Width And Quality - Europe Is Back On The Agenda

I SUPPOSE I will be one of the few people around today who remember the television series: 'Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width (they'd never get away with a title that long today). It was about a pair of London tailors, the Jewish one who did the jackets, and his Irish partner, who did the trousers. It was gentle (no Moshe, not gentile) humour, which took a bit of getting used to.

Any way, my reason for bringing up this old series, is, it seems to be the modus operandi of today's sports administrators. Every tournament, of every sport, has to be bigger than the last – we are in the middle of a mass-participation race to the bottom.

Other than perhaps screwing more cash out of even-more (both in terms of numbers and perception) gullible customers, I can see no reason for making the number of nations who get to qualify for the final tournament in any competition.

For instance – you no longer need to be your national champion to qualify for, and perhaps win football's “The Champions League” and by so doing take possession of the marvellous European Cup. Rugby Union has, of course, gone down that road with the Heineken Champions Cup.

And by the way, while there might be a reason for saying, every sponsorship has a sell-by date, the fact that Heineken is pulling out should be concerning Rugby Union in Europe's High Heid Yins.

Now football shamelessly capitulated to the ego of the really-big clubs and their owners, when they broadened the entry criteria to turn the old European Cup into the Champions League. They had no need to do this, there were already over 50 individual domestic leagues in membership of UEFA.

However, the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, the Milan Clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus could not guarantee, for all their money, to win their domestic league each season; UEFA would not allow a European version of a North American Major League, so we had the current compromise of non-domestic champions getting into the top competition.

Rugby Union doesn't have that problem – we only have three major European Leagues – The Gallagher Premiership, the BKT United Rugby Championship and The Top 14. OK, you could perhaps allow the defending champions the opportunity to defend their crown, if they had failed to win their domestic leaguer, but, a four-club competition would simply be too-restrictive for the development of the game.

Unlike football, Rugby Union is (away from small areas such as South West France, the Scottish Borders, South West of England/South Wales and Ireland, not the large crowds draw of football. The only area of the game that makes money is International Rugby Union. So, any multi-nation club rugby tournament has to be a bit of a compromise when it comes to who plays.

[The above is the preamble to the main course of this post – the draw for the Season 2023-24 European competitions]

The draw was made at lunch-time today. I did register with EPCR TV in the hope of seeing it live – unfortunately, for some unknown reason, I couldn't connect.

Personally, I blame oor air Dominic McKay, now Le Grand Fromage of European club rugby. Back in the day, when Oor Dom was the SRU COO I suggested Dom was the Junta member with the working brain cell; but that was before he showed himself to be a genuine numpty, by exchanging the Murrayfield cess pit for the even-more toxic Celtic Park one.

I told him he was making a mistake going there, but, he wouldn't listen. Any way, an hour after the European draw ended, I was finally able to find out, who plays whom.

Glasgow Warriors have been drawn in Pool 3 of The Champions Cup (no longer sponsored by Heineken); the full draw for which is:

Munster Rugby

Aviron Bayonnais

Glasgow Warriors

Exeter Chiefs

RC Toulon

Northampton Saints

So, Warriors get an immediate opportunity to overturn the result of the Challenge Cup final, which they of course lost to Toulon. But, the draw has certainly done them no favours, it's a tough group.

In The Challenge Cup, Edinburgh are also in Pool 3; the full draw for which is:

Edinburgh Rugby

Castres Olympique

ASM Clermont Auvergne

Invitee 2

Gloucester Rugby

Scarlets

Again, not an easy group, but, as we know, there are no longer any easy games in Europe, except perhaps those against the invited clubs. Which club will be Invitee 2 is still unconfirmed. However, it could well be Tel Aviv Heat, who lost out to Georgia's Black Lions in the final of the Rugby Europe Super Cup.

A wee trip to Israel in mid-winter, while costly, might go down a treat with the Edinburgh fans, however, before then, there is the small matter of a World Cup to be got out of the way and a new Head Coach appointed.

 

Gallic Flair - Oui: Irish Charm - Non

I AM not a happy bunny this morning. One of the pluses of 'The Coven' as my four Darling Daughters (BTW – where are my as yet unreceived Fathers Day cards?) are known, allowing me to plug into Amazon Prime on the Papa Cave television, is that I got access to Viaplay Sport and could watch the BKT United Rugby Championship and the French Top 14.

So, Saturday night viewing was taken care off – Norway v Scotland at fitba, followed by La Rochelle v Toulouse in the Top 14 Final. Except, Viaplay didn't have the big game from Paris. No coverage, nothing, zilch - “Getting aff at Paisley” taken to extremes. Fizzin Ah wis, steam comin' oot o' ma lugs.

I did manage, late of Saturday night, to access a French commentary clip of the scoring – that was one brilliant match-winning try from Romain N'Tamack, (pictured), an individual score fit to win any competition. As our Gallic Cousins say: “Formidable!!!”

 

By the way, it wasn't until the second viewing that I spotted, the Toulouse player who was running the support line when N'Tamack broke – it was Antoine Dupont.

One added bonus from that wonderful try was Ronan O'Gara's post-match verdict. He was, to use a guid Scots word “Beelin'” - I suppose his reaction has, in a way, cheered-up Johnny Sexton. On balance, however, I think Sexton has just held onto his “Worst Irish Loser” title.

I also enjoyed the video clip of the two Toulouse players using themselves as human ten-pin bowling balls to knock over that magnificent shield in the dressing room post-match.

My understanding is that Viaplay's contract to show the Top 14 has now expired. I don't know if they will have a new contract in place for next season, but, having had a taste of what is on offer in France, I hope I can watch that league again next season.

ACCORDING TO Yahoo!! Sport, World Rugby has moved closer to setting-up its long-touted World League. The start date is down for 2026 and the initial line-up will be ring-fenced until 2030.

The format will be:

• Six Nations to continue more or less as is – England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales

• The Rugby Championship nations: Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to be joined by Japan and Fiji to form their six-nations competition.

• The Northern Hemisphere nations will then each play three internationals in the Southern Hemisphere each July

• Then the Southern Hemisphere nations will in turn, each play three internationals in the Northern Hemisphere in the Autumn

• The top two nations from each hemisphere will then play-off in an annual Grand Final.

There are still apparently a few Is to dot and Ts to cross before it all kicks off, not least being establishing some means whereby the leading Tier Two nations such as Georgia, Samoa and Tonga can, in time, be promoted to the main competition, which could in turn see promotion and relegation between the two main hemisphere competitions and the next level down.

I appreciate the 57 Old Farts at Twickenham, and their wannabee contemporary in others of the Established Rugby Nations would quite happily roll along with Tier One, Two etc nations, however, until such times as we put in place a system whereby nations such as Georgia and the Pacific Islands can push for a place at the top table, then ours will never be th global game it deserves to be.

I remember, over 30 years ago now, doing an interview with Richie Dixon, about nation development. Back then, the SRU had taken the Swedish Rugby Union under their wing, and Richie had been out in Stockholm coaching – what happened to such initiatives.

If and when the above-mentioned World League comes to pass, that will pretty-much take care of the year for the full national side. Can I suggest, for the better development of Scottish Rugby and our young players we:

• Get the old Scotland A or B team up and running again, playing against the European Tier Two nations such as Spain, Portugal, Romania and The Netherlands

• Failing that, take them off to play other Tier Two nations or Tier One age group teams etc .

• Get the Club XV playing European Trophy or Conference nations

The major nations need to get out there and spread the rugby message and if the rest will not do it, Scotland should give a lead.

 

The Stars O' Rabbie Burns Country

AFTER selecting my Best Scotland XV of the past 65 years, I am feeling emboldened enough to come up with a really controversial all-time team. It is time to select my All-Time Ayrshire XV.

 

Knowing what a clannish, in-bred and argumentative lot we are in God's County, this one will go down as well as Billy Connolly's legendary “fart in a space suit.”

I can sense the usual suspects among the regular critics of this blog over-dosing in vitriol in readiness to rubbish my selection.

Straight in, here is my squad:

Ian McLauchlan (Ayr Academy)

Richard Allen (Kilmarnock)

Jock Craig (Ayr)

Billy Cuthbertson (Marr)

Gordon Brown (Marr)

Alistair McHarg (Irvine)

Gordon Strachan (Ayr)

Peter Brown (Marr) (Captain)

Bill Mowat (Ayr)

Jimmy Mitchell (Cumnock)

Derek Stark (Cleopatra's)

David Dunsmuir (Cumnock)

Ian Murchie (Ardrossan)

David Shedden (Garnock)

Derrick Lee (Ayr)

On the bench:

Pat McArthur (Ayr)

Gordon Reid (Ayr)

John Burston (Ayr)

Ian Gray (Kilmarnock)

Hugh Hamilton (Kilmarnock)

Sandy Service (Ayr)

Brian Gossman (Ardrossan)

Steve Munro (Ayr)

There were some obvious shoo-ins for that squad. The internationalists were always going-in, although I have broken-up the legendary boiler-house pairing of Broon Frae Troon and Big Al, choosing to pick the younger McHarg in the position he would probably play if he was around today, at six.

Some might question how come I can prefer Richard Allen to two internationalists – McArthur and Quinton Dunlop. Believe me, Richard was a class act, in every way.

You might wonder at my selection of two Cumnock guys in the starting XV, neither of whom is Mark Bennett. Well Mitchell, with whom I have been friends since we met in the East Ayrshire Primary Football League was a class act. Ayr wanted him as stand-off, but had to settle for club legend Jim Wilson, after Mickey opted to come up for air, after underground as an electrician at Barony Colliery.

He went to university in Brighton and has been there ever since, playing for the Brighton club and for Sussex. He knocked back an approach from London Scottish, and was “capped” while playing in Dubai. Another class act.

David Dunsmuir played centre in the Jordanhill College XV which won the old Unofficial Championship in 1969. He was the only uncapped three-quarter in an Inter-Services Championship-winning Royal Air Force team, where his wing partner was Billy Steele. Dunsmuir and Murchie would be a potent centre pairing in today's professional game.

Bill Mowat was chosen for the London Scottish Schools XV v Richmond, when he was at Merchiston. That honour was the 1950s/1960s equivalent of a school-boy cap. He was top class, but, to Bill, Rugby Union was never more than a hobby.

After many years of service to Ayr, as player and administrator, he walked away from the game when it went Open, then he was taken far-too-soon. Today, he'd be a professional.

And just look at the quality of the guys I have overlooked – no place for Jock “Stiffy” McClure, Johnny Burston, David Gray, who lost out on a bench place to his elder brother Ian. Honourable mentions too to Jimmy Gossman, Ayr's Alistair McMillan and David Ashton, Kilmarnock's Jimmy Gibson, David Good and The Martin Brothers, Ayr's Brown Brothers, various McCallums, Alex Wilson from West of Scotland, Marr's McGuffie Clan, and today's big names, such as Mark Bennett, Robbie Fergusson and Ayrshire Bulls' skipper Blair Macpherson. Aye, we've had some class acts here in God's County.

And, no less a commentator than the great Norman Mair, who reckoned future England cricket Captain Mike Denness could have been every-bit as prominent had he continued his rugby career, after being a member of the legendary unbeaten Ayr Academy XV which included three future national captains at different sports – Ian McLauchlan (rugby) and Ian Ure (football).

I also restricted selection to guys who were Ayrshire-born, or lived most of their formative years in the county. Thus, various Ayrshire Kiwis had to be overlooked, also some of the Galloway Irishmen who came up the road – the likes of Fergus and Stafford McDowall, Geordie Nicholson, David Armstrong, David Fulton and, of course Hugh and John Parker and a bus load of Drysdales.

 I also initially overlooked a Kilmarnock player from just before my time, a man who everyone tells me was something special - Ian Blake, who got a Scotland Trial when Kilmarnock was a junior club; and how could I forget Killie's British Lion from the 1924 Tour, Lion #211, Andrew Ross. Happy to give him an honourable mention. 

When it comes to the coaching staff, again, it's an easy call. No way can I look past Campbell Bone and 'The Ayatollah' – Big John McHarg, to run the team – with Rab Dale and Franklin Clark as the water boys.

By the way, if others wish to select their favourite local Xvs, feel free. What, I wonder, would the all-time Hawick XV look like; or can anyone come up with a Best Glasgow XV, chosen from either side of the Anniesland Hedge.

Any contributions welcomed this summer.

 

Aristotle Selects His Best Scotland Team Of The Past 65 Years

AS AN impressionable youth, my obsession with becoming a Sports Writer was, in part, picqued by reading the back pages of the Weekly News, and in particular Fun and Games Wi' Andy James.

This column featured the exploits of Invertottie Howkers' star centre forward – Wan Fittit; what a character. He had a pet budgie - Hidegkuti, named after that great Hungarian of the 1950s. Wan also had a girl friend named Banda Hope, while his dad was a salt packet inserter at the local crisp factory.

If Wan Fittit was the Erling Haaland of the times, he was just one of Howkers' stable of galacticos assembled by ace manager Wullie Signim, stars such as goalkeeper Dinny Drappit and centre-half Auld N Dunne.

Well, the years have passed and I have morphed into Auld N Dunne, and now write a blog which has as-much relevance to Scottish sport as that memorable 1950s Weekly News feature.

So, having given myself licence to be self-indulgent, I thought I would have some fun during the current interregnum between the end of Season 2022-23 and the upcoming Rugby World Cup by writing some stuff purely for the entertainment value.

I thought I would start with my take on a feature which has been running on Facebook, where one rugby page I follow is asking us to pick our best eclectic Scottish team over the past 60 or so years.

Since that time frame covers almost exactly the length of time I have been involved in the game, I feel well-qualified to select my Best of Scottish Team since 1958. As ever on here, it will be named in 1-23 order.

Starting in the front row, we have had one or two rather special combinations. When I first went to Murrayfield, Scotland's front row almost picked itself: Hughie McLeod, Norman Bruce and Dave Rollo. Later on, we had another terrific trio: Ian McLauchlan, Frank Laidlaw and Sandy Carmichael. Since then we have had brilliant operators such as David Sole, Tom Smith, Colin Deans, Iain Milne, Gordon Bulloch and Euan Murray, so plenty of names in the frame for the hard yards at the coal face.

We have had some wonderful locks, who kept the boiler-house of the scrum well-stoked, from the perhaps a bit small, but wonderfully-athletic Hamish Kemp, whose shock of red hair was a beacon in the dark days of the 1950s, via Mike Campbell-Lammerton and Frans ten Bos, on through The Brown Brothers and Alistair McHarg, then big Andy Reed, allegedly discovered because his mother wore a Heart of Midlothian scarf to a game watched by an SRU selector, Damian Cronin, Scott Murray, Doddie Weir and today's Gray Brothers.

We have been well-served too in the back row, from Jimmy Greenwood and Adam Robson back in the day, via Ronnie Glasgow, Derrick Grant and Jim Telfer, Pringle Fisher, Roger Arneil, The Calder Twins, John Jeffrey, David Leslie, Iain Paxton, John Beattie, Derek White, Jason White, Glasgow Warriors' 'Killer Bees', to today's Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson. There's more than a XV there, vying for just three places.

At scrum-half, the under-appreciated Stan Coughtgrie was a British Lion, as was Dougie Morgan and Jed-forest's Three Nines – Roy and Greig Laidlaw and Gary Armstrong. Throw Brian Redpath's name into the mix and you have another one position headache.

Outside them, there are some talented tens in the frame: Jock Turner, Ian McGeechan, John Rutherford, Craig Chalmers and Finn Russell – choices, choices.

Picking the centres too is a tough call – Hawick alone offer us a choice between Geordie Stevenson, Jim Renwick and Alistair Cranston. I could select Sean Lineen and Scott Hastings from the 1990 Grand Slam XV. John Frame and before him, Brian Henderson rewrote the specification sheet for Scottish centres, while today's Warriors' pairing of 'Shugipulotu' are not bad. Although I have mentioned him as a contender for the ten shirt, we must not forget, Ian McGeechan played centre for the immortal unbeaten 1974 Lions, and I must not forget my wee pal Alan Tait..

And what of our back three – the two wingers and full-back. Genius abounds here: Arthur Smith, Andy Irvine, Ken Scotland, Gavin Hastings and today'sStuart Hogg and Darcy Graham are all in contention.

There are 69 names there, from which I have to pick just XV. So, who did I go with:

My Best Scotland XV of the past 65 years:

Ian McLauchlan

Frank Laidlaw

Sandy Carmichael

Alistair McHarg

Gordon Brown

David Leslie

Ron Glasgow

Jim Greenwood (Captain)

 

 

Roy Laidlaw

John Rutherford

Andy Irvine

Scott Hastings

Jim Renwick

Arthur Smith

Ken Scotland

On the bench:

Colin Deans

Hughie McLeod

Iain Milne

Peter Brown

Derrick Grant

Gary Armstrong

Jock Turner

Stuart Hogg

I reckon that squad, coached by Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer could win us the Rugby World Cup any year.

Other combinations are available, and I am sure I will hear of many of these, after all, in this site, opinion is free and argument positively encouraged.

The ground rule is this:

• A great player in one era is given as a great player in any era “He'd be too wee for today's game” doesn't wash

Let the arguments start.

 

Gallic Flair In Spades

WHEN it comes to Rugby Union, the French have always marched to a different drum than their Anglo-Saxon/Celtic neighbours at the sharp end of the game. For instance, even when the season in the British Isles was strictly enforced as 1 September until 30 April, across La Manche, the French Championship was never settled until June. Thus it continues today, so those of us who subscribe to Viaplay Sport were able, on Friday and Saturday to see, live, the championship semi-finals.

Friday night's clash between Toulouse and Racing 92 was a terrific game, eventually won 41-14 by Toulouse – who simply blew the Parisiennes away and ensured a low key farewell to Racing for oor ain Gallus 10.

Brilliant though he was, for once Antoine Dupont had to play second fiddle for the winners, to full-back Tomas Ramos, who capped some explosive running with an immaculate goal-kicking display. That said, Dupont's off-load for Toulouse's fourth try was a moment of such wonder, one could only watch open-mouthed.

In Saturday's final, in Paris, Toulouse will face European Champions La Rochelle, who were pushed all the way by UBB in the second semi-final. La Rochelle didn't hit the heights which Toulouse reached in the first semi, but, they were generally in-charge, defending very well when UBB did threaten.

Saturday's final promises to be one Helluva game.

ELITE LEVEL professional Rugby Union in England is in a mess. This season, London Irish, Wasps and Worcester have all gone under; other clubs, realising they have been living beyond their means for years, are shedding top players like confetti, but, the madness shows no signs of abating – Bath are paying Gallus 10 £1 million per year – great for the Finnster, I doubt very much he'll have to re-sharpen his chisels and buy a new mallet when he hangs up his boots. Going back on the tools as a stone-mason seems unlikely to be his post-playing career.

I noticed this week, with the future of the Gallagher Premiership looking less than rosey, that old chestnut – Anglo-Welsh cross-border competition has reared its ugly head again. Sadly, quite a few people in Welsh Rugby lack ambition – they want to be English.

Now, back in the days of amateur rugby, Welsh club sides such as Cardiff, Swansea, Neath, Llanelli and Pontypool were more than capable of taking-on the top English side and winning. Today, well given the Welsh sides are all in the basement of the BKT United Rugby Championship, to quote a favourite song: “These days are past and in the past they must remain.”

The Welsh regions couldn't attract midges to a picnic at Luss, so I would say there is less than no chance of cross-border Anglo-Welsh games. As for letting the English into the URC – My God, they'd be more-annoying than the Saffers, if that is possible.

I honestly believe, an NFL-style European League just might be the salvation of elite-level professional rugby, but I cannot see this happening; too much politic in-fighting, plus, why would the French, who currently run the top European league, want to have any closer ties with Perfidious Albion?

Finally on this topic, while Johnnie Beattie, who is developing into an excellent reporter and colour commentator, did a smashing job on both French semi-finals, the English co-commentators were terrible. For instance, we were told: “Finn Russell is coming back to England next season.” Since Gallus 10 has never played in England, how can he be gong back there?

THE NEWS last week of Doncaster Knights signing Rhys Tait and Harri Morris is yet further proof of how the SRU has in the past, and continues to get it wrong when it comes to young player development.

In an ideal world, they would have by now, more than a quarter of a century into the Open Rugby era, have come up with some workable system which gives 0our brightest youngsters a chance of coming through to eventually play for Scotland.

But, we still trust to luck and natural progression – while other countries, notably France and Ireland, have, lang syne, put in place strategies which work.

For as long as we only have two, full-time professional sides, young Scottish players will be denied the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

TCD and The Junta can continue to plead poverty and tell us we cannot afford to run a third full-time team. The truth is, we can no longer afford NOT TO. As things stand, with only two teams, all we are doing is bringing through promising youngsters for clubs outwith Scotland – and that is not a part of the Scottish Rugby Union's mission statement.

 

Where's Bob Geldorf When The Irish Need Him?

CUE MUSIC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

FREDDIE and the boys really now are the sound track to the Gallagher Premiership, with the demise of London Irish. It's been a long time coming, some exiled Scots down there in the Sudentenland are still sore about how, back in the dying days of the last century, Irish survived at English Rugby's top table, while London Scottish and Richmond were cast out – We Jocks do love a bit of schadenfreude.

Of course, the fall of the Paddies, coming as it does so quickly on the tail of the demise of Wasps and Worcester will make little difference to the landscape of the game in the South. God is an Englishman and the big English clubs will, whilst moaning about how the Rugby Football Union interferes in the game they think they own, continue their great game of seeing which billionaire has the deepest pockets and can piss his fortune further up the wall for the longest time.

They may not have the state-backed oil wells depth of pockets of the foreign owners of the big English football clubs, but, these mainly Tory owners of the English rugby clubs will carry-on, over-paying non-English talent, looking down at the second class citizens of the BKT United Rugby Championship and The Pro 14, safe in the knowledge that BT Sport, or whatever they now call themselves, and the likes of Robert Kitson and Stephen Jones will continue to tell the guillible rugby public - “English Rugby is still the best old boy.”

“Aye Right!” and its equivalent in French and Irish tells a different story.

Meanwhile, across in Luxembourg, in their offices on avenue Monterey and Boulevard Prince Henri, one supposes the chaps at CVC Capital Partners are crunching the numbers and asking the difficult questions.

Common sense perhaps dictates, a re-arrangement of the deck chairs is called for in European Club Rugby, as the RMS English Rugby ploughs on through the iceberg field. It's perhaps time for the 57 Old Farts to rouse themselves and sort out the good name of their game – leaving it to the city spivs clearly hasn't worked.

Rugby Union went OPEN back in 1995. OK, they allowed players to be paid, maybe only now are we starting to realise, leaving it up to the market to regulate payments perhaps wasn't in the best interests of the game.

Back when I played in the Amateur Era (and my last game was 38 years ago), at grass-roots club level, players still generally had to provide their own kit; you paid the beer levy post-match, so you could give your opponents a drink. However, even then, in the upper levels of the game, players were being provided with, at the very least, jerseys, shorts and stockings. We didn't allow lifting in the lines out back then, so the kilometres of elastic strapping we go through today wasn't as issue. If, like me, you wanted to tape your ears, you paid for your own. Doing that today would bankrupt some lock forwards over a season.

Post 1995 – the game of Rugby Union Football has been a textbook example of Parkinson's Law. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and there is no way of putting it back.

However, if World Rugby and the individual unions were to be rounded-up and marooned on a desert island until they came up with workable proposals, they could yet save the game.

They have to accept:

• Only international rugby makes money

• We protect it and make it as attractive as we can

• A certain percentage of what each governing union makes from international rugby MUST be allocated to keeping the grass-roots game under that union's jurisdiction healthy

• Professional club rugby is a means of getting the elite players ready for the international game

• As such, each league and the various inter-league club championships have to be governed by CBAs (Collective Bargaining Agreements) to ensure as level a playing field financially as it's possible to provide

• Each country can only sustain a given number of fully-professional clubs and strict boundaries around their financing and operation have to be agreed and maintained

• In each country – the governing Union has to be in-charge

Maybe, if we had a better-regulated market, we would have a sustainable one, and the game could flourish. If we don't, and this, in particular refers to England – then Rugby Union is doomed.

Going down the current route is to remain on the Highway to Hell, and the next question is: which will be the next big club to fold?

We Really Need To Sort-Out The Kinks In Super6

IT IS an unbreakable rule of sport – once money becomes important, the game which generates the cash has to be stretched to breaking point. Thus, today, we see the rugby season, once written in tablets of stone as lasting from 1 September of one year to 30 April of the next, now extending from mid-August until the end of May; that old piece of TV corn 'Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width' taken to extremes.

The French, of course, march to a different drum from the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, they are still playing, with the top six clubs in the Top 14 still involved in the end of season play-offs – while this season, the Scottish World Cup squad have gone seamlessly from club play into a pre-World Cup Training Camp.

Then, when you factor-in the demands of the FOSROC Super6 competition, it is clear, all-year-round Rugby Union is now upon us. So we might as well embrace it.

The final week-end of the S6 Sprint produced a degree of controversy, a lot of it ill-informed, but it also produced a very-interesting interview, at half-time in the Ayrshire Bulls v Heriot's game. This was given by SRU Performance Director Jim Mallinder, who gave us the first indication of some much-needed changes to the S6 format.

Mind you, it says much about the lack of joined-up thinking coming out of BT Murrayfield that some important points were slipped out, in the course of an interview which very-few people will have heard, rather than being announced at a formal press conference or briefing, at which some of the sharper brains in Scottish rugby journalism might have picked the obvious holes in the plan.

As I have been saying, almost from Day One – Super6 is a good idea, badly executed and with obvious flaws. However, it is the future of Performance Rugby in Scotland.

To re-hash old ground and re-state the obvious:

• We require a level of rugby which bridges the gap between the top of the club game and the professional one – S6 is that level.

• In an ideal world S6 would be fully-funded from the Performance Department budget, however, in an effort to cut costs and save money, the Union came up with the notion of franchises.

• Ideally, these franchises would have seen two in each of the Regions: Caledonia, East, South and West

• But, because of the sense of entitlement of some Edinburgh clubs, we have ended up with three franchises in the capital, where there are not enough players of the relevant standard

• Covid hit the notion of cross-border games on the head and while Mallinder, in his interview stressed this notion was still live, when cross-border play arrives, indeed, if it arrives, is still unclear.

Additionally, the SRU did not make it clear that S6 would be part of the Union's High Performance Programme – giving the false impression it was part of the clubs set-up, this communication failure has compromised S6 from the outset.

So, let's get back to basics. We now have a two-tier Scottish Rugby Union:

Scottish Rugby Union Limited runs the professional High Performance game – from Super6 to the full Scotland side. This remit includes the Academies, Age Group teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Scottish Club Rugby Board runs the amateur game, involving the individual clubs around the country. Their work is funded by Scottish Rugby Limited, who have guaranteed over £1 million per year over the next five years to run the grass-roots game.

The argument around how much money the Club/Community game should receive each year is for another post. Here I am more-concerned about how we develop our top talent.

The aim of the HPP (High Performance Programme) is to produce a winning Scotland team, whose endeavours fill BT Murrayfield to the extent the Union makes enough money to properly fund the HPP, give our best players the best chance of winning, and provides a good income to support the community game.

But, the SRU can only afford to run two full-time professional teams – which gives us an absolute ceiling of around 60 front-line professional players, backed-up by perhaps another 50 or 60 “trainee” professionals, mainly playing as semi-professionals in Super Rugby.

So, talent identification and preparation of potential professional in S6, while an uncertain science, calls for some big decisions.

At the moment – it could be argued, we are not getting this right.

Since S6 is the development tier of the HPP – then the eligibility rules should reflect this, might I suggest:

• Each match-day starting XV should include a minimum of 10 Scottish-Qualified (SQ) players under the age of 23 on 1 January of that year

• 5 of the 8 designated replacements should also meet the U-23 and SQ criteria.

I am all for the inclusion of Edinburgh and Glasgow A teams in Super Rugby, but, I feel careful consideration should be given to the make-up of their sides. Current Scotland squad members, for instance, should only be allowed to play in Super rugby if they are coming back from a spell of injury – the A teams should be mainly made-up of players either in the Academies, or in their first or second year out of the Academies.

It is to be hoped that cross-border games should be part of the HPP, Perhaps the SRU ought to be pushing hard for a resumption of the British and Irish Cup. Super Rugby should be a key component in Scotland's High Performance Programme, however, the inbuilt problems which have bedevilled Super rugby since its inception, now need to be addressed as a matter or urgency.