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.

 

Here's Tae Us - Wha's Like Us

“WHIT'S FUR YE'LL no go bye ye” is an old Scots saying with which we are all familiar. “Aye right!” is anothr familiar part of life in God's Country. The two contrasting sayings are perhaps the tale of half-time at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Because, at that point in proceedings, it was odds-on that Glasgow Warriors would be enjoying home advantage, back at Murrayfield, in the BKT United Rugby Championship Grand Final in two weeks' time. However, if you've been covering various Scottish sporting endeavours for as long as I have, you always, at the back of your mind, wonder: “which method of losing from a winning position will we use this time.”

That's long been a Scottish speciality and the way Glasgow lost their way and the match in the second half was just another verse in an auld Scots sang.

However, before I go any further, let me pay fulsome tribute to the victorious Bulls. Whatever was said in the visitors' dressing room at half time clearly worked, the Clunking, disjointed Bulls of the first half was replaced by a much-more focussed and united team, with whom Warriors could not cope.

A one-point win for Bulls actually flatters Warriors. If Handre Pollard had maintained his normal scoring percentage off the tee, then the game would have been won well before the final whistle. In the end, this was the ultimate game of two halves and proof positive: It's not how you start, but how you finish, if you wanna be the cream of the crop.”

I might add at this point, I thought Bulls, in the second half, played Referee Andrew Brace a lot better than Warriors did. Now Andy has had some shockers in Glasgow games, however, to be fair to him, I feel he is one of the most-improved referees in the game over the last two or three years. He still leaves you scratching you heads at some of his decisions, but, in the second period, Bulls were closer to being on Andy's wavelength than Warriors were.

There's another factor in play; over many year of covering Scottish clubs in various sports in big games, I've seen a lot of games in which the Scottish team has been cruising at half time, only to collapse in the second half. It's a national weakness – there is – too often - something missing from those crucial six or so inches between a sporting Scotsman's ears.

We saw this again on Saturday night, when, 4-0 ahead at half-time, our Fitba team couldn't add to their tally against a piss-poor Bolivia team.

I end this segment, as I started, with a bit of home-spun Caledonian philosophy: “Here's ta us – wha's like us?”

LEINSTER IS still the team to beat in the URC. They will have home advantage, albeit at Croke Park, against the Bulls, after beating Stormers in the second semi-final.

I had to laugh at the South African response on social media, with oor ain Hollie Davidson not exactly flavour of the month south of the Limpopo, after dishing out a couple of second half yellow cards to the team from Cape Town.

I must, for once, take Hollie to task for one of these yellow cards, the one, subsequently upgraded to red by the review system, awarded to Ruan Ackerman, to me, that was always a straight red card, but, it seems referees are becoming more unwilling to issue straight reds, prefering to utilise the safety valve of the bunker review system.

The Dubliners, with home advantage, will start as firm favourites, but, as we saw yesterday, these Bulls are dangerous animals.

 

Keep On Dreaming

THE DREAM lives on – this just might be Glasgow's year in the BKT United Rugby Championship, following the impressive manner in which they clinched a Murrayfield semi-final by beating Connacht – the form team of the competition – at Scotstoun on Friday night.

I have a lot of time for Connacht Coach Stuart Lancaster, who is clearly one of the top men in his craft in the world. What he has done in Galway is nothing short of miraculous, how fortunate were the rest of us in the Six Nations that he was working under the 57 Old Farts of the RFU when he was England coach, for instance.

No Lancaster-coached team will be easy opponents and the visitors played their full part in what turned into a classic game in front of a full-house Scotstoun. But, even when under the cosh, Glasgow always demonstrated why they topped the table over the regular season and in the end won well.

Kyle Steyn led from the front and the skipper deservedly accepted the Man of the Match medal at the end. Yes, he took his brace of tries with typical elan, conjoured-up an unexpected but crucial 50-22, but, his best moment was surely his recovery chase and try-saving tackle on Josh Ioane, late in the first half. Some 50 years ago, I watched the young David Ashton turn and haul-in the flying Dave Shedden in an Ayr v West game, Steyn's recovery of Ioane is the best try-saver I have seen since.

Although he didn't make it onto the MoM short list, I thought Scott Cummings showed his class. Thrust straight back into action for the first time since the Six Nations, the big Lion not only ran the lines-out brilliantly, he carried with vigour and posted some impressive post-collision metres. He also pulled-out another marvellous game from young Alex Samuel, before being replaced by another young gun – Jare Obuntibeju – who topped off his cameo with a great solo try from ruck ball.

The one v one between Sione Tuipulotu and Bundi Aki was also worth the admission money, but, across the park, Glasgow just had too-much star quality for their visitors and in the end, that made the difference.

A word too for referee Adam Jones and his team. They got the big calls correct, which didn't always go down well with the partisan home crowd – who at times felt the apparent in-built pro-Celtic bias of TMO/VAR interventions in the city worked in favour of Connacht!!!

LUNCH TIME on Saturday was another case of decisions, decisions – do I stick with the Bulls v Munster match, to find out which team will oppose Warriors at Murrayfield on Saturday; or, did I check-out early to watch the Scottish Fitba team's Hampden farewell, pre-World Cup, against Curacao?

A couple of tries just before half-time settled the issue for me. After those two tries for the Bulls, I could see no way back for Munster, so I could safely watch the Fitba.

Mind you, I always fancied it would be the Bulls who would be heading for HQ. They don't lose too often in Pretoria. Be under no illusions, the Bulls will cause Warriors problems and will be hard to beat. That said, and without in any way under-estimating them, I feel they are less likely to upset Warriors than Munster might have.

ON THE OTHER side of the URC play-downs, it all went with form, Stormers getting the better of Cardiff and Leinster putting the Lions to the sword to guarantee home advantage against the Stormers in the other semi-final and ensure the top four teams at the end of the regular season have reached the last four.

The challenge this week is for the SRU and the Warriors' staff to put as many bums on seats as possible at Murrayfield on Saturday. I have never bought into this rubbish about a crowd being a 16^th man, but it will give the Warriors' squad a real lift if they hear a real ground swell of support when they need it.

Let's have HQ more than half-full this week-end, so we can build for an even-greater attendance for the final there.