Finn Sharp On His Comeback

THE much-maligned BT Premiership got more than its usual amount of media coverage this week, mainly because Finn Russell made his comeback, following his horrendous head knock against Connach last season, by turning out at stand-off for Ayr at Hawick.

Happily, this gave Finn a chance to line-up alongside wee brother Archie, for the first time; Ayr's win was a bonus for the Russells. The game also brought a rare sighting of Vern Cotter at a Premiership match, the demob-happy Scotland coach was there, as was successor Gregor Townsend, who has better cause to be checking out his play-maker's progress.

I was elsewhere, but, caught the game on Scottish Rugby's You Tube channel. Finn played well, he didn't shirk the physical stuff – any ten willing to tackle the rampaging Bruce McNeil has to be up for the challenge, mainly kicked beautifully and made one or two trademark snipes.

I do not, however, think he is yet 100%. Finn has adopted the Peter Cech ploy of donning a scrum cap, as perhaps mental underpinning after his knock. I sensed, from the number of times he was seen to tug at it, or take it off and put it back on, getting used to wearing it, to the extent he does not notice, may be Finn's biggest problem. I would suggest, he might even be better not wearing it.

The Scottish Rugby TV coverage was quite good, injured Ayr captain Pete McCallum was in good form as a summariser and, there were some fine passages of play. On this form, the Green Machine is starting to find its feet, but, there are one or two in there who would never have got near a green shirt in years past.

I was at Old Anniesland, where Hawks brought Watsonians down to earth with a bang. One Edinburgh commentator tried to make much of Hawks having three full-time professionals to 'Sonians' one – totally overlooking the fact it was the Glasgow youngsters who made the difference. George Horne and Grant Stewart were stick-outs for Hawks, while Kerr Gossman's try for them some 70 seconds into the second half was a thing of outrageous class and beauty.

Saturday was my first in the flesh look at new Warrior Tijuee Uanivi, who was playing lock for Hawks. He didn't impose himself on the game, but, Leone Nakarawa had a couple of outings for Hawks when he first arrived, without giving any indication of what a great player he was, so, here's hoping with “Chewy”, as the Namibian has been christened.

This coming week sees THE biggest match of the season so far, when leaders Melrose travel to second-placed Ayr. It is maybe a bit early to dub this a title decider, but, these two sides are already the likeliest to win the Premiership. It should be an epic.

GLASGOW, are having a bit of a back-row crisis, they were so-stretched, 18-year-old Matt Fagerson was with the squad in Cardiff as cover. Losing narrowly to a resurgent Cardiff is no disgrace, and, the secret in this league is making these losses rarities.

Edinburgh, meanwhile, continue to infuriate. There is something seriously wrong at that club just now. They never looked like beating Leinster, who, now they have Stuart Lancaster backing-up the relatively inexperienced Leo Cullen in the coaches' box, will be real contenders this season.

Save Our Club Game From Murrayfield's Indifference

I WAS speaking to a fellow scribbler over the weekend about the state of Scottish Rugby. But, unlike most of our colleagues, certainly in the mainstream papers, we don't draw a line under the Pro12 and think anything below that is irrelevant – we know there is more to the game as a whole than Glasgow and Edinburgh.

My fellow hack performs one of the most-difficult and onerous tasks in covering the game – he collates results from club rugby and feeds them to the papers. Now, once you get down the divisions, away from the Premiership and National Leagues, this becomes increasingly difficult. In the bottom District leagues, some of the clubs don't even have clubhouses, so, you rely on knowing which pub the team will be in, or, which cub official has his mobile phone with him, and was actually at the game, and is sober-enough to give you the result.

Then, there is the odd idiot who, when his team loses, thinks it is clever to give you the wrong result!!

Any way, my friend has noticed, this season, is is becoming evident, we have a minor players crisis here in Scotland. At the weekend, it was bad enough that Gala had to call-off their 2^nd XV fixture with Ayr, due to an insufficiency of front row players, even worse that Livingston, in National League 3 should seek a postponement, for the same reason. And, further down the leagues, this is a regular problem.

But, you will not find this mini-crisis taxing the brains of the SRU Board or Council too long. As one rugby man, not unfamiliar with the upper echelons of Murrayfield said – adding do not quote me in such a way as this gets back, but: “They don't give a shit about the club game”.

Well, if he could not say that openly, I can. The club game, the backbone of Scottish rugby, is being treated shamefully by the High Heid Yins at HQ.

MARK Dodson, the CEO of Scottish Rugby is an acquired taste. He has done, and continues to do, some good things, but, he is not above criticism.

His ears were probably burning today. Way back, last year, he was booked for one of the most-prestigious gigs in rugby, when he agreed to address the first Season 2016-17 monthly lunch of the GROGS – the Glasgow Rugby Old Geezers, at Braidholm.

Dodson called-off two weeks ago, citing a very important clashing meeting. Well, this GROG is not convinced. He maybe heard, some of our Anniesland Division, were ready to ask him some tough questions. Hopefully he will grow a pair and appear, there is still one vacancy late-on in the season.

Henry Pyrgos stepped-in at short notice and left the old buggers happy with his performance.

BY THE WAY – the excellent Lloyd Linton has already, two weeks into the new Pro12 season, refereed two games – the same total as he managed in the whole of last season. Lloyd is again in the middle this coming weekend, so, hopefully, our referees - several others of whom are either on a line or on TMO or citing duties – are now, at long last, starting to get a fairer crack of the appointments whip.

Edinburgh - A Suitable Case For Treatment

WHAT are we going to do about Edinburgh? That would appear to be the main talking point for the High Heid Yins of the SRU this week.

We have had the musical chairs surrounding the Glasgow and Scotland Head Coach jobs, but, nothing at all about Edinburgh. While Glasgow got off to an absolute flyer, beating Connacht in Galway, Edinburgh's Pro12 opener in Cardiff was a case of woe, woe and thrice woe.

OK, Alan Solomons has a plan, he is seeking to leave a legacy of good, young, Scottish talent at the club. Sure, in Blair Kinghorn, Damien Hoyland, Chris Dean, the three young scrum-halves and a clutch of promising young forwards – Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Sutherland, Jack Cosgrove and Co the basis is there, but, something is missing.

I have, on the few occasions I have spoken to him, found Solomons a decent man, and he is clearly a good coach. However, I fear, he may now be past his sell-by date for Edinburgh. Of course, that club's problems go deeper than merely under-performing in the Pro12, but, if results do not pick-up quickly, it may well be time to summon a taxi for Solomons and to give one of the thrusting young Scottish coaches now making a name for themseves, a chance at the big time.

THE PROBLEM is, of course, we don't have the third pro team we need to provide the platform for our coaches and young players. The long-touted semi-professional Premiership might help this. Ayr, Melrose, Heriot's and now Watsonians are probably already semi-professional, but, some of the other Premiership clubs have a way to go.

It doesn't help make a case for such a league when you hear of the losses some of the clubs made last season – one Borders club in particular running a near six-figure deficit over the season, if rumours are true. Can the SRU afford the subsidy which will be necessary to get the semi-pro clubs running effectively? Are the potential sponsors there, for clubs in a league which doesn't get the publicity the level of play merits.

Of course, the farce of withdrawing from the British & Irish Cup, then dangling the carrot of an Italian-Scottish Cup, before withdrawing that doesn't help.

When are Mr Dodson and the other High Heid Yins going to fully appreciate, the clubs are the body of the kirk, if they don't look after that, the steeple – Glasgow and Edinburgh – will fall down.

SATURDAY'S Premiership fixtures – and what did we learn?

Ayr and Melrose will, yet again, be the teams to beat.

Ayr, from the consensus of the Millbrae cogniscenti who travelled to Goldenacre “Were shite, but found a way to win”. Time was, an Ayr team, even one playing well, struggled in the capital, and lost. Times have indeed changed.

Melrose produced some breath-taking stuff in beating Hawks, but, were greatly aided by the failure of the Glasgow side to hold onto the ball when in dangerous places.

These Hawks youngsters are good. Sure, they will endure other bad days, such as Saturday, but, they have an outside chance of making the top four.

Watsonians will be a threat – at least in the first half of the season

Watsons have recruited well, they have strengthened where they felt they had to and two wins from stwo is a real confidence-booster. However, the established teams will work them out in time. However, in Marcus di Rollo and Simon Taylor, they have two excellent young coaches who will enhance the top flight.

Dinna write-off Hawick just yet

They may prop-up the table after two games, but, I am confident Hawick will not finish the season there. We hear at least one young Teri, enticed away by a big-money offer from elsewhere has seen the light and returned to again wear the green. The Green Machine is sometimes slow to fire-up, but, it will get going again.

FRANS ten Bos died last week, aged 79. The big English-born, Scottish educated Dutchman is, to some, a reminder of a past age. As snotty early sixties schoolboys, his name was good for a laugh and a joke: “Imagine having ten baws!!!”

He was a God-send to Scotland. After England unleashed Marques and Currie on the world, the call was for giant second-row partnerships, and, in 1960 the 6' 3” - 16 stones ten Bos and the 6' 5” - 18 stones Mike Campbell-Lammerton was Scotland's response. Bill McLaren dubbed the pair, and the equally big John Douglas at number eight: “Nuclear-fuelled dinosaurs”, because they got about the park, as well as dong the grunting at the scrum-face, behind that wonderful McLeod, Bruce and Rollo front row.

Big Frans made one try and scored another when Scotland beat Wales in Cardiff in 1962, breaking a 35-year Welsh hoodoo in the process – yet he thought he had a poor game. He combined a stellar career in the City of London with a lifetime of dedication to London Scottish, while he was also a pillar of the Old Fettesians Association.

He joined the Argylls as a humble Jock, and was commissioned, having been earlier rejected as: “Not Scottish enough” by the Camerons; had two wives, and three daughters – one of whom married a Rockafellar.

He never had a bad word to say for anyone, and was yet another worshipper at the throne of Hughie “the Abbot” McLeod. A hell of a man was Frans ten Bos.

GOOD to see Stuart Lancaster back in rugby, as a Senior Coach with Leinster. He was far too good a nuts and bolts coach to be out of the game for long. Of course, he suffered from the media hysteria which surrounds any English national team – you know, if the SRU don't promote one of the young Scottish coaches when Solomons departs, the former Scottish Universities player would be not a bad fit. Just saying like.

Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go

IT'S THAT time again, the competitive rugby season kicks-off this afternoon, with the opening round of matches in the BT Premiership. The Pro12 begins next weekend, but, in spite of the best efforts of the SRU to wean us off the club game and onto the delights of professional club rugby, to the body of the Scottish rugby kirk, the club game is where it is at.

I can maybe see a slight change to the pecking order this season. Heriot's were the luckiest team in the world to win the championship trophy last season. They finished the regular season so far behind Ayr it was embarrassing. Then they profited from a total brain fart by Currie to reach the Play-Off final, in which dark forces emerged to gift the Edinburgh side the trophy after quite the worst and most-biased display of refereeing I have ever seen at a Scottish game.

Ayr were playing against 16-men that day back in the spring at Millbrae. The outcome was a disgrace.

Any way, since then, Jack Turley and Jason Hill have left Goldenacre. The effect of this on Heriot's will be extreme. Maybe not as bad as if the Milne brothers and Andy Irvine had all walked out together, but, getting that way. If there were two men Phil Smith didn't want to lose, it was Jack and Jason; without them, Heriot's will struggle.

Ayr are having to factor-in promoting one or two youngsters, which may tell against them. Their excellent back row of Blair Macpherson, Will Bordill and new skipper Pete McCallum are back, but, they lack depth in the front row, which may be telling. However, with Frazier Climo pulling the strings, their backs will again be very dangerous and they will be in the mix.

So too will Currie, who travel to Millbrae this afternoon. Fergus Scott is back, after an injury-wrecked spell at Warriors and he will be a key player.

However, Melrose, even without the iconic John Dalziel coaching, will be most people's favourites for the title, particularly since Austin Lockington is back in harness. A couple of seasons ago, when Edinburgh seemed to be calling the line-outs in Afrikaans, it was said that Lockington, the only one not on an Edinburgh contract, was the best South African player in the East of Scotland and the Borders. That tag now rests with Wilem Nel, but, Austin is barely less-important to his club. The 'Rose will bloom this season.

Elsewhere, it will be interesting to see how Watsonians go on their return to the top flight. They have a young and exciting coaching duo in Marcus di Rollo and big Simon Taylor, while they have recruited well. If their new squad can gel quickly, things could get exciting around Myreside. A win over Heriot's today, could kick-start something big for the newcomers.

Peter Wright is now coaching Boroughmuir, which means they will be well-organised and, as ever, stuffy up front. 'Muir were a bit inconsistent last season, if Peter can sort this out, they could get into the mix. As too could Glasgow Hawks, they have a youthful coaching pairing in Fin Gillies and Colin Gregor, and some promising youngsters. As ever, Hawks will be the “par” team in the league. If you can beat them, you will be in the title mix; if not, you will struggle.

It is difficult to forecast a title challenge coming from Mansfield Park and Netherdale. Gala have a lot of re-building to do, but, their coaching team of Chris Dalgleish and Opeta Palepoi bleed maroon and will surely get everything out of their charges.

Hawick too have a charismatic coaching pairing in Nikki Walker and Scott MacLeod, but, while the old saw: “Scottish rugby needs a strong Hawick” still holds good, the depth of talent just is not there. However, if the wannabees are at less than their best when they travel to Hawick, it will get painful. And, bad news for Scottish referees, but good news for opposition fans in search of a pantomime villain to boo – Bruce McNeil is still playing. I just love Bruce, as an old Ayrshire junior football friend of mine used to say: “He'd be in my side at Kilbirnie”. There is no higher praise.

Finally, we come to Stirling County. The Bridgehaugh production line of exciting young talent is still churning out good, young players. However, it is a lack of experience which will, if anything, derail County this season. If they can keep their squad together for two or three seasons, they will be genuine contenders, but, for the moment, the rule laid down by that man from nearby Sauchie holds good.

As Alan Hansen said: “You win nothing with kids”.

Earlier Then We Thought, But, Toonie Was Always Going To Get The Top Job At Some Point

WHEN it comes to Gregor Townsend and the job of Scotland Head Coach, it was always a case of when, rather than if. However, the speed with which his elevation to the top job was announced last week caught everyone, even Toonie, by surprise.

As he himself admitted: “There I was, involved in the new Glasgow kit launch, and one hour later I was to be Scotland coach, amazing”.

I could spend time contemplating how it happened, and how quickly it happened. I might even feel sorry for Stern Vern Cotter – or cogitate on why it happened, but: Le Rio est mort, vive Le Roi and all that.

The recruitment of the Chiefs' Dave Rennie to replace Toonie is another example of the SRU not being as slow as they like to make out. Of course, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, but, he will arrive at Scotstoun with a good track record, and Toonie for one, is delighted to see him coming.

But, Scotland Coach Toonie and Glasgow Coach Rennie are for one year hence. There is still the small matter of season 2016-17 to get through. Our two pro sides had their first pre-season hit-outs at the weekend, and, although neither could call on their senior Scotland caps, there was much to feel good about in their matches with Sale, for Edinburgh, and Harlequins, for Glasgow.

The Scottish youngsters who were thrown in all did well, demonstrating both squads now have a depth they lacked in recent years past. Results at this stage mean nothing, but, both squads are looking good.

THE appointment of Dee Bradbury as Senior Vice President of the SRU at the annual meeting over the weekend was another case of the SRU, in this case mainly the member clubs, showing they are not the neanderthals they like to kid-on they are. What a welcome breath of fresh air, and, in the case of the excellent Magnus Bradbury, given past SRU examples too numerous to mention, a guaranteed cap!!!

One pity from the annual meeting, we still appear to have that daft, fat Aussie, being paid to do whatever it is he does. The Murrayfield blazers keep telling us, he is doing a great job, I am not alone in being thoroughly unconvinced.

Our excellent Premiership, which resumes on Saturday, is still the ignored problem child of Murrayfield. Our clubs are still not being permitted to enter the British & Irish Cup; the promised Italian-Scottish Cup has been down-graded to a match between the two Champions – although, given the way Ayr were refereed out of the Play-Off final last season, I still maintain they, not Heriot's, are the true Champions. The long-trumpeted semi-professional Premiership, don't be silly, it isn't going to happen.

We hear a couple of clubs are none-too-happy at the way access to Stage Three Academy players has been pochled to suit one or two clubs this season, and, can I ask – what has happened to this season's draft of pro players to the Premiership clubs?

I SEE co-captains are the new fashion. First of all, we had Jonny Gray and Henry Pyrgos sharing the job at Glasgow, now, Edinburgh has gone down the same route with Stuart McInally and Grant Gilchrist. Hmm! Ah hae ma doots.

Scottish Have Won A Watch With Dalziel

FORGIVE me for asking, but, what was all that on-off nonsense between the SRU and London Scottish about? It is a no-brainer that two professional clubs cannot possibly meet the recruitment needs of Scottish rugby, for a place to put the graduates from the Academy.

Since the SRU is unwilling/unable to fund and run a third professional side, then a closer union with Scottish is the only option that many people can see. I am not fully in agreement with sending only new Academy graduates to Richmond, there are one or two fringe players at Scotstoun and Murrayfield who would, I believe, benefit from a season in the IA Championship, and who would bring more to the Richmond Athletic Ground table than some of the kids – good players though these youngsters threaten to be.

I still feel, Pro12 sponsors Guinness, whose UK headquarters are in London, should maybe leaning on the three Celtic unions, to in their turn, lean on the three London “Exiles” clubs.

All three clubs are currently languishing in the second level of English rugby. If they get promoted, they would have to recruit heavily, and at higher cost – but, once upstairs in the English Premiership, they would need to work to the RFU protocol which demands, 70% of each match-day squad would need to be: “England-qualified”.

They might be able to live with this, however, it would, as happened with London Irish and London Welsh when in the English top-flight, a dilution of the three clubs' Irishness, Scottishness and Welshness. In the Pro12, this would not be a problem, and, I am sure, they would be competitive and thus, be better-able to get into Europe.

That is by the by, the main focus of this post is, to congratulate John Dalziel on his new role as London Scottish forwards' coach, the latest step in the on-off-back on relationship between the SRU and the Exiles.

Scottish have won a watch with the arrival of Dalziel, who will, I am certain, quickly have their pack firing on all eight cylinders.

STILL with one eye on the second tier in England. I notice former Scotland Under-20 back-rower and one-time Glasgow Warrior Tommy Spinks is back with Glasgow Hawks, the team he played for when at Scotstoun.

Tommy was with Jersey last season and he will be a good addition to the Old Anniesland forward ranks. By the way, I am convinced, the gap between the English second tier and the top tier of Scottish club rugby is not that great, and easily bridgeable with a bit of work on the part of the Scottish clubs.

Another guy back from the pro ranks is hooker Fergus Scott, whose Scotstoun career was fatally derailed by injury, even before it had got going. Big brother Matt may have gone south to Gloucester, but Fergus has gone east, back to Currie. I wish him well at Malleny Park.

CHAMPIONS Heriot's have suffered a double blow, with the loss of Jason Hill and skipper Jack Turley, arguably the two most-important players in last season's title-winning squad. Replacing two such-curcial components will be a major headache for head coach Phil Smith.

Jason has secured a professional contract with Bedford Blues, in England's second tier, while Jack will be seen in Fylde's colours this season.

Regular season champions Ayr will have most of their squad back, but, Graham Fisken has followed fellow back rower Andy Dunlop into retirement, while Haddon Macpherson has gone to America and Javan Sebastian has gone home to Wales. They have signed Scotland Under-18 cap Stafford McDowall, who has now left Merchiston Castle School. In joining Ayr, Stafford is following in the footsteps of his father, Fergus, who played for Ayr and Glasgow in the 1980s.

Premiership Player of the Year, Ayr's Peter McCallum, along with a number of other Premiership players, found a good way to put something new into pre-season, with the invitation Waterboys squad, which won a Tens tournament in Stockholm at the weekend. You might say they saw the whole of the moon!!!

New Season, But, Murrayfield Is Slow To Get Its Act Together

SLOWLY, like an old, rotund prop getting up from the foot of a ruck, rugby is readying itself for the new season. Of course, the professionals seldom get off the year-round treadmill. I accept, the Scotland squad players who were in Japan are coming to the end of the time off they were given on their return home, but, the majority of their team mates have been involved in the pre-season fitness slog for some time now, while the would-be Olympians such as Mark Bennett and Lee Jones, have never stopped.

At the top end of the still supposedly-amateur club game, the squads are already back in training, why, even the clubs who still play rugby as a means of building-up a Saturday thirst are now getting down to pre-season training.

I just wish we were getting a positive lead from Murrayfield. It was ever thus; you come into rugby-writing mostly because of a love for the game and all it stands for. But, after a wee while, you discover, there is a mind-set, a thought process inside Murrayfield best described as: It is our job to frustrate you, to make you question your sanity and to be a bloody-minded and obstructive as we can be.

Murrayfield moves in mysterious ways, and at its own speed. Homo Sapiens evolved faster than Alickadoo Murrayfieldus has.

Take the domestic fixtures, for instance. I understand, the clubs, certainly those in the Premiership, got theirs in early May. The fixture list did not appear on th SRU website until 1 July. Even then, there was no official announcement, not even an email to those of us journalists who are on the SRU list – they were simply posted. And, they went up in dribs and drabs, for instance, the West District fixtures did not appear until a week after everyone else's.

Here was a chance to get some media exposure, at a fallow time for the game. The rugby writers were crying out for something to write about, they got no help from Murrayfield.

Compare that with how the Pro12 did things this week – a proper announcement, fixtures ready, with a”steer” for the sports desks on what to write about. It is not good enough.

THE Team GB sevens squad for the Rio Olympics will be announced on Tuesday. The players who will form the final 12 to travel to Brazil already know who they are, but, the announcement is being delayed until after this week-end's European Rugby Sevens Grand Prix event in Poland, in which the 25-strong “long squad” will be participating in their normal guise of “GB Royals” and “GB Lions”.

Lee Jones (above) and Mark Bennett (below) two of Scotland's Rio hopefuls

 

We will have to wait until Tuesday for confirmation, but, the indications from the warm-up events in Moscow, Exeter and now in Poland are that there will be one or two Scots in the final squad.

The Team GB preparations have attracted virtually no media attention. One “Fleet Street” title has given-over acres of newsprint to one American Footballer's failure to make the Fijian squad for Rio, but, couldn't even send a reporter the 180 miles down the M4/M5 to Exeter to cover last week-end's Grand Prix, which was won by GB Royals.

As for those Scottish titles which bother with rugby, no, no interest in Sevens – in the land which invented it. Shakes head in disbelief and disgust.

EVEN more head-shaking and disbelief, as Edinburgh, having off-loaded Hugh Blake to Glasgow last season, signs a Tongan flanker nobody has heard off, while Glasgow loans the afore-mentioned Blake to Bay of Plenty, to play in the Ranfurly Shield.

Now, it could be Master Blake was over-hyped when he arrived here and was put straight into the national squad and quickly capped. But, in the 12-months since, he has been switched to Glasgow, vanished to the Scotland Sevens squad and now sent back, perhaps only temporarily to New Zealand.

 Hugh Blake - back to Bay of Plenty

Either, someone bought a pup, or, Scotland has not agreed with him. But, it strikes me as odd that a young Scottish international is being allowed to wither on the vine, while one of our two professional clubs signs a South Sea islander who is not even a household name in his own household.

I have been increasingly frustrated at the recruitment policies of Murrayfield and our two professional clubs. One of the core principles of the SRU is to guide, nurture and expand Scottish rugby. Maybe promoting Scottish players should be paramount in this, but, right now, I don't see this happening.

AND, still wondering what is going on. The British &Irish Cup pools were announced this week, again without Scottish involvement. I don't get this; I am utterly convinced Ayr, Currie, Heriot's and Melrose, the four Scottish clubs who would have been involved, had Scotland participated, could, with the proper support from Murrayfield, have made a good impression in this competition.

There is still no word from Murrayfield about the proposed Italian-Scottish Cup competition, which was supposed to be the consolation prize for our top four clubs. Might this, as I fear, be another case of the SRU quietly not doing their job.

Normally, even if only to say: “The news is, there is no news”, we accredited hacks receive, at around 6pm every Friday, the SRU's week ahead media schedule, telling us what is, or quite often is not happening around Murrayfield. We haven't had such a schedule on either of the last two Fridays, although we did get one release trumpeting the appointment of Scotland's first official gin partner – I bet that raised a cheer or three among the “blazers”.

Rugby has long been a bad second to football for media coverage, these days, our home-grown media pays more attention to a pair of extremely-talented brothers from Dunblane than it does to Scottish Rugby. Come on SRU, get your act together better.