"Clunky" But A win's A Win

“CLUNKY” IS the adjective of choice from the boys in the cheap press seats at Scotstoun on Friday night. A win is a win is welcome, but, the Warriors' defeat of Benetton is further proof, in professional sport you don't have to be perfect every week, you merely have to keep winning – which Glasgow did.

From in front of the television set, the first half was entertaining, with Warriors emerging second to the fired-up visitors. Even then, I wasn't overly concerned; one or two of the home team hadn't seen much action of late and it showed, while I well knew, Franco Smith may not have a hair dryer, but, he is Fergie Class when it comes to turning things around at the break after a disappointing opening period.

Thus it proved, as Warriors, playing with the wind, blew their visitors away in the second period. Debutant Jack Watson claimed the Man of the Match prize, while Warriors' bench made a serous impact. Some of the lesser lights shone and thus, the team consolidated their place at the top of the log and, as the clocks change and we stroll into spring, life is good for Glasgow.

It needs to be, we are moving into the sharp end of the season and, in spite of the handicaps imposed by the SRU's continuing struggles to run a menauge, there is cause for optimism among the Warrior Nation.

Young Watson aside, I was impressed by both youthful nines, by Ollie Smith's continuing emergence as a class act, by the control of Dan Lancaster and by the commitment of the three young locks.

The line out stuttered somewhat, but, they got over this and, all told, it was in the end a quietly-satisfactory night, capped by 99-year old Murray Kirkwood handing over the Italian-Scottish Shield. This may be one of the game's lesser baubles, but, the way this Glasgow squad is grinding out wins, it may not be the final silverware of this season.

SATURDAY saw another disappointing loss for Edinburgh, yet another loss in a season which seems to be going from bad to worse. I honestly don't know what the answer to Edinburgh's travails is. Is it a case of good players being badly coached, or average players being coached as well as they can be? Or is it something else? I honestly cannot get a handle on that team.

Mind you, I feel I am not alone in being perplexed at Edinburgh's problems. I get the feeling there are decision-makers within the Murrayfield bubble who don't have a clue either.

HALLS OF FAME are an American concept. Since they have so-little history of their own, they had to come up with something – the Hall of Fame. One thing I will say for Halls of Fame in American Sport is this, they take it seriously.

Nobody, and I mean nobody – you might be just about everyone's notion of another American sporting concept: The G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) but, you aint getting into your sport's Hall of Fame until you have been retired for five years, a period which allows those whose job it is to induct you into the relevant HoF to properly consider your impact on the particular sport.

It's one of the things which annoys me about inductions into Scottish Halls of Fame, that in some cases, players are being inducted whilst still active. To me, this goes against the whole concept of the process.

For instance, just this week Melrose announced that Hollie Davidson was being inducted into their Sevens Hall of Fame. Now, I see nothing wrong with honouring Hollie, what that girl has already done in Rugby Union deserves recognition. But, can we please wait until she hangs-up her whistle before we induct her into Halls of Fame.

She has broken through one or two glass ceilings, and will doubtless break through a few more, but, it's a wee bit early in her career to be giving her this honour.

 

Auld Ayr Wham Ne'er A Toon Surpasses

ONE THING I have learned in my over 50 years at the coal face of sports reporting: Shite Happens. Nobody, not even Ali, Bolt, Nicklaus or Arkle won every time out. In sport, the possibility of an upset is always there.

So, unlike some of the wilder elements around Millbrae, I never thought the Arnold Clark Premiership Final between Ayr and Currie Chieftains was a Gimme for the home side. If there is one side in Scotland who can take Ayr to places they don't feel comfortable going it is the men from Malleny. I expected a gough, tight game.

Of course, showing their now expected contempt for the club game, Murrayfield did their best to fuck-up the day. The kick-off time was a nonsense, far too close to the time of the Warriors v Leinster start time, so, ready to watch on TV, I had to choose to record the game from Millbrae so I could watch events at Scotstoun live.

I don't have the Gaelic, but, I could still follow events although, some of the camera shots which the director called were less than ideal. Also, as befits somebody who has played for Marr, Kaleem Barreto, the colour commentator, quite clearly didn't want Ayr to win.

Currie put up a great fight and played some good rugby, but, Ayr were never going to mess-up and deny Blair Macpherson his title win. OK, Blair's try between the stick on the second half would never have survived a TMO review. However, for the Currie try which opened the second half scoring, their hooker never tapped the tap penalty, so it should not have stood either.

Jamie Shedden was voted Man of the Match, no complaint here, but, in truth, Jamie is a very unlucky player not to have had a full professional contract lang syne, indeed, both he and his partner in crime, Robbie Orr, are, for my money, better centres than most of the guys getting a good wage for under-performing for Edinburgh.

Ayr now turn their attention to the Scottish Cup, looking to complete the season with a double. They may yet have to beat Currie again, which will make the run-in interesting..

GLASGOW WARRIORS' win over Leinster was something of a surprise. I did always think, with home advantage, Warriors could do it, but, I honestly thought the final score might be tighter than it turned out to be.

From the days of DTH van der Merwe and “The Weegies frae Fiji”, Warriors have been capable of scoring Coast to Coast tries. They added a couple more on Saturday night, but, that Myle Rowe solo effort is maybe the best try ever scored on the ground – it was straight out of the Louis Bielle-Biarry play book. That sudden application of the brakes to allow the covering defender to over-shoot was sheer class.

Another highlight was Adam Hastings' walk-off after collecting his yellow card. Some 40 years ago, in a Scottish Basketball Cup Final, at Coasters, Team Solripe's Bobby Kinzer: The Pastilles Man fouled-out spectacularly, leaving a size 14 footprint on Alton Byrd's chest as he propelled the MIM star point guard almost into the bar, in dunking over the top of him.

Kinzer then produced the most-triumphant walk of shame I ever saw as he departed the game – I had never seen it matched until the bold Adam on Saturday night.

By the way, Sam Prendergast's reaction to Adam ruffling his hair was pure Johnny Sexton – spitting the dummy big style is clearly something all Leinster tens learn at a young age.

Big Alex Samuel was a deserved winner of the Man of the Match prize. The way he won his personal one-on-one battle with the formidable RG Snyman was a coming of age moment for him. He can only train-on from here.

Warriors have got themselves into a good place in the BKT United Rugby Championship standings. OK, they still have two games to play in South Africa, and a visit to second-placed Ulster to navigate, but, on Saturday's form, this is shaping up to be a very good season for the team.

THE SATURDAY MATINEE was Lions v Edinburgh from a three-quarters empty Ellis Park. I honestly don't know what the answer is with Edinburgh. Quite clearly, there are players there who are not full-time professional class, in which case, it doesn't really matter who is coach, getting that team to win is mission imossible.

I HAD MY weekly does of Finnmagic on Friday night. Some of the passes he sees and pulls off are simply fantastic. That said, Owen Farrell also had his moments.

However, behind a dominant pack, Finn pulled the strings to great effect in a big Bath win, in which Josh Bayliss, in spite of one try-spoiling poor pass, was a deserved Man of the Match.

 

I've Been Thinking

SATURDAY SHOULD be a big day for Rugby in Scotland; except, with the lack of thought which has become almost their default position, the SRU has allowed a position to arise whereby two matches which are sure to attract a lot of attention, have been allowed to clash.

At 4.10pm, at Millbrae, Ayr will entertain Currie Chieftains in the Final of the Arnold Clark Premiership. Eighty minutes later, forty miles up the A77 at Scotstoun, Glasgow Warriors will take on Leinster in what is definitely the match of the round in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

OK, there is nothing the SRU can do about the URC scheduling the Glasgow match for this weekend – although, they as the ultimate owners of Warriors, could have had the match played either on Friday night, or Sunday, to leave Saturday afternoon free for club games such as the Premiership final.

That said, why on earth has the kick-off at Millbrae been moved from the normal 3pm on a Saturday? A lot of the Scottish Rugby watching community like to watch club games, as well as those involving Warriors and Edinburgh. A percentage of those fans might have wished to take-in both matches, the sheer lack of planning has made this impossible.

I put this down to the over-centralisation of the SRU. The many paid apparatchiks inside the Murrayfield bubble owe their allegiance to Scottish Rugby Limited – the body which looks after the professional, money-making and spending arm of the game. They don't think too often, or care a jot about the amateur Scottish Rugby Union – those 200 or so clubs who are the real body and soul of the game.

Again I say what I have been saying for years, there ought to be a split, with a small corps of paid employees looking after the international sides and the two full-time professional teams, while the main focus should be on the amateur club game and growing it.

Yes, there is a case for a bridging tier – Super Rugby as was, but, quite how to manage that, I think that's a bit above my pay grade.

Saturday afternoons should be left to Club Rugby, the two professional sides can play on Fridays or Sundays. Also, as I have said before, the top clubs ought to get together and set-up and run their own league, with a maximum, to begin with, of say 20 clubs. They could play in two leagues of equal standing, then have end of season play-offs to determine the champions.

Below those 20 clubs – who would have to meet strict infrastructure standards to get in – all club play should be regionalised, with management control, of both the National and Regional leagues devolved to the clubs, rather than left to Murrayfield.

I would also like to see major changes to the overall season. Move the Six Nations into the late spring, after all the club games are over. That way, the rugby public would be able to give these games the attention they deserve.

The current calendar isn't working – so change things around. Make room for knock-out cups and revitalise Sevens. All it would take is the desire and a bit of thought in implementation.

 

Renton Was Right - Yet Again

THINGS YOU LEARN very quickly when you sign up for the Tartan Army: It's the hope that kills. Regardless of the Scottish international team you are following – it matters not who won or lost: so long as you beat England. To a lot of us TA foot soldiers, we might, for instance, lose four games heavily and finish bottom of the Six Nations table, but, if we have beaten England we can live with this.

Long experience, not forgetting a good few hefty blows absorbed along the way has taught me, when it comes to the Guinness Men's Six Nations, our default position is fifth of the six nations. Any result better than that, we have over-performed. Thus, finishing third has to mark 2026 down as a good year.

• We beat England. So what, that one has almost become a given in the 2020s

• We beat France – scoring a record 50 points in the process; that has to be a bonus

• We scored a rare win in Cardiff. OK, it was “an ugly win”; never the less, that too is a bonus

• We lost in Rome – not an unusual occurance, but still disappointing and a definite downer

• We lost in Dublin – even less of a surprise; we have forgotten how to win there

So, to paraphrase dear old Meatloaf, three out of five aint bad.

As to the game itself; we went into it on the back foot, thanks to the attritional injuries we have had to absorb during the tournament. This demonstrated our lack of playing depth at the highest level. It also didn't help that years on the international treadmill appeared to have caught up with one or two of the players we depend on.

• Zander Fagerson looked a shadow of his normal self throughout the campaign

• There's a reason why Pierre Schoeman, for all his grit and effort, is playing for Scotland rather than South Africa – he simply didn't measure-up to South African standards

• Grant Gilchrist never gives less than 100%, but, he never has been a true international-class lock and in the biggest game, that shows

• Max Williamson is not there yet, and it showed

• Dublin was a game too far for Jack Dempsey

• We badly missed Jamie Ritchie's ability to get up the opposition's nose. He's our version of Peter O'Mahony – you'd love him on your side, but hate to play against him

Given, forwards win matches and backs decide by how much, the fact we finished a poor second to the Irish eight rather decided the outcome.

Behind the scrum, Ireland – at the breakdown – denied us the quick ball we thrive off, they also tied Finn Russell up well, regardless of what he tried, they had the answer and with our two centres having an off day, we seldom produced the attacking flair which undid France.

This result was further evidence, the way we have the SRU set up does us no favours in the international arena. Yes, we have a depth of player such as we have never had before, but, we still do not have the depth of other countries and until we tweak the Union to produce more class acts, then the occasional third-place finish in the Six Nations might well be the height of our ambtions.

SPEAKING OF player depth, our paucity in this department was again shown to the world when, after contributing fully to one of the best first halves I have seen in a long time, Edinburgh collapsed to finish a poor second to Ulster on Friday night.

Deciding who should be Head Coach is way above my pay grade, maybe somebody other than Sean Everitt could get more out of the current Edinburgh squad, maybe not; perhaps the Saffa has “lost the dressing room” perhaps not. But, what I do know is, there is something missing at that club at the moment.

We simply do not have enough international-class players to sustain an international squad, plus two full-time club squads. When, as happened on Friday, our resources are spread too thin, we are going to see poor results.

In that case, it doesn't matter who is coaching which club, defeats are more or less assured.

I MANAGED to watch the Under-20s game v the Irish from Cork, on Sunday afternoon. I didn't have great hopes for the game, since the Irish development system is way ahead of ours.

The game unfurled as I thought it would. We were poor in the first half and the game had effectively gone by the turn-round. We had a better second half but were still well-beaten.

BTW, the Irish commentary team on the game exceeded English levels of myopia in their coverage. The best was when a Scottish player was accused by the commentator of: “a dirty tackle” when he took out an Irish player at a ruck with a ruck clean-out which was straight out of the Peter O'Mahony/Tadgh Beirne playbook.

To sum up: Whatever they are doing at Murrayfield, it isn't working. But, the whole edifice at HQ needs tearing down and rebuilding, but, that aint gonna happen any time soon.

Conclusion - It's shite being Scottish.

A Sensible Idea - So It Would Never Work In Scotland

THE GREAT BILL LOTHIAN, since he retired from being the voice of Rugby Union in our capital city, has given us too-few examples of his wit and wisdom. However, one Lothian pointer, made on a Facebook post, has resonated with me since he made it.

William merely pointed out: it is not the job of the game's governing body to run the club leagues. That doesn't happen in Football, where, in Scotland, the organisation of the various leagues in the Scottish Football Pyramid is devolved as follows:

• The Scottish Professional Football League runs:

• The four “Senior” professional leagues – Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two. These are levels one to four in the pyramid

• The Highland League and the Lowland League run their own leagues, level five in the pyramid

• The West of Scotland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues run their own leagues, level six in the pyramid

• Below these leagues, which cater for a combination of semi-professional and amateur clubs, we have grass-roots amateur leagues, all run on a local basis

Why shouldn't we have the same system in Scottish Rugby?

We have, particularly since the game went Open in 1995, seen Scottish Rugby held back by the dead hand of Murrayfield centralism – nobody in the game is allowed to fart without permission from the Junta at HQ.

I would suggest things have got worse since the governance change which saw the Split between Scottish Rugby Limited – running the professional side of the game and the Scottish Rugby Union – who still run the club game.

Just look at the current hot topic – the total balls-up our rulers have managed to make of the Arnold Clark Premiership, the top tier of our club game. We had Watsonians withdrawing from the play-off semi-final, because they couldn't raise a team, due to a wedding, an away international and other reasons.

In the 18 games of that league's regular season, Watsonians used 49 players, are they seriously telling us they cannot raise a 22-man match-day squad from those 49 players? Are they saying all 49 are compromised by this wedding and the Dublin trip. Aye Right!

Some Watsonians are making out it's Ayr's fault that they cannot raise a team – Ayr are somehow digging-in their heels and refusing to compromise on dates. Well, Ayr have played their 18 games, they have accepted the due date which Murrayfield set for the semi-final; they have played by the rules and done nothing wrong.

Is there still a sense, around Myreside: “Look, we've an important Establishment Club, we've been big cheeses in Scottish rugby since 1871 and we ought to be able to pick and choose as to which rules we obey and which we don't?” Again, the answer to that has to be: Aye Right!

The facts are – the governance of the game in Scotland is in a mess. It's been in a mess since 1995 and in the 30 years since that bombshell decision to go open, regardless of who has been in the decision-making seats inside Murrayfield, they've been consistently making the wrong choices, employing the wrong men and generally faffing around in an operation akin to shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Super Rugby for instance, was a good initiative, which they managed to fuck-up from start to finish. But, it wasn't the first. Right back when the game went open, Jim Telfer pushed for four professional sides, based loosely on the long-established Districts; some of the clubs didn't like that and did their damndest to derail things.

The clubs in the Borders and Caledonia couldn't agree among themselves from the start, while in Glasgow, Brian Simmers' great idea – forming Glasgow Hawks as a super club was undone by a combination of narrow-minded club officials and Murrayfield rolling over with Warriors.

Should we be surprised, this after all is the Scottish way. We can occasionally unite to fight off the English when they go too-far, otherwise, we're too busy fighting among ourselves.

Groundskeeper Willie is right: “Damned Scots, they've ruined Scotland.”

The Scottish Football League was formed back in the 1880s, by the top clubs in Scotland – with the notable exception of Queen's Park, getting together to arrange regular fixtures against each other. They remained as members of the SFA, but they felt they could better organise themselves and that initiative, although there have been a few modifications along the way, has held good up to today.

Imagine if our top Rugby clubs had the bottle to tell Murrayfield: “We could do a better job of running our club leagues than you have managed”, organised themselves properly and went ahead. It just might work. If say, the top 12 or 16 clubs got together to form and run a proper National League, then the other clubs could organise themselves regionally into more-local leagues; everyone would find their level.

I am not saying all would immediately be sweetness and light, after all, it is Scots we are dealing with here. But, it is clear, our club game, as currently organised and managed, isn't working, we need change and we need it fast.

And while we are at it, maybe the wider game, up to and including internationally, should look at the whole seasonal calendar and make it more fit for purpose.

If nothing else, a reshaped playing calendar might help Watsonians play matches.

 

If Carlsberg Did Weekends

THAT WAS perhaps as close as we might ever get to: “A Carlsberg Weekend”. The question is, which was the happier result, Scotland sticking 50 points on France, or England crashing and burning in Rome? Of course, I hesitate to pour cold water on the celebrations ongoing across fair Caledonia, but, truth is, enjoyable though the victory was, we've actually won nothing yet.

We may yet win a Triple Crown, if other results go our way, we may still win ths Guinness Men's Six Nations, but, in reality the odds on either outcome are long. So perhaps we should do the hardest things for any Scottish sports fans and simply keep the heid and take nothing for granted until the dust has settled.

Saturday's win was the culmination of as good a Scottish performance as I have seen in many a long year. OK, we've got into the habit of beating England, but, they're a shite team, way over-hyped by their own media. The difference on Saturday was, we beat a genuinely good French side. Perhaps, like the English, they have a wee bit of a psychological barrier to overcome in Edinburgh – just as we struggle in Dublin. However, that cannot detract from what was a brilliant Scottish performance.

We had no failures in our squad, even the journeymen such as oor ain D'Arcy Rae, stood up to be counted. The Scottish player, to a man, won the individual battle against his French opposite number, and, as a result, we won the overall war.

But, the win came at some cost, with a few injuries casting a clout of gloom over our early preparations for the Dublin trip. It seems certain that changes will be required and this will test our squad depth as never before. However, that's the Scottish way – we never get an easy road to travel.

Burns wrote: ”An' forrit tho' Ah canna see – Ah guess and fear” - that's nothing new to us Scots. Ireland remain a formidable, well-coached side; they will have home advantage and will start as favourites at the weekend. But, we beat the French team which humbled them earlier in the tournament – so, why cannot we also beat the Irish?

I AM STILL trying to get my head round what was the more-satisfying bit about England crashing and burning in Rome – the result or the reaction of ITV's phalanx of “Ingurlund, Ingurlund, Ingurlund” cheer-leaders in the media seats. These people's whole existence is formed round persuading the world that this English team is a squad of Supermen. And when the wheels come off their chariot, they are struggling. (small diversion here, if there is one city where crashed chariots can be rebuilt successfully, surely it is Rome – weep not ye Saxon yeomen).

I missed a bit of the game in Rome, since, as tends to happen when I am watching England kicking the ball up in the air and running after it, I fell asleep late in the first half, But, I wakened up in time to enjoy that late Italian surge which carried the day. Forza Italia, they showed, beating us was no fluke, this win will do wonders for Italian Rugby.

Mind you, I get the feeling, their trip to Cardiff, which is being viewed as the weakest of the three fixtures in the final weekend, just might turn out to be a cracking game. I think it will be one to watch.

HIGHLIGHT of the weekend was surely that try – scored by Wales' Rhys Carre, against Ireland.

Every front row donkey who ever played the game was surely on his feet roaring Carre home as he scored. To do that, while also putting in the hard yards in scrums and first-up carries was brilliant. Try of the Season, no question.

IN CLUB RUGBY, we had the unedifying spectacle of Watsonians, a club who view themselves as pillars of The Rugby Establishment, withdrawing from the Arnold Clark Premiership Play-Off semi-final, since they will be unable to raise a team to face Ayr in that match.

When I saw this news, I immediately though of my late and much-missed old mate, Brian Gilbert, one of the men whose work laid the foundations of Marr's rise through the ranks. When he was Coaching GHK back in the day, Brian found himself without more than half a team for an important league game.

His response has gone down in Scottish Rugby folklore: “When the going gets touch, the boys go skiing”. That was then, back in the Amateur Era of the 20^th century. Today, in the 21^st century, admittedly involving an Establishment Club from the other end of the M8 – the boys don't go skiing, they go off on the piss; but, they still put self before club.

Mind you, these play-offs are a total nonsense. Ayr finished the season unbeaten, they scored bonus point wins in all 18 regular season league games. The Millbrae men are, by every measure, the best team in Scotland. Why not just give them the trophy now?