be drawn from the latest set of redacted SRU Council minutes, from their get-together in late February.

Since taking over in late December, Lorne has had one-to-one meetings with every SCOG member, plus a lengthy debrief with Mr MacColl. He has also spoken with the SRU's external solicitor, and sat down with General Counsel Robert 'Howzat' Howat. He has even assigned one of the solicitors from his legal firm Harper McLeod to assist with the review and remain involved until conclusion.

The released document includes a proposal that 15% of the SRU's total revenues should be allocated to the Club game. Mind you, the report does note: “Clarity was also required ion what “total revenues” meant in relation to the proposed allocation of 15% to the club game.” Sorting that little local difficulty out could be fun, methinks. If it really did mean 15% of the SRU's total revenues went to the club game, using last season's accounts, that would mean slightly under £8 million being allocated to the clubs.

Interestingly, President Ian Barr noted that some feedback to the review body suggested opposition to the notion of Regionalised Rugby Fora, and further discussion might be required on this point. Mr Barr also reported that some clubs were looking for “further refined thinking” on the proposed Club Rugby Board.

The published report also includes the following interesting paragraph: “In Professor Crerar's opinion, the current system of governance was not working and although Scottish Rugby may be a well-performing organisation, if it was perceived that it did not consider the interests of all key stakeholders, then it could not be considered good governance.”

Professor Crerar also noted: “The documentation to be put in place between the entities would set out the obligations of each party and would not allow for personal agendas. This would be a move away from the language and issues of the past and would implement a system that meets the needs of all stakeholders.” I think that would go down like a fart in a space suit with some of The Junta, so good luck with it Lorne.

There Is No Quick Fix To Our Age Group Problems

I FEAR fixing Scottish Rugby's problems will not be either a quick, or an easy job. It might be that our current travails are a passing phase, the problems exacerbated by events elsewhere – Covid etc. Or, it might well be things will get worse before they get better.

The more-obvious issues to be tackled appear to be around the Performance Department. Do we follow the football route and dump Gregor Townsend, since received wisdom is, it's easier to recruit one Head Coach than six or seven unhappy players? Or, do we even temporarily, dump the players who showed a distinct lack of common sense and discipline?

That's one for Jim Mallinder & Co, however, as the elected representatives of the clubs and the fans, it's up to Ian Barr and the Council and elected Board members to ensure, the Post-2022 Six Nations Debrief is thorough – particularly in respect of the Under-20 team.

Some of the feedback I've been getting on the shambolic state of the current status of our age group teams etc have really got me thinking. The fact is, progress between the ages of 11 and 18 is all-too-often cyclic. You can have a good crop one year, a poor one the next, the trick is evening out the ups and downs.

Thinking back to my own experience as a young player. My year team at school was a fairly-average one, we had one very-good player, the rest of us played for fun. Looking back 60-years, I left school in 1962, aged 15, I can list ten guys with whom I played at school, who transitioned to the local club.

The team the year below us, now, they were considered special – they were the best team in Ayrshire in their First, Second and Third Years, beating every other school. Yet, only four of them transitioned into the club.

This, of course, was before club-organised Mini and Midi Rugby, maybe had that been on-offer more might have remained in rugby. The system at our school was you played in years up to Third Year, in Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Years, we only ran two teams, a First XV and a Second XV. Some of that good team opted-out rather than play against the older boys, while others left at 15 for jobs.

Today, it appears, boys will play quite happily against their contemporaries, but, enthusiasm withers when they have to go out into the wider world and face more grown-up competition.

Might there be a case for promoting age group rugby at club level, up to perhaps Under-23? This, for instance, might encourage our University and College teams to play in the SRU system on a Saturday, as well as the midweek BUCS system.

At the moment, in club-organised Mini or Midi Rugby, we play games in year groupings, Primary 4 etc, then Under-13 to Under-18. Might there be a case for playing in weight bandings? Indeed, at club level, could there be a case for organising, as happens in New Zealand, a weight-banded category for adults, similar to the NZ Under-85 kg (roughly 13½ stone) competition?

I was introduced to rugby at school. When I later played for the local club, it was in the same team as the teacher who had taught me the basics and run the First Year team. Our PE teacher was a former Scotland player, albeit his nine “caps” were war-time and Victory ones. He had somehow persuaded the Rector that after Third Year, there would be no organised football, the boys had to play rugby.

The Scottish Schools Football Association famously claims: “We provide football for boys – not boys for football.” I think our PE teacher, and several others of his ilk across God's County, were keener on providing boys for rugby. So, what's it to be in schools – rugby for boys or boys for rugby?

My own feeling now is – use the schools programme to introduce the game to youngsters, but, direct the keen and the talented to their local club, whose remit is to turn that initial interest into a life-long passion for the game. To me, that's the way forward, but, we need to establish a system which works towards this end.

My own club has a nice example of this working, while, down the road at Marr College, they are also showing what is possible when the local club and school get together. Howe of Fife and Bell Baxter High School used to have a cracking co-operative scheme, which turned-up the likes of Pete and George Horne and Chris Fusaro, but, they became too-successful and the Public School chaps persuaded the SRU to change the rules to prevent them being shown-up again.

But, I admit, I might be wrong. There could be a case for a competitive schools system, however, if we go down this route, maybe the SRU should look at how other countries do things. Could we learn something from how they do it in New Zealand, or Australia, or even, closer to home, in Ireland?

One thing I feel we do need to do, is curb the influence of our big private schools, in particular their fondness for offering Sixth Year scholarships to the better boys at State schools.

Rob Baxter thinks there was “ambiguity” in play when Hoggy and Co. slipped out for a wee swally the other Saturday night. Let's see how much ambiguity he allows, the next time Hoggy shites in the nest when with Exeter.

FINALLY – I saw this on Facebook this week. I know I shouldn't. But, really – I like it: