Does The Professional Season Need To Be So Long?

I SUPPOSE, with the money sloshing around the game these days, Rugby Union, like Association Football, at the elite, professional level, has to seek to become an all-year-round game. Bugger the effect on the players, with playing through pain and the risk of burn-out, the almighty pound sterling, Euro, or dollar has to be chased. And if, years down the line, the game's rulers face court proceedings, brought by players whose health was damaged – well, that will be somebody else's problem.

Lang syne, I gave up on expecting the game's high heid yins to act to make our game more of a spectacle. The powers-that-be seem to prefer gladiatorial biff-bang-bosh attritional rugby to the game of evasion and handling skill I grew up with. “Never mind the quality – feel the width of the players,” appears to be today's watchwords in the game's corridors of power.

Back in the 1950s, when I first handled a rugby ball, the season was set in stone: you couldn't play 15-a-side games before 1 September, and you had to finish by 30 April. Even then, you could play Sevens, before and after those dates, and France had a dispensation for their championship to run on into May.

Gradually, more-so since the game went Open in 1995, we have had slippage. I write this on 31 May, four and a half weeks after, in the amateur days, the season would have ended. Yet, Edinburgh and Glasgow still have at least one more game to play, and should either or both keep winning, their season will not end until 18 June.

It's the same in England, where the Gallagher Premiership's Grand Final will also be played on 18 June, while the Grande Finale of france's Top 14 will take place one week later.

Then, of course, the top international players take off for the various Summer Tours to the Southern hemisphere, just to keep the music going.

Yet, on Friday and Saturday nights, of this weekend, we had the finals of the two most-important tournaments in Europe – the Heineken Champion's Cup and Challenge Cup. Surely, if a sport was genuinely trying to create a uniform and concerted media presence, these games would signal the end of the European 15-a-side season.

However, this cuts across the realpolitick of sport – each of the three leading European leagues is convinced, theirs is the number one competition, so is more important than the rest. Also, you have this nonsense of end-of-season play-offs, which, to my mind are nothing more than a none-too-subtle means of screwing a bit more money out of the paying public.

I don't have a problem with play-offs when, such as in North American college and professional sport, where you have two or more leagues (or conferences) as our trans-Atlantic cousins prefer, of roughly equivalent standard. Then, there is a case for play-downs to discover the overall best team.

But, it seems wrong when a team which has played every other team in its league, home and away and has emerged as the best at the end of the regular season, might be denied the trophy because of a bad day in the end-of-season play-offs.

Fewer games for the sake of games, more quality games, ought to be our watchword. Also, cut down on the unnecessary games, let the players have more recovery time, and I am sure we would see the quality rise.

We also, drastically, need a revision of the Laws, to bring back exciting, handling and running rugby, at the expense of the arm-wrestles we see today. But, that's anotehr argument, for another blog.

So, if we did away with end-of-season play-offs and handed the league title to the team which topped the table at the end of the regular season, we could cut at least a month off the season's length, then, get the domestic issues sorted out, leaving the two big European finals to end the season.

I think the players would welcome the additional rest.

 GREAT to see Scotland's top referee wee Hollie Davidson leading the first all-female officiating team to take charge of a men's international, and one involving a Six Nations team, when she takes charge of the upcoming Portugal v Italy game.

Well done her, I always thought Joy Neville or Sara Cox might be the woman to truly shatter the glass ceiling. I am sure Hollie will not be over-awed by the occasion.

I noted a cheeky post on Facebook. Someone reckoned Hollie and her team had been given an “easy” game, minus the presence of those wannabee referees, Dan Biggar, Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell, a trio who seem to be perpetually moaning at the match officials. I reckon, if any of those three started giving Hollie grief, she wouldn't be long with them – and they would quickly realise, you never upset a Scotswoman when she is working.

Hollie may have an artless, winning smile, but, like every Scots' lassie, she surely has an inner nippy sweetie, which can come out at any moment.

Saturday Morning Musings On Friday Night

IN AS MUCH as I have a team in the FOSROC Super6 series, well, that team has to be Ayrshire Bulls. They're the closest, the one I most-often report on and, well I have worn a pink and black strip as a younger man. However, the integrity of the job demands, when commenting on S6, I park any pro-Bulls bias at the door.

So, while I was disappointed, that Bulls lost it at the death on Friday night at Bridgehaugh, I have to congratulate County on the way they held it together during those final phases of play, to set-up that winning dropped goal. I think a Tennent's Premiership side would have found a way to mess-up those attacks before the final killer kick.

Which brings me to today's sermon. I appreciate the current Sprint Series is a flawed filler – taking the place of the proposed cross-border games against Welsh and possibly Irish clubs, but, it is still proving worth while, as a sorting-out exercise in terms of talent-spotting.

Take Friday night. We now know, whoever edited Walter Fifita's highlights reel, which his agent sent to BT Murrayfield, did a cracking job. He maybe looked like a player in that – in real life, on the pitch at Bridgehaugh, he's a waste of space and whatever Glasgow Warriors are paying him.

Fifita may be a Tongan international, but, he is not even, on what I have seen thus far, Super6 standard. Yet, he will be at Scotstoun next season while Ratu Tagive, on near-starvation rations on the other wing, looked the better prospect.

I can accept Ratu's time at Scotstoun has been badly hindered by injuries, but, he has put in the work, qualified as 'Scottish' and I wish him well for the future – I cannot help thinking, however, Glasgow has let the wrong Pacific Islander (yes I know he's Australian-born) go.

I also thought the Bulls backline moved more fluidly with Tom Jordan at ten than it has previously with Christian Townsend pulling the strings. I really do hope young Christian can train-on and make a contribution to Scottish rugby, but, at the moment, I feel, had his surname been anything other than Townsend, he would not have got a chance at this level.

Rumour in the South has it, the younger Townsend, Luke, currently in the Melrose development programme, might be the one from this generation touched by star dust.

There is a thing about sport and sporting prowess – every athlete has their ceiling. Back when he first broke through, I had my doubts about Andy Murray. Not in a talent sense, given his mother had a good background in the sport, I knew there had to be something there, but, I felt the young Murray was being pushed and helped in a way which Scotland's then top player Alan Mackin wasn't.

Mackin had a stellar junior career, played for Great Britain in the Davis Cup, but was somehow never given the opportunities the young Murray received. Alan himself will admit, he wasn't as good a player as Andy, but, as a journalist, who covered the Paisley-born Mackin's exploits a lot, I got the impression Alan's dad, also called Alan, a former journeyman professional footballer – and a rough diamond of a centre half, was never accepted by the tennis establishment in the way “Judy's son” was.

I sense the same Establishment bias may have been at work in pushing Christian Townsend in rugby.

Again, to make comparisons with other sports, there have been guys who stood-out in Junior Football, but, when given their chance in the Senior game, they bombed. Even there, you have guys who score for fun in the lower divisions, but, when given their chance in the top flight, their scoring touch vanishes.

Rangers used to, back when they still signed Scottish players, sign any guy who scored a hat trick against them, out-played them in midfield, or, if a goalkeeper, put up the shutters against them. A lot of these signings were found to be, in my auld Hun of a faither's expression: “Not Rangers' Class Son.”

So, in this Sprint Series, I feel one or two of the Premiership players being given their shot at glory, have come-up short, are: Not Super Rugby Class,” and will be back in the club game come September.

Some, of course, might not really fancy the increased demands and physicality of S6, but, for others, it's been a harsh lesson: “club rugby is your limit Son.”

In saying that, that's someone's call, and I just hae ma doots about some of the guys making these calls in Scottish Rugby.

We may aspire to see Scotland having a system akin to that in Ireland, and in particular in Leinster, but, if the guys making the selection calls have difficulty picking their own nose, then no system can work effectively.

ON THE final whistle at Bridgehaugh on Friday night, I switched to the BT Sport coverage of Lyon v Toulon in the European Challenge Cup Final, taking in the final 20 minutes or so.

Seemingly, I missed the good bit, since Lyon had the game all but won. There was, however, still time for a classic Cheslin Kolbe try, and a quite brutal hit by Eben Etzebeth on Lyon's Georgian star Davit Niniashvili.

The big Bokke's clean-out brought wee Austin Healey to instant orgasm, demanding a red card at the very least. However, neither referee Luke Pearce, nor TMO Ian Tempest saw anything untoward in the hit, whereupon wee Bug Eye lost interest. I suspect, however, had the referee been from another country, say oor ain Mike Adamson, the English rugby media would still have been shouting for a red card next Wednesday. I like Luke Pearce, by the way, I feel he is England's second-best match official, after Wayne Barnes.

Speaking of Barnes, he has the big one today – Leinster v La Rochelle in the Champions Cup Final. This could be a cracker.

Edinburgh - Better Than Glasgow, But, Not By Much

MY LAST post was concerned with Glasgow Warriors' recruitment policies and their use of players. So, it is only fair that I do the same for Edinburgh Rugby, more-so given their announcement of new signing Wes Goosen, from the Hurricanes in New Zealand.

Given he is 26, a former New Zealand Under-20 player, who hasn't trained-on to become a full All Black, in my mind, that makes the South African-born back three player another second rate, Non-Scottish Qualified import. I feel, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, we now have too-many of these. Still, I suppose his signing reinforces the allegations of someone very high-up inside Murrayfield having rather a close relationship with rugby's biggest player agency.

Much of my last post concerned the season now ending. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have at least one more game to play, but, as things stand at the DAM Health Stadium: in season 2021-22, 52 players pulled on an Edinburgh strip over the 25 games (the pre-season friendly with Newcastle Falcons and the 24 competitive games in the United Rugby Championship and in Europe).

In those 24 competitive games, 48 players played between 7 minutes (Kwagga van Niekerk) and 1325 minutes (Emiliano Boffelli). The Argentinian back played the most minutes, over 17 games, but scrum-half Ben Vellacott stripped most often, either starting or being on the bench in 21 games. Boffelli's minutes per game played figure by the way is an impressive 78 minutes per game.

Over the season so far, Edinburgh's first team (the guys used most often) is (in 1-23 order):

Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Leroy Atalifo, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Hodgson, Magnus Bradbury, Connor Boyle, Ben Muncaster; Ben Vellacott, Jaco van der Watt; Emialano Boffelli, James Lang, Mark Bennett, Romino Moyano; Henry Immelman. Replacements: Adam McBurney, Boan Venter, Wilem Nel, Marshall Sykes, Hamish Watson, Henry Pyrgos, Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham.

Glasgow's 'First Team' from yesterday comprised 13 Scots and only two non-Scots. Today's Edinburgh squad has 11 Scots and four non-Scots in the starting XV and seven Scots and one non-Scot on the bench.

Seven NSQ players spent most of the season warming the bench, or holding tackle bags at Scotstoun, at Murrayfield, At Murrayfield only four NAQs were lightly-worked across at Edinburgh. Pierce Phillips featured in 12 games, accruing 504 minutes of action; Mesuliame Kunavula played in 10 games, for 435 minutes of action; prop Luan de Bruin featured in 8 games and 264 minutes of action. Finally, in a season ruined by injury Viliame Vata managed a mere 6 games and 384 minutes of action.

Whatever the arguments for and against having NSQ players, I reckon, Edinburgh make better use of theirs than Glasgow. The Median figure for games played in a season is the same for Edinburgh as for Glasgow – 11 games, while Edinburgh's minutes played per season, at 592 is slightly less than Glasgow's 604 median figure. Five of Edinburgh's NSQ's are above the median games played figure, with four of the NSQ's surpassing the 592 minutes of total game time.

I have frequently written on here – I have nothing against the recruitment of “X-Factor NSQs” - guys who are a wee bit special. Three or four of the Edinburgh guys, I feel, come into that category, so, hopefully, the Edinburgh Academy guys will benefit from training and occasionally playing with them.

Rudi Brown (1 game – 17 minutes) and Jamie Campbell (1 game – 11 mnutes) were the only Edinburgh Academy players to get game time, but, the belief is, Edinburgh are now more-willing than Glasgow to release fringe and Academy players to play in Super6, which will hopefully aid their development.

A COUPLE of stories in other outlets have caught my eye over the past two days. Firstly, in an exclusive TOL interview, David Barnes reveals that Robbie McCallum, the stand-out inside centre in the ongoing FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series, is leaving Boroughmuir Bears for an office job in London.

McCallum grandson of the great Struan McCallum, is quitting after three years as an SRU Academy player attached to Glasgow Warriors – for whom he has never set foot on the pitch in a game.

McCalum therefore joins the lengthy list of young Scots who have been failed by the SRU system.

The thing is, the Gallagher Premiership in England is downsizing. Their salary cap is being reduced, the RFU is insisting on more emphasis on English players, so, the big teams down there are concentrating more on bringing through, England-qualified Academy prospects.

At the same time, the next level down, the RFU Championship is also suffering from a funding cut. Non-English players are being let go there too. This means, guys such as McCallum, should they wish to take the High Road South, could enjoy a good standard of rugby, at least the equivalent of Super6, on a part-time basis down south.

The other piece I noticed was in the Guardian, where I learned, the RFU is trying to cement a deal with the top English clubs, whereby, to help England's World Cup preparations, England squad members may be, thanks to Autumn Internationals and Six Nations calls, only available to their clubs for half of the season. |This could mean extra work-load for English-based Scotland caps such as Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray at Exeter Chiefs, Cameron Redpath and Josh Bayliss at Bath, Ewan Ashman at Sale and Chris Harris and Adam Hastings at Gloucester.

I honestly feel, we must start looking seriously at a third, full-time pro side in the URC and central contracts for our key players, to prevent burn-out. Do this, and start really giving our young talent a cohesive development plan, and the future of Scottish Rugby will be bright.

Carry-on, stumbling from crisis to crisis and, ten years down the line, we could be as bad as Scottish Football. With the lack of intelligence, planning acumen and drive evident within the SRU's Performance Department: Forward tho' Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.

You Read This And Think - The SRU Couldnae Run A Bath

A REMINDER – The only area of professional Rugby Union which makes money in this professional era is the international game: the Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations. With this in-mind, the Scottish Rugby Union's chosen management model is that the full Scotland team, playing an attractive brand of attacking rugby fills BT Murrayfield on six or seven occasions each season. Those six or seven games, or the money they pull-in, keeps the game alive in Scotland.

To keep most of Scotland's small core of international-class players ticking over and ready for the international game, the SRU has established two full-time professional teams, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, to play in the United Rugby Championship.

Some would say, in an ideal world, these two clubs should be privately-owned and independent of the SRU. Others argue, since the primary function of the teams is to prepare Scottish players for the international team and international rugby, the SRU has to have a heavy involvement in the management of these teams.

As with everything, it comes down to the bottom line. The last SRU Annual Report, for season 2020-21 shows the cost of running International and Professional Rugby (the full Mens and Women's Scotland teams, the age group teams, the Sevens squad, Edinburgh and Glasgow) was £27,688,000.

However, between ticket and broadcasting income alone, including a figure of £5,400,000 identified as income from professional rugby, we have income of £33,563,000. (This does not as far as I can tell, include income from corporate hospitality).

Exactly how much the two full-time professional teams cost to run is a State Secret, but, received wisdom has this figure as around £4,000,000 per team. Therefore, given we only see £5,400,000 written down as income from professional rugby – they are loss-making entities, subsidised from the greater income of the national side.

These figures also indicate, we are not going to see either Edinburgh or Glasgow sold-off to private investors any time soon. Indeed, given their reason for surviving – to prepare Scotland players for international duty, I would argue, there is no need to ever sell-off either team to private owners.

Now we come to the meat on the bones of this article. We are now into the “cattle market” part of the rugby year. New signings for season 2022-23 are being announced, while departures from existing squads are also being revealed. In this post, I intend dealing with Glasgow Warriors, and what we know about their cast sale from this season and recruitment for next.

Between the two pre-season games, against Newcastle Falcons and Worcester Warriors and the23 competitive games to date in the URC and in Europe, 54 players pulled on a Warriors' strip in season 2021-22. I was unable to find out how many minutes those players who stripped for the game played against Worcester Warriors, so, I ignored the two pre-season games.

In the 23 competitive games, however,46 players played between 9 and 1478 minutes. The least-used player was Jordan Lenac, who got nine minutes off the bench in one game, while the busiest was Richie Gray, who took the field 20 times in accruing those 1478 minutes. Gray was only the second most-used player, young Ross Thompson featured in 21 of the 23 games, accruing 1229 minutes play.

Over the season, which still has at least one more game to go, Warriors' 'First Team squad” was (in 1-23 order):

Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray, Kieran McDonald-Seran, Ryan Wilson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey; Ali Price, Ross Thompson; Cole Forbes, Sam Johnson, Sione Tuipoluto, Kyle Steyn; Josh McKay. Replacements: George Turner, Ollie Kebble, Simon Berghan, Scott Cummings, Rob Harley, Jamie Dobie, Duncan Weir, Ollie Smith.

Twenty-one of those players are “Scotland-qualified” the two NSQ (Non-Scotland-qualified) players being Australian Jack Dempsey and New Zealander Josh McKay. Dempsey has been Warriors' third most-used player this season, accruing 1469 minutes of action over 20 games, while McKay has managed 1103 minutes of action over 14 games.

Warriors have employed a further seven NSQ players this season:

Enrico Pierotti – 11 games, 253 minutes; Lewis Bean – 11 games, 230 minutes; Sebastian Concilliere – 9 games, 651 minutes; Domingo Miotti – 5 games, 154 minutes; Brad Thyer (short-term loan from Cardiff) 3 games, 80 minutes; Walter Fifita – 2 games, 101 minutes and Jordan Lenac – 1 game, 9 minutes.

The median figures for Warriors' players appearances this season are: 11 games and 604 minutes. Of the nine NSQ players who featured this season, only Dempsey, McKay, Pierotti and Bean were above the median figure in appearances and only Dempsey, McKay and Cancilliere above the median figure in minutes played.

Is the employment of such NSQ players, in a team whose primary purpose is to prepare Scottish players for international rugby, the best use of SRU resources?

It could be argued, Dempsey is “an X-factor player.” He brings something extra to the table, just as previous NSQ players such as Nico Matawalu, Leone Nakarawa and DTH van der Merwe did. But, in employing the other players, good though they may be, Scottish players are being denied game time and experience. This cuts across one of the principal reasons for running the two teams.

The need for some NSQ players could be understood in the days of the PRO12 and PRO14, when, during the international windows, league games were still played. Under the URC, there are no longer league games during the international windows – so, we do not have the same need for experienced non-Scots.

Also, we must not forget: There is no relegation from the URC, so we can more-readily give our young talent a chance.

How badly Scotland compares with Ireland when it comes to giving young players a chance was vividly exposed in a Facebook post I read last week.

This demonstrated how Leinster have fielded 59 different players this season, including 13 Academy players. The official Glasgow Warriors website lists 8 Academy players:

Gregor Brown, Euan Cunningham, Fin Callaghan, Angus Fraser, Rory Jackson, Robbie McCallum, Alex Samuel and Max Williamson. Of those eight players, only Brown got any game time - 31 minutes over the last two games the team has played to date.

A further four players: Ratu Tagive, Pete Horne, Hamish Bain and Tom Jordan never saw a minute's action over the season. You simply have to ask – just what is going on at Scotstoun?

Warriors' team-building for next season has seen them recruit two NSQ South Africans: JP du Preez and Sintu Manjezi, both are lock forwards and are seen in many quarters as direct replacements for Rob Harley and Hamish Bain, both of whom will leave Scotstoun at the end of the season. No harm to the guys, but, neither comes into the category of “a marquee signing,” i.e. a player who is going to slot straight into the first team and make a difference.

Warriors already have two younger, just as big Scots on the books, in Alex Samuel and Max Williamson. Common sense suggests the team would be better giving them opportunities, rather than paying the wages of two second-rate South Africans.

But, when did common sense have anything to do with how the SRU mis-manages the professional/performance game?

I've Seen The Future Again

RABBIE BURNS used to get a good view of proceedings at Millbrae – well, at least his statute in the adjacent Burns Monument gardens did; but, nowadays the trees have grown to the extent his view is blocked.

“Why is he invoking Alloway's great man of letters?” you ask, perhaps assuming the Old Fool has gone even-further doolally. Perhaps the result of too-much sun as Aristotle watched Saturday's Ayrshire Bulls v Watsonians FOSROC SUPER6 Sprint match, but, on reflecting on what I am about to write I would suggest: Tam O' Shanter's encounter with Cutty Sark and Co in the environs of Millbrae had Kate, Tam's guid wife, forecasting: “In Hell, they'll roast ye like a herrin'.” I will only get roasted in the BTL (below the line) comments section of this blog and on social media, when I repeat my belief: “Super6 is the future.”

The game, deservedly won 29-26 by the visitors was the best S6 game I have seen yet. The competition remains a work in progress, and it remains handicapped by some daft decisions from the powers-that-be at BT Murrayfield when it comes to how it is run, but, the quality of this game was way above what we see in the Tennent's Premiership.

One spectator I spoke to afterwards, a guy who has been there, done it and got the tee-shirt, said: “Either of these two teams would put 60 points on any team from the Premiership, they are that far ahead.”

I would not perhaps go that far, but would reckon the S6 outfit would finish at least 40, possibly 50 points ahead of the hypothetical Premiership side.

Mind you, it is difficult to get the right line on this Sprint series of games. I believe this could well be a one-of venture. Hopefully, in a year's time, we will finally get to see the longed-for cross-border games with the top Welsh, and maybe too the Irish club sides, at this time of year. However, given this season's wee effort allows more game time to younger Scottish talent, I believe the competition has proved its worth.

The key to any future success in cross-border games, and in Super Rughby Scotland's secondary aim of young player development is getting the balance right. In this respect, Watsonians and Stirling County deserve to top the standings, since these two clubs have, I reckon, come closest to getting the ideal balance of youthful promise and guiding experience correct. 

Lee Millar

The qualities of Lee Millar and Man-of-the-Match Iain Moody were crucial in Watsonians' win. Millar pulled the strings beautifully, while, whenever the visitors needed a big individual play – Moody appeared to come up with it.

Edinburgh's Matt Currie was another key player for the capital side, with a sensational solo try and a brilliant assist for a second touchdown. Perhaps S6's USP is that it allows other players to test themselves against full-time pros. In the past, we have, both in S6 and in the Premiership before that, seen drafted professionals go through the motions, doing the minimum and by their body language making it clear: “I think I'm better than this, I shouldn't be here and am only playing because I am contractually obliged to.”

Such selfish behaviour only shows that player up for the dickhead he is. When you get guys like Currie, who has a connection with Watsonians and buys into the ethos of the team, well, you've got a wee bonus. Also, having to deal with a full-timer, giving of his best, raises the game of his semi-pro immediate opponent, who realises: “This is the standard I have to reach if I want to advance my playing career.” a win-win all round.

We hear, the Sprint Series will be a one-season wonder, but, at least it gives the S6 clubs a chance to look at the new talent coming through, while it allows some Premiership players to try out the performance game and, who knows, perhaps win a contract.

I am more than ever convinced, the way ahead for the game in Scotland is for S6 to become S8, and possibly S10. Below that, we find a way of keeping players playing by adapting the Laws to provide a less-physical recreational game.

Some will say: “No, you have to provide rugby for the poorer players.” Recreational rugby will do this – take the excessive physicality out of the game and encourage running rugby, they will still want to play. However, increasingly we are seeing, the youngsters emerging from youth rugby are less willing to carry-on playing the full-fat game for fun, and increasingly too, don't like the idea of having to start off as bench warmers.

Provide a performance game for the elite players and a fun game for the rest – that's the way ahead.

The longed-for third professional side may never happen. As one shrewd and highly-experienced clubman told me recently: “The third full-time pro side, when it comes, will either be a women's side competing in England's Premier 15s, or a women's side competing in the suggested United Rugby Championship's women's league.”

That way, the best option for giving game time to the fringe Edinburgh and Glasgow players is via S6/8/10 – the SRU simply could not fund the women's side plus a third men's side, or even, as has been suggested, Edinburgh and Glasgow A teams.

Given my advanced years, I may well be deid and gone before reality hits, but, I am more and more convinced, a small number of “performance Clubs”, all feeding into a national system dedicated to providing the best platform for Scotland's best talent, under-pinned by a healthy club game, concentrating on genuinely fun recreational rugby, on a regionalised basis, that's the way forward.

How we get there, however, this being Scotland will always be problematic. After all, the club game's Aye been an' aye will be, run to suit a few clubs.

An interested spectator at Millbrae on Saturday was former Glasgow Captain Alan “Luigi” Brown, currently over here from Vancouver for the Scottish leg of his daughter's marriage. Alan was impressed by the quality of the rugby on-display in the game.

Stand-In Sam Stands Out

EVERYTHING has its price. And for Sam Grove-White the price for all those Business Class flights to exotic destinations for Sevens competitions, all that time in four and five star hotels, well it had to be paid yesterday, when he got the last-minute call to referee the Toulon v London Irish Challenge Cup semi-final.

 

It all seemed like a nice weekend for Sam, (pictured above). An all-expenses-paid trip to the South of France, with an afternoon as an assistant referee to break-up the trip. Then Mikey Adamson injures himself in the warm-up and Sam the Understudy becomes Sam the main man.

OK, his afternoon wasn't helped by some of the messing about in the scrums, he got a couple of the calls wrong, but, on the whole, I think Sam did himself a world of good. The calm way he handled that spot of handbags, late in the first half, was almost text book. Mind you, I'd have been tempted to red car Agustin Creevy – for his own protection – after he grabbed a fistful of Eben Etzebeth's hair.

My first thought when I saw that was of big Martin Bayfield's great after-dinner story of Wade Dooley's reaction to being laid out by a cheap shot from a French player.

When he came round, 'The Blackpool Tower' told the referee, in no uncertain terms: “Ref, don't you dare send that fucker off.” I suspect Sam might have got a similar message, but, in a South African accent, yesterday.

My second thought was of the legendary Collopy brothers, wh played for Bective Ragners in the 1920s and are mentioned in James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake.' Legend has it, during an international in Paris, the referee was about to send-off a French player for thumping one Collopy brother, when the other intervened on the Frenchman's behalf and got the referee to allow the miscreant to remain on the park. Some ten minutes later, the Frenchman was removed form the game – on a stretcher. They handled arguments differently back then.

(To get back to the script): The highlight of the game, however, was that magical try for Irish by Henry Arundell. I said, after his performance for the England Under-20 team – he had the potential to cause us pain for years to come. I did not at that time realise – he is Scotland-qualified.

The chances of us getting him may be small, but, we have to have a go – that level of individual talent comes along about once in a generation. What an asset he could be to us.

I WAS not at all surprised by the reaction in the Borders to that hammering Southern Knights suffered at the hands of Ayrshire Bulls at tea time on Saturday.

Some of the below the line comments on social media – you could feel the pleasure being taken elsewhere in the supposed heartland of Scottish Rugby, at the hated Melrose being hammered.

That's sad, but, it's a Scottish thing – I have grown-up with that attitude in God's County, the heartland of Scottish Junior Football. I have previously used my story of asking Cumnock Juniors' sponsor, the late Jim Yates, what he wanted to happen at an Auchinleck Talbot v Glenafton Athletic Junior Cup Final.

“An atomic bomb dropped on Firhill as they kick-off would suit me fine,” said Yatesie. The same sort of thinking and love of the neighbours is about in the Borders, as the 'Rose wilts in the heat of the FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series.

I saw posts referring to the team as: “The Barren Knights,” with weel-kent characters from other Borders clubs positively relishing the Melrose pain. This is a particularly Scottish attitude – I have seen it often in Ayrshire Junior football, while, in certain Ayrshire rugby clubs there is a culture of: “Any club but Ayr,” when a gifted young player has to move up the ladder, such is the jealousy around the success of the Millbrae club.

The unfortunate fact for the Knights is, at the moment, several experienced players, particularly forwards are injured. In rugby, you just have to be missing a handful of players in key positions and what might have been a narrow defeat becomes a rout. That's what happened to the Knights on Saturday.

I strongly suspect, come the full Super6 season in the autumn, the Knights will have re-grouped and again be competitive. Those supporters of rival Borders clubs, relishing the current Knights' discomfort, could well be left with eggs on their faces.

We hear too of wider unrest in the Melrose club. One or two long-serving officials have stood down and, as yet, their replacements haven't shone. This happens in voluntary club situations – I could rattle-off the names of several clubs who have floundered on this situation. But, I am certain, the 'Rose will bloom again and that sea of empty seats in the main stand will again have bodies in them..

ONE OF the joys of being a rugby “anorak” is to read the English newspapers' websites on the Monday after carnage on the European stage. The howls of frustration from the English fans in the btl comments are always cheering.

It's like our papers after the Bigot Brothers slip-up: “the referee was disgraceful – they should have had two players red-carded and another three yellow-carded.” “We wuz robbed.” “The salary cap is killing our clubs.”

At least, if you're Scottish, you only have to blame TCD and The Junta for all the ills of the game.

FINALLY – What are we going to do about Finn Russell? His performance in Racing 92's win over Sale Sharks was the usual mixture of Finntastic and Finsanity. He's rugby's version of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo – a fantastic individual talent, fated, at international level to be surrounded by team mates who are simply not up to his standard.

He's a diamond and we are fortunate to have him.