Politics Coming Into Play

I CAN ENVISAGE an international power struggle breaking out at the top of the game of Rugby Union, following the success of part one of the inaugural Nations Championship, which concluded over the weekend.

This first half of the first version of this new competition has been good for Scotland; “away” wins over Argentina and Fiji – albeit the win over the Pacific Islanders was achieved at Murrayfield and an encouraging loss to South Africa in Pretoria has left us second, behind France, in the Northern Hemisphere pool.

In Part two of the event, in November, we will entertain New Zealand, Australia and Japan, before all 12 participating nations come together for Finals Weekend in London at the end of that month.

Over the three weeks of games which have just concluded, there have been some terrific games: The All Blacks v France on the first weekend; our clash with South Africa in Pretoria in week two and our clash with Fiji on Saturday, all these games stood out, but, there were other crackers as well.

My reason for contemplating a power struggle is this: the Nations Chamionship is NOT a World Rugby event; certainly World Rugby has sanctioned it, but, it is run by a combination of the Northern Hemisphere's Six Nations and the Southern Hemisphere's Rugby Championship.

However, should part two, In November, be as successful as part one has been and should it attract big crowds then, you can bet your bottom dollar, World Rugby will want to be more involved moving ahead.

That could be a problem. If they do stick their noses in, it will perhaps be to down-play the tournament, since, they will still want their World Cup – only held every four years remember – to be bigger than this annual event. That could cause friction.

THE NEW COMPETITION also brings new problems for the Scottish Rugby Union, principally that of player burn-out. Received wisdom in the game today has it that asking a player to play more than 30 games in a season is asking a bit much. 

Take Sione Tuipulotu as a test case. He is Scotland Captain so he is likely to be, if fit, involved in every international. If the Summer Tour games and the Autumn Tests were still “friendlies” then he could, in theory, be stood down for a couple; however, with the introduction of the Nations Championship, these are now significant games. Therefore, the likes of Sione will be involved in all 12 internationals in a year: the 5 Six Nations games, the 6 normal Nations Championship games, plus the final placement game on Finals Weekend.

That level of involvement leaves him only available to his club for 18 fixtures. Glasgow's regular United Rugby Championship season consists of 18 fixtures. However, if, as has become their want, Warriors qualify for the knock-out phase of the league, that means an additional 2 or 3 games. Then there are the European games to factor-in – a minimum of 4, a maximum of 8 additional games.

So, should Warriors have a dream season and reach both the Champions Cup and the URC finals, their top players such as Sione would be facing, in-theory, a 29 game season, before they have played a single international.

The SRU is consciously working towards a system whereby Edinburgh and Glasgow have squads which are almost entirely Scottish – the players from these two squads will form the basis and bulk of the international squad. The Murrayfield Junta as I like to refer to them, are well aware, the SRU cannot afford to compete with the big French clubs and the financially-stupid English clubs for the top talent.

A future Finn Russell will be unlikely to persuade the SRU to pay him £1 million per year – I would not like to be the CEO or Treasurer attempting to justify the Union paying that much to a player – so, the Union will always be likely to need to accept, the SRU will lose control over some of our top talents. The pressure is now on the Union to be able to keep most of their top talents and provide a package which might persuade these players to forego big money in England or France, because they are better looked after in Scotland than there.

The Fiji game showed, we have not yet got the balance right in how we handle and integrate into the international team, our journeymen or second line players. If we are to get this right, so we can see-off the lower tier one and upper tier two international sides, we need to review our selection and player development policies. We have to think smarter.

I was not surprised that we struggled in the first half on Saturday. However, I always felt we would pull clear in the fourth quarter. We canot leave players idle, training yes, but not playing, for weeks on end, then expect a top-class performance when they are fielded.

Again, we have to be a lot smarter than we have been.

Still, while we are only at half-time in this inaugural National Championship, being ranked second in the Northern Hemisphere is a nice place to be. The difficult part will be maintaining, or even getting to Number One, via the three November tests. That is the challenge facing us, I'd like to think we were up to it.

 

Great Expectations Versus Self-Knowledge

LET'S GET THE ELEPHANT in the room out of the way immediately. On 15 June, 1996, England beat Scotland 2-0 at Wembley, in a group game at UEFA's Euro '96 Championships. This victory reinforced the narrative of the England fans, that football was coming home.

While the England fans celebrated, The Tartan Army, held back in the stadium by the Metropolitan Police's crowd control plans, once released, “celebrated” as only they could, marching out of the stadium singing: “We're shite – but we know we are.”

Thirty years on, they were still singing that song as they departed Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, after Brazil had ended another Scottish championships dream. The Tartan Army might be Football's ultimate party animals, but, unlike the England fans, they don't have delusions of adequacy on the global stage.

Euro '96 was supposed to be about ending 30 years of hurt for the English, of in some cases, a failure to even qualify for the big show. Instead, it was another failure. A further 30 years on and nothing has changed.

Egged-on by a Football press corps from Fleet Street, BBC and ITV, England expects, only to see those expectations dashed once more. The post-mortem will be brutal, although, they do have a handy scapegoat lined up – by the time the English media has finished its review, poor old Thomas Tuchel might well be looking for his next gig.

The difference between Scotland's Tartan Army and England's Barmy one is quite simple: We Scots are following a shite team, but we know and accept this; England are also following a shite team, arguably providing a higher quality of shite, but the essential fact – they're not as good as they think they are - hasn't hit home yet.

To us, every tournament, be it the latest Euros or the World Cup, is an adventure, an excuse to party; to the English, it's an expedition to demonstrate that England is still a force in the Football World.

To be fair to our southern neighbours – England's average final position in the 15 World Cups since 1966 is Ninth. They have managed to qualify for 12 of the 15 tournaments since they won the thing, and in those 12 tournaments their finishing position has been:

• 5 – 7 – 8 – 4 – 9 – 7 – 8 – 15 – 26 – 4 – 7 – 3 or 4.

So, they have been genuine contenders (quarter-finals or further) in 9 of the 12 tournaments since 1966, but, no finals and only three semi-finals over those 60 years is hardly consistent evidence that, perhaps it might be coming home.

Over those 15 tournaments, the ten most-regular qualifiers are:

1. Brazil

2. Germany

3. Argentina

4. England

5. Spain

6. Italy

7. France

8. Netherlands

9. Sweden

10. Uruguay and Belgium

If you take their actual record – each nation's final finishing place at the World Cup over these 15 tournaments, the pecking order is:

1. Germany

2. Brazil

3. Argentina

4. Italy

5. France

6. Spain

7. England

8. Netherlands

9. Croatia

10. Poland

I compiled this table by awarding 100 points for each World Cup win, 90 for reaching the final, 80 and 70 for the third and fourth place finishers, down to 10 points for finishing tenth.

So, while England are ranked fourth when it comes to consistency of qualifying for the World Cup Finals, once they get there, they fail to justify their regular qualifying spot.

The English may hype their top division as: “Europe's Premier League”, but,the fact is: a single Spanish club – Real Madrid – has, since the formation of the Premier League, won the European Cup more times than all the Premier Lerague clubs combined. Over the years since the Premier League was formed in 1992-93 the European Cup has been won by the following nations:

• Spain – 13 times: (Real Madrid 9 – Barcelona 4)

• England – 7 times: (Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea 2 each – Manchester City 1)

• Italy – 5 times: (AC Milan 3 – Juventus and Inter Milan 1 each)

• Germany – 4 times: Bayern Munich 3 – Borussia Dortmund 1)

• France – 3 times: (Paris St Germain 2 – Marseilles 1)

• Netherlands – 1 win (Ajax)

• Portugal – 1 win (FC Porto)

Therefore, whether we go on the national team's achievements or those of their clubs – who have multi-national playing staffs and very-few English managers – it has to be admitted – in the big competitions, England are eternal contenders, but relatively poor at converting that contenders status to that of winners.

One final point, of the England team which won in 1966, four players: goalkeeper Gordon Banks, left back Ray Wilson, left half Bobby Moore and centre forward Bobby Charlton were arguably the best in the world in their positions. Jimmy Greaves, who missed the final, also came into the conversation around the best finisher in the world at that time.

Seven or eight of the 1966 England squad, it could be argued, were the best player in their position in England's top league. At the 2026 World Cup, the best player in each position in the Premier League was playing for a nation other than England.

Maybe, if the English clubs, used more English players, they would have more players of international class available to the English national side.

That is their problem – England expects; but, their Great Expectations always crumble in the reality of elite international competition. Oh well! How sad! Never mind! There's always the next tournament.

 

Heid Bangers And Mind Games

 

I HAD MY DOUBTS about this new Nations Cup, but, if the remaining games, both this month and in the Autumn maintain the standards of the first two games – I'm all for it. There have been some terrific games, in particular the All Blacks v France match-up in week one, and that fantastic try-fest from Loftus Versfeld, between Us and South Africa at the weekend. That was entertainment.

I had to laugh at the view our Imperial Overlords south of the Solway and Tweed took of the game: “South African C Team” appeared to be the view from London and the Home Counties. This overlooks the fact, South Africa has such strength in depth, yes, they probably could field three international-class sides.

I honestly thought we had a chance in this one, but, while we gave it a real go and caused them far-more bother than England had the previous week, we fell short. But, better to have given the World Champions a stiff work-out and fallen short, than to have done a Flat Track Bully act on arguably the weakest team in Tier One – a team reduced to 14 men for most of the game.

There was much to admire about our performance in Pretoria, and for all the talk about the men not playing in green – we were short one or two arguable first-choices too; perhaps not as many as our hosts, but, we still had a fair amount of talent in the stands.

I was brought up in the days when Scotland's front five was feared across the globe – the virtual all-Ayrshire Mean Machine. Before them, the likes of McLeod, Bruce and Rollo was as good a front row as you could wish for. Tom Smith and David Sole were also props to be feared, but, I feel, right now, we have nobody of that standard and until we do find such men again – we will continue to struggle in the big games.

Rassie Erasmus had some nice things to say about us post-match. Hopefully Gregor Townsend isn't paying too-much heed, I think he is well aware that Dr Rassie is almost at the Sir Alex Ferguson level when it comes to playing mind games with opposition coaches.

I HAVE BEEN, for years now, calling for a total overhaul of the Laws of the Game and how these laws are policed on the field. Saturday's games offered I feel, further proof of how much-needed this has become. However, there is absolutely no sign of World Rugby being ready to act.

There were several controversial incidents in the games, which had the keyboard warriors somewhat disturbed. First, the most-significant decision – the fact wee Hollie Davidson used the ultimate sanction and correctly red-carded the Fijian scrum-half for his kick on the chest of England's Ellis Genge.

Can I say, immediately, I have no doubt – Genge was pinning his opponent in the ruck, however, he was fly enough to let go and have his arms out in a gesture of innocence, before he was booted in the chest. Therefore, since there was no clear TV evidence of Genge infringing, Hollie had no option but to penalise the one clear offence shown – the Fijian's kick.

Now, there is a fashion, in modern Rugby, for referees to flourish a yellow card, then use the crossed arms signal to indicate, the yellow card has been passed up the line to the bunker, leaving the FPRO – Fair Play Review Officer – to make the final decision.

To me, this is a clear dereliction of duty, Law 6.5 states quite clearly:

• Within the playing enclosure:

a. The referee, alongside the other appointed match officials, is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match. Match officials must apply the laws of the game fairly in every match.

That, to me, means, it's the Match Referee's call, not the TMO's – not the FPRO's, they are there to assist the referee, not make decisions for him. In going with the straight red card and not taking the soft option of the deferred yellow, Hollie struck a blow for the Laws.

I also had no problems with the yellow card shown to the South African replacement lock after his head made contact with Scott Cummings' nose. I didn't see it as a deliberate butt, but, it was contact, so in that instance, a yellow sufficed, I felt.

Pierre Brousset, to be honest, didn't have the best of games. His failure to penalise that moment when the Saffa lock was carried downfield after catching a kick-off was a poor mistake – one of several.

Another refereeing mistake, I felt, came in the Scotland v Argentine, Under-20s game; when Scotland's Rory McHaffie was adjudged to have leapt over a tackle at the start of a length of the park breakaway. I felt it was the impetus of a low tackle by the Argentinian boy which flipped Mchaffie. Mind you, the fact he failed to touch down at the end of his run was disappointing, so, maybe the wrong call on the tackle saved his blushes.

The U-20s are cheering us all up in this tournament. Let's hope they can see off the Welsh in the fifth/sixth play-off to keep the feel-good factor high.

Worth The Wait

DAY ONE of the new, all-singing, all-dancing Nations Championship was an exercise in stamina; five back-to-back broadcasts across two ITV Channels, lasting – apart from a short break between the South Africa v England game and the Argentina v Scotland one – some 15 hours of TV watching.

For me, the most-entertaining were the first match – New Zealand v France and the final one, our own win in Cordoba. Some of the best Rugby came in the Wales v Fiji game, when the Fijians had their off-loading game working at maximum efficiency, while perhaps the most-intensity came in the match in Johannesburg, where the mutual dislike offset the fact, England are not nearly as good as their media cheer-leaders would have us believe.

Sure, they can force a better side to dig deep, but, they do not play the sort of Rugby Union which wins top-tier international today. The fact that, by beating Los Pumas, we went above England in the world rankings was a plus any red-blooded Scot would take.

My principal concern was, naturally, the final game of the long day. I had an instant good feeling from the anthems, which I thought Scotland won – pipe band beats string ensemble every day. I was also impressed by our first defensive set, where we repelled 24 phases of intelligent and aggressive Argentinian attack.

Over the piece, Rory Hutchison was outstanding. It seemed for a time as if Tooney didn't fancy the Northampton man, but, as Huw Jones' star has waed, on the back of his club's rise, so too has Rory. He and Sione Tuipulotu were terrific on Saturday.

Kyle Rowe, deputising for the rested Blair Kinghorn, was another who stood out. Wee Kyle really has had a fantastic season, but, he has never been better than he was in Cordoba.

It was good too, to see how well Tom Jordan and later Fergus Burke covered for the injured MacMessi. The Argentinian football team doesn't function half as well when their magician is missing from the number ten shirt – the same fate did not befall Scotland on Saturday, which augers well going forward.

The Argentinians revel in scrummaging, so it was good to see our eight force them into reverse gear. Zander Fagerson, when he replaced the unfortunate Elliot Millar-Mills, looked to have regained his best form, which will be needed next weekend, while Jonny Gray silenced the doubters.

However, I felt we really won the game at the breakdown, where our back row, and in particular Rory Darge .were exceptional, setting-up the quick ruck ball on which our midfield thrives. Also, we now have depth and our game doesn't fall away once we start to empty the bench.

I did like the post-game excuses from the Argentinians – fictional though they probably were: “They were tired after staying up late to watch Messi at the World Cup.” Aye Right!

There were a few individual moments across the games, some terrific finishes but, for me, the highlight was that charge in open veldt from Ox Niche, it's always good to see a prop in full flight. Just behind that was that 50/22 from South Africa, off a very narrow angle, demonstrating the effects of altitude.

Above I mentioned our own depth at ten, but what about New Zealand's? Reuben Lowe had a most-impressive debut, apart from his early yellow card, yet, in the eyes of some Kiwis, he's only their fourth choice, behind Beauden Barrett, Richie Maningua and Damien McKenzie. On debut, he slotted in like a veteran.

I was never a great Dave Rennie fan during his spell at Glasgow. I always thought he approached that job as a staging post towards his real professional goal, the All Blacks job. Now he has that one, I reckon he just might be able to get the ABs back on top. Mind you, he does have some Scottish help – Mike Blair has already got them attacking with more vim than of late.

The Australia v Ireland game was a bit of an arm wrestle; Ireland, a team in transition, just beating an Australian side which is also a work in progress. The Wallabies will, I feel certain, be a tougher test by the time they arrive at Murrayfield in mid-November.

Meanwhile, it's on to South Africa and a really hard Test against the World Champions. In typically Scottish fashion, we travel hopefully.

 

Comparisons

THIS PAST WEEKEND offered a rare opportunity to compare three of the top four leagues in Rugby Union, with television offering coverage of:

1. The BKT United Rugby Championship Grand Final – Leinster v The Bulls

2. The Super Rugby Grand Final – Hurricanes v Chiefs

3. The Gallagher Prem Grand final – Northampton Saints v Exeter Chiefs

The only Grand final missing was the French Top 14 one – our Gallic friends still being at the semi-final stage.

In ranking the three games I did watch, I would put the all-New Zealand Super Rugby game top of the list. It was played in ridiculous conditions; if not a hurricane, then at least a strong gale was blowing in Wellington. The home team 'Canes dealt better with the conditions, with Damian McKenzie, the Chiefs' play-maker, having all sorts of problems with the wind.

Regardless of that, the skill levels on show were top drawer, some terrific off-loading at pace and a physicality which was a level above the other two games. In particular we saw master classes in how to play their positions from 'Canes' half-back and first and second five-eighths (as the numbers 9, 10 and 12 are designated in New Zealand) – Cam Riogard, Ruben Low and Jordie Barrett.

The Chiefs lost heavily, but still offered much to the game; however, on the day they failed to handle the conditions against a team playing at 10/10 across the board.

Next best was the much-hyped English final from Twickenham. This was a closer affair, before Saints pulled clear in the final quarter. I have to say, young Henry Pollock, in collecting the Man of the Match award, did, finally, look somethng like the phenomenon the English media have built him up to be. With the willingness of both teams to attack, this was a most un-English game.

The URC game, from Croke Park, has to be placed third, because, quite simply, only one team turned up. The Bulls failed to come anywhere close to the form they showed in beating Glasgow Warriors in their semi-final and the game was virtually over at half-time.

Of course, in Glasgow, they overturned a big half-time deficit in the second half, but, on Friday night, lightning failed to strike twice. Then, because the South African side lost, we had to endure the usual shite on social media – as ever when the Saffas lose, half the posts are diatribes against the match referee: the other half simply say: “Four World Cups”.

This weekend, we have the French final – Stade Toulouse v Montpellier, after which we move to the Summer Tests and the new Nations Championship, which I fear, just might be a tournament too far for our top players.

Rugby Union continues to struggle to reconcile two very-different facts: 1. The only level of the game which consistently makes real money is the international game. 2. Rugby Union is still A Players' Game, if the game doesn't have the players, and the structure to get them and keep them playing, then the international game canot flourish.

However, if the players burn-out and the quality decreases, not even the international game can flourish, and perhaps not survive.

The finals in Wellington and at Twickenham at the weekend were perhaps “close to international intensity” - however, they weren't internationals – real Test Match Rugby remains the gold standard, we have to protect that standard.

Then there is the other point, being underlined by the inflated Football World Cup, ongoing in North America. Some might argue, inflating that tournament to include 48 nations is reducing the quality. We have seen one or two surprisingly-close games thus far, but, also, a few one-sided games.

Might the same thing happen with this new Nations Cup in our game?

 

A Couple Of Sepia-Tinted Selections

ANOTHER Scottish Rugby writer recently came up with his All-Time Glasgow XV, which was confined to players who had pulled on a Glasgow jersey in the Open era of Rugby. That's one of the things that annoys me about Rugby journalism in Scotland today – the young guys who are still on the tools full-time, appear to assume, we didn't play Rugby Union before 1995.

Well, I've been writing Where are they now? And other pieces on sporting history for years and years now and, rightly or wrongly, it is a given when writing such pieces: a star in one era would have been a star in any era.

This got me thinking, what might Glasgow and Edinburgh teams from the Amateur Era (pre-1995) look like? Obviously I have been forced to select only from guys I have seen – from about the mid-1950s, so, here are the teams I came up with:

GLASGOW XV from the amateur era:

1. Ian McLauchlan (Jordanhill College)

2. Quintin Dunlop (West of Scotland)

3. Sandy Carmichael (West of Scotland)

4. Bill Cuthbertson (Marr/West of Scotland)

5. Gordon Brown (Marr/West of Scotland)

6. Alistair McHarg (Irvine/West of Scotland)

7. Ron Glasgow (Jordanhill College)

8. John Beattie (Glasgow Academicals)

9. Hugh McHardy (Kilmarnock)

10. Brian Simmers (Glasgow Academicals)

11. David Shedden (Old Spierians/West of Scotland)

12. Chris Rea (West of Scotland)

13. Ian Murchie (Ardrossan Academicals/West of Scotland)

14. Arthur Smith (Glasgow University)

15. Niven Rose (Dalry High School FP and Kilmarnock)

EDINBURGH XV from the amateur era:

1. David Sole (Edinburgh Academicals)

2. Kenny Milne (Heriot's FP)

3. Iain Milne (Heriot's FP)

4. Erle Mitchell (Edinburgh University)

5. Douglas Muir (Heriot's FP)

6. Jim Calder (Stewart's-Melville FP)

7. Finlay Calder (Stewart's-Melville FP)

8. John Douglas (Stewart's College FP)

9. Dougie Morgan (Melville College FP/Stewart's-Melville FP)

10. Ian Robertson (Watsonians)

11. Iwan Tukalo (Royal High School FP)

12. Scott Hastings (Watsonians)

13. Sean Lineen (Boroughmuir)

14. Andy Irvine (Heriot's FP)

15. Ken Scotland (Heriot's FP)

That's the line-up, now the reasoning. I reckon the Glasgow front row picked itself, I could make a strong case for having Rodney Balfour in the hooker's shirt, but, the selected front row's international credentials: two internationals in eight days, two wins against England is difficult to argue against.

If he was starting out today, I am sure Big Al McHarg would be operating as a six rather than as a lock, so I selected him there, while allowed me to pick my old sparring partner Bill Cuthbertson alongside Big Broonie in an all-Marr College boiler-room pairing.

I so wanted to pick my old pal, the late Gordon Strachan at seven, but, much as I loved Gordon, I simply could not overlook Ron Glasgow.

In the backs, I considered breaching my self-imposed rule about only picking Scots, and Scots from the West of Scotland, by giving Lionel Weston, the England cap who taught at Kelvbinside Academy and played for West of Scotland the scrum-half's jersey. I ought here too mention my liking for Sandy Service and wee George Nicolson, who was such a star for Stewartry and Ayr, but, in the end, I went with Kilmarnock's Hugh McHardy – a player who, in another time, against less stellar domestic opposition, would have won a full cap.

At full-back, I went for the late Niven Rose. You have to be bloody good to get picked for a District XV when playing for a Junior club, and “Monty” managed that when still with Dalry HSFP. There was a time when he was ranked ahead of Andy Irvine, which is further testimony to his talent, but, in the end, Andy wanted a cap more than Rose. Believe you me, however, he was a helluva player.

With my Edinburgh XV, my major decision was around the lock combination. The fact is, certainly in the post-war amateur years, very few Edinburgh-based locks were capped. I was always going to go with Erle Mitchell, these many years working as a doctor in British Columbia, but, who should do the donkey work alongside him?

From a thin field, including several “one cap wonders” I finally settled on the only man in my two XVs I never actually saw play myself, Heriot's Douglas Muir, a man who won seven caps in the early 1950s, during that dire run of 17 straight defeats.

The other big decision in the Edinburgh XV was at full-back, where the choice was between three of Scotland's greatest. In the end, I was always going to go with my all-time favourite player – Ken Scotland, while his displays for the 1974 Unbeaten Immortals British Lions gave me a reason to pick Andy Irvine on the right wing, which meant no place for Gavin Hastings.

These then are my selections. Now, wearing my flak jacket and tin helmet, I await the back-lash, while I look at picking North and Midlands and South XVs.

 

Play Up And Play The Game

BACK IN my Salad Days, more than half a century ago, we took our Rugby every bit as seriously as today's club players do, but, I think we had a more nuanced and balanced approach.

We knew the boundaries of our season. XV-a-side Rugby Union began on 1 September, and ended on 30 April. VII-a-side play was allowed outwith these dates. Prior to 1973, apart from The Border League, what league play there was was organised in a more haphazard manner. The Unofficial, Newspaper Championship was contested by clubs which had the backing of the Sports Editors of The Glasgow Herald and The Scotsman.

Entry to the Championship was, according to one Murrayfield Alickadoo: “on the whims of the two Sports Editors” but, seemingly, once you had a certain number of fixtures against sides already in – so was your club. From memory, I think it required 16 Championship Clubs' fixtures to be admitted.

The club which won that Championship won it on having the best percentage of games won. For instance, the last Unofficial League table I could find in the Glasgow Herald Google News Archive, from their 2 April, 1973 edition, listed 32 teams, in the following descending order:

• Boroughmuir: p 23 : w 21 : d 1 : l 1 – 93% wins

• Gala: p 25 : w 22 : d 0 : l 3 – 88% wins

• Hawick: p 23 : w 19 : d 2 : l 2 – 86% wins

• Langholm: p 21 : w 17 : d 2 : l 2 – 85% wins

• Jordanhill College: p 20 : w 16 : d 1 : l 3 – 82% wins

• Edinburgh Wanderers: p 22 : w 16 : d 0 : l 6 – 72% wins

• Watsonians: p 22 : w 16 : d 0 : l 6 – 72% wins

• West of Scotland: p 19 : w 12 : d 1 : l 6 – 65% wins

• Dunfermline: p 22 : w 14 : d 0 : l 8 – 63% wins

• Gordonians : p 13 : w 8 : d 0 : l 5 – 61% wins

• Melrose: p 26 : w 16 : d 0 : l 10 – 61% wins

• Leith Academicals: p 23 : w 13 : d 2 : l 8 – 60% wins

• Glasgow High School FP: p 25 : w 15 : d 1 : l9 – 60% wins

• Ayr: p 20 : w 12 : d 0 : l 8 – 60% wins

• Glasgow Academicals: p 22 : w 11 : d 0 : l 11 – 50% wins

• Hillhead High School FP: p 22 : w 10 : d 2 : l10 – 50% wins

• Selkirk: p 24 : w 10 : d 2 : l 12 – 45% wins

• Kelso: p 27 : w 12 : d 0 : l 15 – 44% wins

• Edinburgh Academicals: p 26 : w 10 : d 1 : l 15 – 40% wins

• Trinity Academicals: p 25 : w 10 : d 0 : l 15 – 40% wins

• Hutcheson's Grammar School FP: p 19 : w 7 : d 0 : l 12 – 36% wins

• Jedforest: p 22 : w 8 : d 0 : l 14 – 36% wins

• Broughton FP: p 15 : w 5 : d 0 : l 10 – 33% wins

• Heriot's FP: p 24 : w 7 : d 1 : l 16 – 31% wins

• Musselburgh: p 24 : w 6 : d 2 : l 16 – 29% wins

• Perthshire: p 12 : w 3 : d 0 : l 9 – 25% wins

• Aberdeen Grammar School FP: p 17 : w 4 : d 0 : l 13 – 23% wins

• Royal High School FP: p 26 : w 6 : d 0 : l 20 – 23% wins

• Kelvinside Academicals: p 19 : w 3 : d 0 : l 16 – 15% wins

• Edinburgh University: p 18 : w 2 : d 1 : l 15 – 14% wins

• Stewart's College FP: p 24 : w 3 : d 0 : l 21 – 12% wins

• Glasgow University: p 20 : w 1 : d 1 : l 18 – 5% wins

Those 32 clubs were distributed across Scotland thus:

• Edinburgh – 12 clubs

• Glasgow and the West – 9 clubs

• North and Midlands – 4 clubs

• South – 7 clubs

The busiest club was Kelso, who played 27 fixtures, the quietest club was Perthshire, who only played 12 Unofficial Championship games. The average number of league games across the 32 clubs was 21 games.

This season, the top 32 clubs in the National Leagues, are distributed as follows:

• Edinburgh – 8 clubs

• Glasgow and West – 10

• North and Midlands – 7 clubs

• South – 7 clubs

Each club will play 18 league matches this season.

Back then we also had auxiliary competitions: The Glasgow Knock-Out Cup, several County Cups, in April we had – as well as the Borders Sports – still going via the Kings of the Sevens circuit, well-supported local sevens circuits at different levels across each of the Districts.

We had, in September, October, March and April, lots of midweek games; that's when the likes of the Glasgow Knock-Out and the County Cups were played. Back then, Rugby Union was a players' game, organised so that young men could burn-off excess energy playing – what has happened to this worthy idea?

Here's an idea for the SRU's Club Rugby Board: why don't you sort out the so-called professionals inside the Murrayfield Bubble to enable the clubs to provide Rugby Union for players? Get the people who matter – the players – back doing what they ought to: and play the game.

 

News, Lies And Pure Pish

BACK WHEN I were nowtburralad, life was simple, even in the world of journalism. Whether you believe it was first said by:

1. The Journal of the Institute of Journalists in 1918

2. Lord Northcliffe (Arnold Harmsworth) in 1953

3. William Randolph Hearst – date unspecified

4. George Orwell – again, date unspecified

Everyone believed (and again the actual words quoted might differ):

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed, everything else is advertising.”

We old “Hot Metal Men” - active in the so-called Golden Age of Journalism, we understood the nuances of this and we could tell the diffeence between Journalism and Advertising. However, that was then and this is now; these days, much of what passes for Journalism or even News is often simply cut and pasted re-hashed press releases – i.e. advertising generated by the advertisers.

Worse than this, however, in my view, is the blurring of the lines between two distinct fields of Journalism – News and Opinion.

Ignore the News/Advertising stuff – News/Opinion is more-concerning these days. You might think it was obvious: a News story is a factual description of what has happened – for example, the Chief Executive of a major political party has embezeled several hundred million pounds from that party. Your story lays out the facts of the case, plus the fact he has chosen to plead guilty to the offence.

That's the news story, anything else, such as speculation as to why he did it, conjecture as to who, if anyone else, was involved – that's the Opinion of the journalist writing the piece. Unfortunately, the distinction between the two different stories – News/Opinion - has become increasingly blurred.

But, even more of a concern in this year of 2026 is the promotion and distribution of what dear old Donald J Trump calls “Fake News”. I've got another expression for it - “Pure Pish” - the sort of stories you see increasingly in the Blogsphere or Social Media such as Facebook.

The trouble is, it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate between genuine news and the fake variety, particularly since, quite often it is the mainstream media that is pushing the rubbish. It's increasingly a case of, you read a story, which appears to be pish, but, which outlet do you trust to tell you definitely, either this is genuine hard news, or this is pish?

For instance, some of the absolute garbage which has appeared on platforms such as Facebook, in the wake of Leinster beating DHL Stormers in the BKT United Rugby Championship semi-finals last weekend has been almost beyond belief. In particular the criticism from south of the Limpopo of match referee Hollie Davidson, after she yellow-carded two Stormers.

Now, reviewing the incidents, both in real time and after watching again the match highlights, I would say Hollie got one thing wrong – she yellow-carded Ruan Ackerman and referred the decision to the FPRO – The Foul Play Review Officer, who decided Ackerman's offence merited upgrading to a red card.

Hollie, sorry to criticise you, but, that challenge was a straight red card every day of the week.

Now, a week on from that incident, and the subsequent yellow-carding of The Stormers' captain, you open Facebook and you discover, Hollie has apparently apologised for getting these decisions wrong and the URC are taking action.

A visit to the official URC website quickly reveals absolutely no mention of any apology from the referee or any action over the incidents by the league – in other words, the story is pure pish. So, why write it and, more-importantly, why did Facebook publish it?

But, this is not an isolated incident. There are reams of stories published on social media which purport to be News, but are actually pish, the product of fevered minds with a craving for attention.

I publish a lot of opinion pieces on here, I admit that. Those pieces are my opinion and if you disagree with me, feel free to comment. However, when I do publish a News item, I make sure of my sources and, as far as possible, I attempt to get correct provenance for the story – that's years of training and experience.

A lot of the social media pish I see lacks that provenance.

Mind you, in Scottish Rugby, whether it be the official SRU communications department, or these departments at the professional clubs, or the volunteers carrying out media/pr duties at the clubs, there is not a lot of professionalism to be seen. And, where there is an obvious gap in knowledge and how that knowledge is transferred to the general public – well, shite happens.

That's the sad fact of life around our game today – our story is not being told as honestly or as well as it should be.