Growing The Game And World-Class Trolling

I HAVE SEEN it suggested these days that the world of sport in this country is now operating in a series of “silos”; each individual sport seemingly going along in its own wee bubble: the football people know only football, elsewhere it's cricket 24/7/52, or 365 days a year Rugby Union.

Some have suggested this is, in part, down to the way in which top sport has retreated from the “free” “Cooncil Telly” to pay-to-view. Back in the day, sport benefitted from the way it was readily-available on th BBC and ITV. It is claimed that when Sky won the rights to Test Cricket, that game as a whole contracted, because the ordinary kids never got to see the stars of the day playing it.

Football is still the main game in the UK, even though the main terrestial channels are now the second line of broadcasting. It is widely believed in the body of the Rugby Union kirk, that the game's retreat – The Six Nations apart, behind the Amazon Prime, Premier Sport, Sky and TNT Sport paywalls – has edversely-affected interest in the game.

Back in th sepia-tinted days when I was a boy, we played fitba nearly all the time; however, in the summer our field of fitba dreams did become for a time, out own Lords, after we watched Dennis Compton, Len Hutton, Keith Miller and Ray Lindwall battle for the Ashes.

Then, every July, we would mark-out a tennis court and become Ken Rosewall or Lew Hoad in the week after Wimbledon. Then we would have a week of pretending to be golfers, before the start of the League Cup dragged us back to being footballers again.

We maybe weren't much good, but we tried sports other than the main one, and I feel we were bettr for it. “Jumpers for goalposts” is maybe a cliché, but we loved it. It seems to me, today's youngsters have to have all the branded equipment and be part of an official club, or they will not play a game – they can only play it if coached and guided, they don't have our doing it for ourselves approach.

That I would venture to suggest, may be one of the reasons for the huge fall-off in numbers of players in youth Rugby Union transitioning to the adult game. In my day, unless you were from the Borders, or went to a private school, you never saw a rugby ball until you entered First Year at your State School.

Thus, the up to six years you spent playing at school were a sort of apprenticeship in the game and you were still keen to learn when the time came to join your local club. At most, we trained two nights per week then played on a Saturday – Rugby Union was still relatively fresh to us at 18.

These days, kids are going into highly-organised club development systems in their earliest years of primary education. Come age 18 and the time to transition into the adult game, I suggest more than a few guys have had enough of playing, or are unwilling to play in a more-physical level of the game, so they drop out and become spectators. Of course, the alternative joys of women and drink might also play a role.

The more-talented players begin to be cherry-picked out of the general system in mid-teens, they have a future at whatever level their talent and drive takes them to, it's the lesser talents who opt-out and no less an authority than Scotland and Lions Legend Iain Milne, proving yet again that tight-head props are the true intellectuals of the game, has been on-point in insisting: “We need more average or poor players” - because these are the guys who grease the wheels of every club, buying the beer, doing the menial jobs which keep the whole show on the road, allowing those who can still play to do their thing.

It strikes me, a whole couple of generations of failed Scottish footballers, guys  who, in that time-honoured Scottish saying: “Couldnae kick doors at Halloween” can, once or twice a week, pretend they are 21^st century reincarnations of Jim Baxter, Jinky Johnstone, Denis Law or Kenny Dalglish on their local five-a-side pitches.

Just about the most-enjoyable job I had when I was full-time on the tools was piloting the Sports Desk on the Paisley Daily Express. I devoted one full page a week to the ongoings at the local Pitz Football Complex, where they had leagues going seven days per week, and featured such teams as Unreal Madrid, Outer Milan, Inter Yermaw and, quite my favourite: Norfolk En Chance.

These teams and the guys who played for them were never going to qualify for The Champions League, or even the Junior Central League, but, they could live out their fantasies while working-up a thirst and a bit of a sweat.

Why cannot we have the same purely social tier of Rugby Union in Scotland. I can immediately think of at least four Scottish clubs who have the basic infrastructure in place to get a Rugby Union version of these football centres. For sure, we might have to tweak the Laws of Sevens, or develop a hybrid game to suit, but, surely the brains are in-place to beat the obsgtacles.

We might even see an expansion of Walking Rugby and, given the social aspects of “Apres Rugger” the clubs which could come up with something could be well set-up for the future – also, it might keep the players we are losing involved in the game for longer.

In this 21^st century, we cannos simply say: “It's aye been and aye will be” that approach hasn't served us that well.

THE BEST bit of social media trolling I have seen in a while was produced this week by an English friend of mine, on a Rugby Union site on Facebook; when he suggested the demise of the South African sides in the Investec Challenge Cup over the weekend was: “A case of cutting-out the dead wood.” As you can imagine, the response from south of the Limpopo has been nuclear.

We Need To Tackle This Issue

CALL ME a Luddite, if you must; should you prefer, call me old-fashioned: but at my advanced age, I refuse to concede that the modern ways are necessarily better than those tried and tested methods which worked when I were nowt burra lad.

I remember going to Murrayfield in January, 1961 to see Scotland take on Avril Malan's Fifth Springboks. The green giants arrived in Edinburgh seeking to complete a clean sweep of the Home Nations, a feat they duly accomplished. However, given they had hammered Scotland 44-0 (54-0 in today's scoring values) on their last visit – the notorious Murrayfield Massacre of 1951, to only lose 5-12 this time round was seen as something of a moral victory by the SRU.

That Springbok squad went on to beat France to complete a Grand Slam Tour. They lost only once, to a somewhat stacked Barbarians XV, 0-6 in their final match in the UK, on a bog of a pitch in Cardiff. It could be argued that, under today's interpretation of the laws and with a TMO in place, the South Africans might well have won.

Certainly, the “tackle” - in reality a blatant shoulder charge – with which Swansea's Hadyn Mainwaring denied Malan a try would, under today's interpretation, result in a red card for him and a Penalty Try to the Tourists, who were denied another seemingly good try by an unsighted referee – another incident which the TMO would surely have sorted out.

But, to return to the Murrayfield match, what still sticks in my mind about that day, were two things: the impressive textbook-correct tackling of the Scottish players, in particular centres Eddie McKeating and Geordie Stevenson, who time and again cut down their larger Saffa opponents, was the first lasting impression. The second was the play of South African Number Eight Doug Hopwood, who scored the opening try.

Hopwood's ability to pick-up at the base of an advancing scrum and explode upfield really captured my imagination; except, when I did this in a school game, off a scrum on our own line, beat the cover then sent our winger – who was the Ayrshire 100 metres sprint champion, off to score a terrific try, I got a severe dressing-down from our teacher for trying to be too-clever!!!

Today, you seldom see a classic side-on tackle, indeed, from some of the efforts I see weekly in professional, far-less amateur club rugby, I feel the sort of earth-shattering tackles which the likes of the recently-gone Derfrick Grant or Ron Glasgow made every game are truly from another time.

Perhaps, had today's professionals been taught to tackle properly at an early age, we would see fewer of these head-on-head collisions which are a festering sore on the visage of today's game. Now, I would be the first to admit, tackling was never my strongest suit, but, I wasn't often called-on to make tackles, since I played with a couple of wing forwards and a pair of centres who knew how to tackle properly and relished having that skill. We need to get more guys like that back playing these days.

I can still recall my own first exposure to Rugby Union, in First Year at the Academy. Our coach was the late Matt Todd, whose day job was to teach Maths, and who played on the wing for the local club.

Matt, taken far-too-young by Cancer when a Headmaster at a local Priamry School, was a good tackler and he spent a lot of time during these first weeks of exposing us to the game, making sure we all knew how to tackle, round the thighs, with our heads behind the opponents legs. It was a lesson we never forgot.

These days, the order, at even the top level, appears to be: “I don't care how you do it, or if you hurt yourself doing it -just stop them.” It's time we got back to the basics of proper tackling.

OK – I am not going to say everything in the Scotland camp is hunky dory going into the 2025 Guinness Six Nations. In the less than a week since Gregor Townsend announced his squad, we have lost skipper Sione Tuipulotu and leading lock Scott Cummings. Leaving, as ever, some members of the Tartan Army Rugby Union Division in full Private Frazer mode – insisting: “We're awe doomed.”

Losing such an X-Factor threequarter as The Skipper is never good for confidence, but, on the grounds that “Forwards win matches – backs decide by how much”, the loss of Cummings, who I believe, with a good Six Nations could have got himself onto the Lions Tour, regardless of the high number of quality locks in the British Isles at the moment.

He doesn't have the media cheer-leaders who boost some of the English and Irish locks, but, over the past couple of seasons, he has come good with important moments in some of Warriors' big games – he's now a Big Game Player who we will miss.

Toony's decision – in the wake of the Tuipulotu injury – to name Rory Darge and Finn Russell as Co=Captains does concern me a wee bit. OK, given Kyle Steyn is also missing (at least at the start of the tournament), Rory and Finn were next in the line of succession, and have had th job before.

However, I feel, at the moment, Darge is a wee bit off his optimum pace, while I feel Finn is more of a threat when he is left to concentrate on his strong-pulling role, rather than also having to lead the campaign.

Rather significantly, Toony has chosen not to add additional players to his squad, to cover his losses. In the case of Tuipulotu, the next threequarter “taxi” off the rank – Bath's Cameron Redpath – is injured. Cameron Henderson of Leicester would be a lot of people's choice to come in for Cummings, but, in a terrible accident of timing for him, he was a member of a Tigers pack almost swept into the Mediterranean by the Toulouse tide on Sunday. Against this, Sam Skinner's display for Edinburgh on Sunday was a definite case of a player putting his hand up for recognition. We have alternates if needed up front.

 

A Bad Night At the Office

WARRIORS did not play well at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday night. They made too-many unforced errors, perhaps tried too hard to force things and the whole game was a classic case of a bad night at the office.

Had Warriors played at their best, I am not saying they would have won – Harlequins played well, took their chances and, crucially in these European games, once again they got the rub of the green from a referee who had perhaps decided, pre-match, to favour the home side.

If Warriors should meet 'Quins again, in one of the later rounds, I fancy they will win – a case of third time lucky. Until then, we have to accept, while he is generally a poor coach, Danny Wilson does know how to upset the Scotstoun side.

Hopefully Scott Cummings, forced off the field early-on, is not so-badly hurt that it affects his participation in the Guinness Six Nations. Hopefully too, Sione Tuipulotu is not that badly injured. Against that, however, both Stafford McDowall and Rory Hutchison had good games on Saturday.

Mind you, during the three back-to-back games I watched on Saturday, the moment which worried me most came when Finn Russell had to leave the field in the Leinster v Bath game for a Head Injury Assessment; fortunately 'MacMessi' was able to return and weave his magic, albeit in a losing cause for his side.

The worst aspect of the whole viewing experience was having to endure the ridiculously pro-Harlequins commentary in the Glasgow game. It was almost – Ryan Wilson's efforts notwithstanding - as if there was only one side playing.

There are too-many English commentators in sport today – I suppose a result of there being so many of them – who have been brought up to believe they are indeed The Master Race.

OK, there are more of them than of the rest of us in the Celtic Fringes, but, it really is long past the time when the High Heid Yins in the media realised, we do not all support England or English clubs.

IF GLASGOW v Harlequins was a hard watch, Edinburgh putting the Georgian Black Lions to the sword was easier on the nerves, if not the eyes. I Edinburgh might revert to type and go down to the level of clearly inferior opponents, but, they found enough to avoid this pitfall.

I would have been more worried for them, had Magnus Bradbury incurred his ored card against English or French opposition, but thee game Georgians lacked the nous to take advantage of the opportunity this card dealt them,

At times, I found it a scrappy game, but, Edinburgh were always, even when down to 13 men, following yellows for Pierre Schoeman and Ben Healy, in control.

I felt for young Lewis Wells on his debut. I would suggest Duhan van der Merwe might have made a bit more of the passes his young replacement got, but, he has now been blooded and will be better for the experience.

I felt even more for Ross Thompson, who just cannot seem to get a break these days. He comes off the bench to see-out the victory and pretty soon he is back off, courtesy of these new smart mouthguards indicating a heavy blow to the head.

If it wasn't for his bad luck, young Ross would have nae luck. But, on a cheerier note – Javan Sebastina is somewhat under-rated by the body of the Scottish rugby Kirk, as is D'Arcy Rae. We repeatedly hear we have no cover for Zander Fagerson.

The one thing the Georgians take pride in above all else is the strength of their scrummaging and when he came on, Javan immediately had their scrum in a bit of bother.

OK, Javan and D'Arcy perhaps lack Zander's ability to make “metres after contsact” but, even today – a tight-head's primary function is to shore up the scrum and these two under-rated players can certainly do that in spades.

IT GOES without saying, there are no easy ties in the last 16 of any European competition. These sides are the best of the best in the respective competitions.

However, with home advantage, I have every confidence in Warriors being able to see off Leicester and Edinburgh get the better of Emirates Lions, when the two European competitions resume in April.

I would even suggest, IF Scotland has a better than average Six Nations, and Glasgow keep winning in the BKT United Rugby Championship, Warriors ought to be seeing if Hampden is available for their meeting with the Tigers.

The East Midlands side were comprehensively put to the sword by Toulouse's all-court game on Sunday, an outcome which should boost Glasgow. OK, Dupont, Kinghorn & Co poerhapos do it marginally better, but, if there is another side which can, like Toulouse, rip opponents to shreds in broken play, then it is Glasgow. No need to fear these Tigers, especially with home advantage.

To go off on what some might say is a total leap of faith, might I add here. IF and that is a huge IF, verging on the impossible, Harlequins can beat Leinster at Croke Park in their last 16 game – and Warriors see of Leicester, I would be 100% confident in Franco's men beating the Londoners in Glasgow in the quarter-final. The problem with that scenario is – I can see no way whereby 'Quins can win in Dublin, but, I could see Warriors winning a last eight game in Dublin.

Edinburgh had perhaps their worst result of the season when losing to Emirates Lions in South Africa earlier this season. They are a better side now and, with home advantage, while they might not totally overturn that reverse, they are more than capable of reaching the last eight.

Ranked third of the 16 remaining clubs, Edinburgh will have a home quarter-final against either Bayonne of the Bulls, should they tame the Lions, with the tantalising prospect of a semi-final against Stuart Hogg's Montpellier looming, or, am I getting ahead of myself here?

FINALLY, new Scottish Rugby Union Chief Executive Alex Williamson started work at Scottish Gas Murrayfield this morning. Welcome aboard Sir, and I hope you enjoy a long and successful spell in the hot seat. Just one question, below Item One – the Union's dire financial position, I wonder in what order the crucial items on his To Do list has been placed in his in-tray.

 

Toony Tombola - The 2025 Game

IT IS NEVER wise to attempt to second-guess Gregor Townsend, when it comes to the Scotland squads he selects. We saw what is now referred to as “Toony Tombola” at lunch time today, when he announced his 37-strong squad for the 2025 Guinness Six Nations.

Received wisdom in the ranks of the Scottish Rugby Union Writers Club is that we could pretty-much name the Match Day 23 for the opening game, against Italy right now; indeed, we pretty-much could name the entire squad, so, where did the Toony Tombola element come into play?

Perhaps the closest thing to a “Left-Field Bolter” came in the selection of Glasgow Warriors' Jack Man; just reward for his recent good form for the Scotstoun outfit. Mann is one of two uncapped players, the other – Saracen's New Zealand-born ten Fergus Burke is the other – but Burke's inclusion had been well-telegraphed before hand. He has leap frogged past Edinburgh's Ben Healy and Ross Thompson, neither of whom has made the cut.

Jonny Gray is back, while it is perhaps surprising to see Marshall Sykes called-up, although he has been putting in the hard yards for his club. He is in but the expected recall of fit-again Leicester lock Cameron Henderson has not happened.

Johnny Matthews of Warriors has again been left out, but, there is a recall for Edinburgh's Dave Cherry, with the capital club providing three of the four hookers, alongside South Africa-based Dylan Richardson.

D'Arcy Rae is another Edinburgh player to have battled back into contention, but I sense I am not alone in questioning the absence from the squad of Warriors' Captain Kyle Steyn.

Sione Tuipulotu continues as Captain, with Rory Darge and Finn Russell as Vice Captains. The squad split is: 12 Edinburgh players, 16 Glasgow Warriors and nine Exiles. It is also a highly-experienced group; the 35 capped players have, between them, accrued 1004 Scotland appearances.

Scotland squad for the 2025 Guinness Six Nations (caps in brackets):

Forwards (22)

Ewan Ashman – Edinburgh Rugby (22)
Josh Bayliss – Bath Rugby (10)
Jamie Bhatti – Glasgow Warriors (35)
Gregor Brown – Glasgow Warriors (4)
Dave Cherry – Edinburgh Rugby (11)
Luke Crosbie – Edinburgh Rugby (12)
Scott Cummings – Glasgow Warriors (42)
Rory Darge – Vice-Captain – Glasgow Warriors (25)
Jack Dempsey – Glasgow Warriors (22)
Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (50)
Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (70)
Grant Gilchrist – Edinburgh Rugby (75)
Jonny Gray – Bordeaux Bègles (77)
Patrick Harrison – Edinburgh Rugby (3)
Will Hurd – Leicester Tigers (4)
Jack Mann – Glasgow Warriors (uncapped)
D’Arcy Rae – Edinburgh Rugby (2)
Dylan Richardson – The Sharks (6)
Jamie Ritchie – Edinburgh Rugby (54)
Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby (37)
Rory Sutherland – Glasgow Warriors (37)
Marshall Sykes – Edinburgh Rugby (1)

Backs (15)

Fergus Burke – Saracens (uncapped)
Matt Currie – Edinburgh Rugby (4)
Jamie Dobie – Glasgow Warriors (9)
Darcy Graham – Edinburgh Rugby (42)
George Horne – Glasgow Warriors (34)
Rory Hutchinson – Northampton Saints (8)
Huw Jones – Glasgow Warriors (53)
Tom Jordan – Glasgow Warriors (3)
Blair Kinghorn – Toulouse (55)
Stafford McDowall – Glasgow Warriors (8)
Finn Russell –  Vice-Captain – Bath Rugby (82)
Kyle Rowe – Glasgow Warriors (9)
Sione Tuipulotu – Captain – Glasgow Warriors (30)
Duhan van der Merwe – Edinburgh Rugby (44)
Ben White – Toulon (24)

 

We Really Are Behind The Times In Scotland

IAIN KING used to have the most-influential jobs in Scottish Sport. Kingie was Head of Sport for the Scottish Sun and Chairman of the influential Lap Top Loyal think tank. His sports-writing pedigree was such that he was a multi-award winner. Only, Kingie wasn't content with his lot, he got into coaching, closed his notebook and these days, he is a Regional Director of Soccer Coaching on Cape Breton Island, in Canada.

I still recall one of Iain's first blog posts, not long after he relocated to Canada, where he was coaching in Toronto. In this post he mentioned the “bubbles” going up – inflatable domes which covered the fields and guaranteed the Canadian kids could continue to play during the worst of that nation's harsh winters.

Now, we here in Scotland don't have to endure the depths of snow which are a fact of life in Canada, but, we do have wintrs during which it is cold, it is wet – you bet your life it's wet, yet we still expect our kids to go out to train, practice and play in poor weather. This has me thinking, why don't we have “bubbles” in regular use over here?

Soccer, as they call Football over there, is further down the sporting pecking order in the land where real men play ice hockey, than Rugby Union is in Scotland. But, the guys running that game over there take enough care of their kids, to ensure half-decent facilities for winter training, while, over here, it is perhaps a case of “The Alf Tupper Syndrome” - that every-possible obstacle must be placed in the way of talent development – still rules; we don't want the little blighters thinking they're getting an easy ride.

I remember a brief flirtation with domes in the 1970s, or 1980s. I think, from memory, Leicester City installed a dome over the pitch at Filbert Street. But, it never caught on, and today, 40 or 50 years on, British sport is still largely in-thrall to the vagaries of the weather.

Professional football teams have pitch protection, under-soil heating, pitch covers, but, there isn't the same desire to protect the spectator areas – we really are behind the times.

The British/Scottish weather is a real puzzle. We know we are going to lose a few fixtures to inclement weather each season; what we do not know at the start of each campaign is – exactly which fixtures will be called-off. There could be water-logged pitches in October, then no further disruption until the end of the season; or there could be frozen pitches in December, then again in February – it's an absolute lottery.

OK, back when Rugby Union was: “A game for Hooligans, played by Gentlemen” it might have been permissible to have a hit and miss approach to matches being played or not played due to weather concerns. But, even those who still try to argue that: “The Premiership is an Amateur competition” have to acknowledge, big money is involved, so a degree of professionalism has to be involved and accepted.

Prior to Saturday's ultimately unplayed match against Selkirk, Ayr Rugby Club were due to entertain some 150 guests to their pre-match lunch, at £35 per head. I am told that lunch went ahead, but, suppose the game had been called-off earlier, that's a significant loss. Also, clubs in the Premiership charge for admission to games.

I would argue that if you consider your club's first team games to be worth charging spectators to watch it, then you are running a business and have to be business-like in how you run your club – to the extent, you do not simply leave it up to the vagarires of the weather as to whether or not your “customers” have a game to watch when it is scheduled.

So clubs in the Premiership have a duty to install pitch protection to better ensure games get played when scheduled.

This comes back to a call which has been made regularly and repeatedly on this blog – The Scottish Rugby Union really has to get into the 21^st century and demand set standards of infrastructure and governance from those clubs playing in at least the top two divisions of their leagues system.

If the game's High Heid Yins inside the EH12 bubble don't get their act together soon, Rugby Union in Scotland has a very-dark future.

OK, “Soccer” in Canada is not as important in the overall state of the sporting nation as Rugby Union is in Scotland. Yes, Canada has harsher winters than we are exposed to in Scotland, but, if a Soccer club in Canada can be better prepared for bad weather in the winter than a Rugby club in Scotland, then it's a bad day for Rugby Union. Our game deserves better.

AS BEFITS its status as Scotland's leading Rugbvy Union media outlet, The Offside Line ran its excellent obituary on Peter Brown on Sunday – the day of his passing.

The rest of us caught-up on Monday, but it took “Fleet Street” until Tuesday to cotton-on to PC's death. Between paywalls and subscriptions, just about the only places where you don't have to pay to stay abreast of events are in the online pages of the BBC website and the Online Guardian.

The BBC had their Brown obituary up on Monday night, but it took The Guardian until Tuesday morning to print their tribute – a few paragraphs tagged onto the news of the announcement by Warren Gatland of the Welsh squad for the Guinness Six Nations.

To my mind this confirms the low opinion London has of Scotland. To the sophisticates inside the M25 bubble, Scotland is a small, far-away country, of which they know little and care even less.

The obituary contained a couple of factual inaccuracies, including crediting PC with brother Gordon's eight Test caps for the British and Irish Lions. I cannot help thinking, had a former England Captain with PC's record died, the reaction would have been a lot different.

 

We Have Lost Another Giant

THE STAIR-HEID RAMMY which has followed the late call-off of the Ayr v Selkirk game in the Arnold Clark Premiership, then the devastating blow of Scottish Rugby losing Peter PC Brown has tended to dominate the Rugby Union conversation and push those excellent results, achieved in Europe by Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh onto the inside back pages as it were.

Glasgow might have relaxed too soon against Racing on Friday night, allowing the sophisticated Parisiennes to narrow the gap in the result, but you can bet Franco Smith will use that late comeback to good effect when preparing his men for Harlequins this weekend and the knock-out ties to come later in the season.

Speaking of 'Quins – who finished a poor second (much to the distress of the English commentators on Premier Sports) whose distress at the way Toulon swatted the pride of London aside had echoes of Marty Feldman's legendary English football commentator sketch: I am still convinced they beat Warriors last season, only because the match officiating team had pre-determined that they and not Warriors were the big side, who should get the benefit of the 50/50 calls.

This still happens in games – where for some reason, regardless of our recent run of wins in the annual Calcutta Cup games, and Glasgow's very-good head-to-head record against various English clubs – in a Scotland v England clash, we are still seen as the lesser side and refereed accordingly.

Let's hope, whoever has the whistle at the weekend has read an up todate script and realises, Glasgow is the bigger club. Given a good referee, they should win.

As regards Edinburgh, hopefully that win at Vannes will be the catalyst for improived form and results in the remainder of the season, they really need a break.

IN HIS iconic Scotsman match report, following Scotland's emphatic win over the Auld Enemy, in the Centenary Match in 1971, the great Norman Mair, in penning one of the legendary opening paragraphs, suggested that in captaining Scotland to back-to-back victories over England, on successive Saturdays, Peter Brown had earned his seat at the right hand of God.

 

 I trust, as he adjusts to afterlife in Rugby Union Heaven, PC finds that seat to his liking. Peter has, perhaps unfairly, suffered from the having a younger brother who had a touch more X-Factor star quality than he did himself; however, the elder of the three Broons frae Troon was no mean player himself.

He was first noticed as a Marr College player, who got into the Glasgow Schools XV. His progress meant he took what Bill McMurtrie memorably dubbed: “The drove road from Ayrshire to Burnbrae”. The West of Scotland team he joined really was a West of Scotland select: Peter, Dave Shedden, Ian Murchie and Quinton Dunlop were all capped, while others who took the drove road – Alec Wilson, David Good and Robin Hunter meant that at times West was more an Ayrshire Exiles XV.

Although only six feet three inches tall, PC was an outstanding line-out jumper, in the days before lifting. He had an impressive standing spring and handling skills which he inherited from his father Jock, himself a former Scotland goalkeeper. Those handling skills would be seen at their best in his role as one of Gala's “Magnificent Seven” which dominated the short game in Scotland in the early 1970s.

Peter won the first of his 27 Scotland caps, in 1964, playing as a lock in a 10-0 Murrayfield win over France. It says much for the selectorial inconsistency of the SRU of the time, that those caps were won over nine season. However, in his defence, he did take time-out from rugby to spend a couple of seasons concentrating on his accountancy career.

The rise of younger brother Gordon, and another Ayrshireman – Alistair McHarg - also cost him some caps – memorably in 1970, when Peter was recalled to the national side, he telephoned Gordon with the good news, only for his kid brother to ask who had been dropped to facilitate PC's recall. Legend has it Peter was perhaps a bit too-pleased when he said: “You”.

The brothers never did lock the Scotland scrum together, but, after Peter moved to Number Eight, they played often together in navy blue – generally with father Jock in the technical area as Scotland physio. The Browns also played together for The Barbarians.

While Gordon was the only forward to play in all three Lions Tours in the 1970s, Peter missed out on wearing the red jersey. He was out of favour with the Scottish selectors in 1966 and 1968 and in 1971, demands of his business career prevented him from making himself available for selection. Given what a Lions icon his younger brother was, Peter would surely, had he been able to, have been a Lion of distinction.

After his playing days ended, Peter became a very-good referee, only just missing-out on internaitonal honours, while he gave years of service in administering the disciplinary side of the game, both domestically in .Scotland and at international level.

As a distinguished former club captain, he gave years of service to the cause of Gala RFC, while he had a distinguished career in business. He was . Like Gordon, an entertaining after-dinner speaker, an excellent photographer and a good golfer, at clubs such as Royal Troon and Muirfield.

PC Brown accomplished much during his 83 well-lived years, it would be difficult to pick-out particular highlights, however, he remains Scotland's highest-scoring international forward, with 67 points, many accrued by his highly-individual place kicking style, while his record of captaining Scotland to three victories over England is also worthy of note – who, who saw it happen, can forget him waving away an excited Gordon, who wanted to embrace him after his match-winning conversion at Twickenham in 1971. Peter was not ready to celebrate, the game was not over.

For Peter Brown, his earthly life is over – he leaves a rich legacy: he was one of the Good Guys, and one of the Great Players.

 

A 3G Pitch Rammy To Start The New Year

SOME 50 YEARS AGO – when, believe it or not, I was even dafter than today and my what is or isn't acceptable in print filter was less precise than today, I was banned by Ayr Rugby Club. More recently, Billy McHarg and I fell-out during the early uncertainties over Super Rugby, before, once again, we metaphorically kissed and made-up and no lasting harm was done. I mention this perhaps as a means of deflecting comments accusing me of being in the Millbrae club's pocket.

I should merely point-out that when as experienced a Rugby Union writer as Lewis Stuart can get to the heart of the issue in his match report intro – any “blame” for the reason why Saturday's Arnold Clark Premiership match between Ayr and Selkirk can clearly be aportioned.

To quote directly from big Lewis's piece for The Offside Line: “THE final attempt to get an Arnold Clark Men’s Premiership match played over the weekend came to nothing when Selkirk took one look at Ayr’s alternative pitch and refused to play. With one side so adamant the ground was unplayable, the officials and host club had no choice but to concede the point and accept the postponement.”

Ayr were ready to play, the match referee was apparently also happy, but, Scottish Rugby Union rules clearly say, if one of the teams is unhappy and unwilling to play, then the game does not get played. It's that black and white.

Selkirk will have to take the hit for their costs incurred in an ultimately futile 200 miles-plus round trip. Some on the extreme wing of the Ayr club might wish to bill them for the costs incurred by the home club – while others might wish to perhaps place some, if not all the blame, for the late call-off on the notoriously inept South Ayrshire Council, for not having the pitch at Queen Margaret Academy, fit for purpose. Although, to be fair to that oft-maligned body, another of their 3G pitches, at Ayr Academy's Riverside Campus, was safely used by Ayr's 2^nd XV, who beat Heriot's 26-5 in an Inter-City Reserve League clash.

Perhaps the 50 feet or so difference in elevation from sea level between the two grounds was to blame for the call-off at Queen Margaret.

My view is simple: “Shite happens” - live with it, If Selkirk thought Saturday's pitch was too-hard to play on, I should remind them of the wise words of that great Scottish Rugby Union man – Glasgow Hawks' President Brian Simmers. Many years ago, accepting the Fairbairn Trolphy on behalf of Glasgow Academicals, at the conclusioon of Ayr's annual Sevens tournament, the bold Brian thanked the host club for: “Once again producing a concrete pitch for the tournament.”

Saturday's postponed game may well be replayed on that same concrete pitch, since it will be April before it gets played.

The problem we have in Scotland is the uncertainty over our climate, controlled as it so-often is by the trans-Atlantic “jet stream” - the vagaries of which mean, we know we're going – “Global Warming” not withstanding, we're going to get a cold snap at some point in the winter – the gtrouble is, we never know, from one year to the next, when it will strike. And that's before we factor-in the effects of heavier than normal rain-fall, and games called-off because of water-logged pitches.

Last weekend was due to see the 15^th of the 18 regular season rounds of the Premiership played, instead, it saw the second total wipe-out of the season. To date 76 of the 90 fixtures have been played – an 84% completion rate.

At the same point last season (2023-24) – which fell on 9 December, 2023, 68 of the 75 scheduled fixtures – 91% - had been completed, In the previous season (2022-23) – which fell on 17 December, 2022 – 65 of the 75 scheduled fixtures – 87% - had been played.

Looking at the three post-Covid seasons, the postponement rate is fairly steady at around 87% of the first 15 rounds being completed on-schedule. Over these three seasons there have been just 5 weekends of total wipe-out:

1. 10 December, 2022

2. 17 December, 2022

3. 02 December, 2023

4. 25 November, 2024

5. 11 January, 2025

Looking also at how the weather affected games in the second half of the season, we find a fairly-similar situation. In 2022-23, 17 of the 20 matches scheduled to be played in January, 2023 were played without problems.

Last season, 2023-24, saw 12 of the 15 scheduled games played – an 80% completion rate; although, a couple of re-scheduled games, due to be played on 6 January, 2024, were called-off, reducing the completion rate to 71%.

My take on this data – OK there is a case (perhaps) for changing the seasonal dates to take out playing in late November/December; however we cannot rule out further bad weather leading to poostponements in January and February – or even into March.

I here again recycle an argument I have used before. Club rugby, at Premiership level is, irresperctive of arguments to the contrary, a semi-professional sport. As such, it is more a business than a recreation. Therefore, I would suggest the Premiership and National League 1 should be hived-off from being the responsibility of the SRU's Club Rugby Board, and governance of these two leagues ought to come under the remit of Scottish Rugby Limited.

Before a club can play in these two leagues, they would be required to meet stringent regulations regarding club and ground infrastructure – including a set standard of pitch protection, either via having an artificial surface, or if a grass pitch, undersoil heating.

There is a case too, I feel, for tinkering with the seasonal dates, so that more rugby is played in the months when we generally expect better weather – although that may always be a bit of a lottery in Scotland.

Ideally too, we might wish for a second Oriam-type indoor arena somewhere in the Glasgow area, thus, if we are hit by really-bad weather, we could get games played back-to-back to avoid fixture pile-up. But, of course, that would require the type of money we do not have in Scottish rugby at the moment.

And, to return to where I started, at Ayr on Saturday – maybe we should look at the protocols for matches affected by bad weather. However, that would mean involving the High Heid Yins of the SRU – not a body noted for sensible decision-making.