Too Many Players - Not Enough Teams Or Games

BETWEEN the 2020 Autumn Internationals and the 2021 Six Nations and Autumn Internationals, Scotland has played 14 internationals in a little over a calendar year. Over these 14 games, we have used a total of 61 players.

There are a further 14 players, just shy of a full team, who have been previously capped and are still plying their trade as professional rugby players, while a further 32 Scots are earning a living as full-time professional rugby players between the three major Northern Hemisphere leagues: the URC, the Top 14 and the Gallagher Premiership.

This gives Scottish rugby a professional depth of 107 players, split as follows:

• 9 hookers

• 8 loose-heads

• 8 tight-heads

• 16 locks

• 19 back row players

• 9 scrum-halves

• 5 stand-offs

• 16 centres

• 17 back three players

Going by appearances in the national XV over these 14 games, our FIRST XV is:

Rory Sutherland

George Turner

Zander Fagerson

Scott Cummings

Jonny Gray

Jamie ritchie

Hamish Watson

Matt Fagerson

Ali Price

Finn Russell

Duhan van der Merwe

Sam Johnson

Chris Harris

Darcy Graham

Stuart Hogg

Our SECOND XV is:

Pierre Schoeman

Fraser Brown

Oli Kebble

Sam Skinner

Grant Gilchrist

 Blade Thomson

Nick Haining

Josh Bayliss

George Horne

Adam Hastings

Rufus McLean

James Lang

Huw Jones

Sean Maitland

Blair Kinghorn

Our THIRD XV (admittedly with a couple of players playing out of position) is:

Jamie Bhatti

Stuart McInally

Willem Nel

Jamie Hodgson

Ben Toolis

Rob Harley

Gary Graham

Cornell du Preez

Scott Steele

Duncan Weir

Sione Tuipolotu

Duncan Taylor

Cameron Redpath

Kyle Steyn

Ross Thompson 

If we Look across the 14 games, we find we actually have a fairly-settled first team, with no less than 14 players who are virtual shoo-ins for a place – if they're fit and available, they start: these players are:

Rory Sutherland, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson; Ali Price, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Sam Johnson, Chris Harris, Darcy Graham; Stuart Hogg. The one jersey where there is competition is the hooker's, where the long-standing Fraser Brown or Stuart McInally argument has been complicated by the arrival of George Turner, who could actually now be considered our first-choice, given he started seven and was on the bench for a further four of the 14 games – a grater involvement than both Brown and McInally.

To compound the situation around the number two shirt, Glasgow have just recruited Ewan Ashman from Sale Sharks, on-loan for the remainder of the season. This means we have four of the six hookers we have used in the past year all at the same club at the same time. This is not a good look, while the other two hookers are also at the same club. OK, Fraser Brown is currently injured, but, even allowing for that, somebody isn't going to get a lot of game time.

The fact we only have the two full-time professional sides in Scotland is definitely now a problem. Of our top 45 players, 17 play with Glasgow Warriors, 12 with Edinburgh and the other 16 play outside Scotland. However, the breakdown of the 28 home-based players is a wee bit of a problem as I see it. This is:

• 2 Loose-heads – 1G : 1E

• 3 Hookers – 2G : 1E

• 3 Tight-heads – 2G : 1E

• 4 Locks – 1G : 3E

• 5 Back row – 2G : 3E

• 2 Scrum-half – 2G

• 2 Stand-off – 2G

• 3 Centres – 2G : 1E

• 4 Back three – 2G : 2E

The 17 players from the top 45, capped in the past year from clubs outside Scotland break down as follows:

• 1 loose-head

• 2 locks

• 4 back row

• 1 scrum-half

• 2 stand-offs

• 4 centres

• 3 back three

We appear to have enough depth available to us. We have that depth across all areas of the team, but, the question as I see it is – have we the capability to keep them all playing often enough, at a high enough level, that, if asked to do a job for Scotland in the Six Nations or the World Cup, would the fringe players be capable of stepping-up? Would they be match-hardened?

There are situations, such as at hooker, tight-head and scrum-half, where our first and second choices both play for the same Scottish club. Here balancing game time is an issue. Take our situation at tight-head for instance.

Aged 25, Zander Fagerson is a toddler in tight-head terms, but, he is heading for 50 caps, is already a British & Irish Lion and his is one of the first names on Gregor Townsend's team sheet.

But, who backs him up and takes the number three jersey should Zander be absent? In the 14 games over the past year or so, he has started 12. In the other two games, the Autumn Cup clash with France in November, last year and the Six Nations clash with Ireland, the jersey went to respectively Simon Berghan and Willem Nel.

However, during the recent Autumn Internationals, it was clear, the Scottish management is determined to convert Fagerson's Glasgow team mate Oli Kebble from a loose-head to a tight-head. He is the new number two at number three. But, he is a Glasgow player, as is Berghan, while another, younger, capped tight-head, Murray McCallum, is also on Glasgow's books.

So, Glasgow currently has Scotland's first, second and third-choice tight-heads on their books, plus another capped player in that position, while two other players capped in that position in the recent past – Darcy Rae, capped v Ireland in 2019, and Javan Sebastian, who was capped against Japan on Saturday, were allowed to leave Glasgow.

This begs the question – are we developing players for the benefit of Scottish rugby, or to benefit clubs outside Scotland? Players want to play and if they cannot get the game time they want with Edinburgh or Glasgow, they will leave and go somewhere where they are permitted to play.

We now have the depth of playing resources whereby we MUST have a third, or better still a third and fourth full-time professional teams.

I see from this week's Offside Line, Gregor Townsend wants to cap even-more players moving forward. Why, there's more to developing Scottish rugby than simply handing out caps like sweeties.

In 2021 alone, we have awarded caps to 15 new players, while, had the proposed Summer Tests gone on, I dare say even more would have been so-honoured. I fear, with some of the cappings, we might appear to be in danger of devaluing the honour.

If the SRU is unwilling or unable to fund and run even one other full-time professional team in the URC, then perhaps they should be looking at offering more international challenges for the players – so here's my idea.

Revive something like the old Churchill Cup, or International Nations Cup of the early 2000s. But, limit player eligibility. For instance, 36 of the 61 players capped in the past year played at least part of one game in the 2021 Six Nations. We declare them ineligible for our hypothetical Churchill Cup/Nations Cup replacement competition. That leaves us with a core squad of 25 recently-capped players, with room to integrate the new faces Toony wants to have a look at.

If the SRU isn't up for such a competition, why don't they look at doing their bit for the expansion of rugby, by playing against some of the leading European Tier Two nations – leaving out Georgia, who we already play - what about Romania, Portugal, Russia, Spain and The Netherlands, the other sides in the Rugby Europe Championship? Or why not venture further afield, to face the likes of Zimbabwe, Namibia or Kenya in Africa, or Uruguay, Chile and Brazil.

Be inventive, show a bit of the fabled Scottish willingness to venture far and wide in search of glory.

Or how about this? I remember, more than 30 years ago, doing an interview with Richie Dixon in Glasgow. Richie was telling me that Scotland at that time had a responsibility towards developing rugby in Scandinavia, in particular in Sweden.

I think that initiative withered on the vine, but, why don't we send our Club XV to play against some of the naton competing in the Rugby Europe Trophy, the likes of Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Switzerland and Belgium?

That would sell Scottish rugby, and give our promising players a chance to bond and develop. Let's try different things, standing still, or doing nothing different aren't options.

In Dublin's Fair City - Rugby Decision-Making Is Shitty

DUBLIN – you have a problem; and if you don't take off the blindfold, remove your finger from up your arse and do something about it, pretty soon you will not have a game which you can sell to TV to maintain your jet-setting life around five-star hotels.

World Rugby's Dublin Headquarters
 

The reality is, in spite of the best efforts of a bunch of mainly English millionaires, the only level of professional rugby which looks sustainable is the international one. That is the area in which the game will make the money to sustain it and help it grow.

That growth has to come from television and from full-houses at the cathedrals of the game. Full houses require an exciting, fluid game, of movement and drama. That is possible. Look at the weekend action. The Scotland v Japan game certainly had that, as, particularly when the All Blacks came roaring back in the third quarter, did France v New Zealand.

Wales v Australia had passages which inspired, but, overall was ruined by that early red card, but, I don't know about the other game – England v South Africa - since I fell asleep and missed most of it.

Rugby Union's main problem, as I see it, is that The Laws of The Game, or rather the manner in which they are being interpreted and enforced, is simply not good enough.

Like it or loathe it, we live in a world of social media and, after every international, social media is awash with argument. Some modern supporters of the game do not seem ready to admit or accept defeat, and, too-often, the fans of the losing side seek the convenient scapegoat – the referee, the poor guy who is, on one hand, being encouraged to allow the game to flow to provide a spectacle, and on the other hand is supposed to enforce Laws which often do not work, or are ignored by the players.

The keyboard warriors we can safely ignore, after all, opinions are like arse-holes, everybody has one. But, the current Law Book's lack of fitness for purpose, the longer World Rugby takes to address this, the worse the game's situation will become.

Would You Do This On The Golf Course?

Take a game with even-more money sloshing around it than rugby – Golf. The Rules of Golf are strictly observed and policed Bryson Dechambeau would not be allowed to take a putt to win The Open Championship from somewhere around where his marker was on the last green at St Andrew's. So how come, as he did on Saturday, Dan Biggar is allowed to take a penalty from a couple of yards closer to the opposition's goal than the mark indicated by the referee?

We all know and accept – every scrum half feeds every scrum to his own side. This is a blatant breach of the Laws, but, it is NEVER penalised – why not?

Another thing I would do at the elite level, which would immediately sort-out a lot of the bother with scrums – I would position the overhead camera immediately above the two hookers' heads at a scrum, and have a scrum expert such as Brian Moore sitting beside the TMO. That way, props not pushing straight would immediately be identified and we would have better scrummaging – and fewer penalties.

Of course, as I have been saying on here for a while, using the scrum, a means of re-starting play following a minor breakdown in play, as a penalty-winning weapon – that's totally against the ethos of the game. No scrum penalties for anything other than foul play, again, we've got a better game.

I was awake when young Nic Dolly came on to make his England debut on Saturday. I watched his first line out throw. He set himself up with his heels on the touchline, so when he actually launched the ball, his heels were off the ground and his feet clearly inside the field of play. He got away with it.

Now, I am not having a go at young Dolly here, because every hooker seems to do what he did, but, Law 18 (which governs the line out), paragraph 22, states:

THROWING INTO A LINEOUT The player throwing in the ball stands on the mark of touch with both feet outside the field of play. The thrower must not step into the field of play until the ball has been thrown. Sanction:Option of line out or scrum.

Couldn't be simpler, but neither the referee or the AR said: “Hello Dolly, you cannot do that.”

There you have it, I have highlighted just three areas where the Laws of the Game are never strictly applied – maybe if we went back to basics and DID apply the Laws, we would have a better game.

I could make a fourth point – that law which says a scrum has to form within 30 seconds of being awarded. This rarely, if ever, happens. Apply that, with a use it or lose it instruction – the game would speed-up. And, apply that same timing to lines out.

Playing For Time

I am also, more than ever convinced, in Elite Rugby – Internationals and the full-time professional and semi-professional leagues – we MUST go to 80 minutes Ball in Play time. This means, every time the referee blows his whistle – the clock stops and does not restart until he blows his whistle again. Every time the ball goes out of play – the clock stops and does not resume until the game is restarted.

Already I can hear the protests: “But, it would be like American Football; every game would last three hours.” And that would suit the money men just fine. Spectators in the ground for longer, buying more over-priced food and drink, what's not to like? (If you're one of the money men).

Sure, initially, there would probably be more stoppages, but, unlike at the moment, these breaks would not involve us seeing less rugby. In time, the players would adapt and we would see a better game.

The South Africans are often accused of slowing down the game, but, since most of their rugby is played at altitude, where the reduced oxygen definitely takes it out of the players – can you blame them? Go to 80 minutes ball-in-play time and the problem is solved.

Lower the tackle height to the waist, sure, at first there would be more stoppages, but, again the players would adapt.

So, to sum-up, why doesn't World Rugby apply a zero tolerances approach to the current Laws which are being abused, and while they are at it – take the Law Book apart and re-write it as fit for this century. Then, maybe we would have a our game back – well, provided they bring back real rucking.

I WOULD give Scotland at best 7/10 for our performances over the four Autumn Internationals; probably 6.5/10 for yesterday's win over Japan. Still, a win is a win – we didn't put what we perhaps consider our first team on the park, but we still won. I can think of many past years when, playing an under-strength team against anyone left Scotland extremely vulnerable.

I must say I was delighted to see Javan Sebastian winning his first cap yesterday. It's been quite a week for the Scotsman from Carmarthen, with a new baby arriving in midweek. We are a bit light at tight-head these days, he's got a chance of a lot more caps if he can get regular game time with The Scarlets.

Magnificent too for skipper Stuart Hogg, to beat Ian Smith's outright Scottish try-scoring record. That Smith's mark of 24 tries has stood for 88 years perhaps says a lot about how Scotland plays the game, as does the fact, Smith scored his double dozen in just 32 internationals, compared to Hoggy's 88 Tests. Of course, we play far-more internationals now than we did back then – and, Smith's period in navy blue was during our most-golden era. But, both players knew where the try line was and how to get over it.

FINALLY, I fear Mike Adamson after Dave Rennie drew attention to the glaring difference between the Kurtley Beale yellow card and the Josh Tomkins try.

Mike Adamson

My view is, Mikey got the Tomkins decision wrong, but, maybe, from where he was standing, it looked as if the Welshman knocked the ball down and backwards – fine angles and all that.

What will be interesting is, the approach World Rugby takes. If Mike suddenly stops getting appointed to internationals, then, we Scots will know – there is bias in how officials are appointed. I can think of one or two officials from “bigger” rugby nations whose career was not harmed by similar controversial decisions. But, as we have seen in the PRO14, there seems to be higher expectations of Scottish officials.

I've Never Met Rassie Erasmus Man

BACK IN THE DAY, when Spitting Image was required viewing, the team had a hit with 'The Chicken Song,' their take on the Spanish holiday disco hits of the time such as 'Una Paloma Blanca.'

Less successful was another track from an LP they produced; this was: “I've Never Met A Nice South African,” as it typified the Boers in particular as wearing Springbok jerseys, bluntly describing themselves as "arrogant bastards who hate black people," "ignorant loud-mouths with no sense of humour" and "talentless murderers who smell like baboons." As I remember, it went down well among the Scottish rugby community.

 

 

That sketch came back into my mind this week, as I watched all the hullabaloo around Rassie Erasmus and the ban which World Rugby has handed down to him. A genuine case of reality overtaking art.

Money talks, and one of the ways it talks loudest is in the mega-rich, be they individuals or companies being able to hire Public relations experts and image consultants, whose entire reason d'etre is to make the person or institution paying their wages look good.

Given his current problems, I feel South African Rugby should be paying for a better standard of spin doctor or media enforcer, since Rassie is definitely getting a hard time of it just now.

Or maybe he actually is – as his public persona appears to suggest, at the least a thick arrogant bastard with no sense of humour, perhaps the van der Merwe of popular comic culture made real.

However, I feel the problem isn't so-much that Rassie is a nasty piece of work, more our attitude to analysing our game today. We in the media appear to have forgotten one of the basic pillars of Rugby Union Football – The referee is the sole judge of fact as to what happened on the pitch. Some are suggesting, with the increased role for assistant referees (ARs), as touch judges are now known, and the arrival of the Television Match Official (TMO), the referee is no longer as omnipotent.

They forget, the greater powers handed to ARs only allow them to draw the referee's attention to incidents which, in the old days, were none of their business. Similarly, the TMO can bring an incident up on the screen, or review a case of “try or no try.” The man with the whistle still has the last word.

Back in 1955, Scotland were denied a Triple Crown and the Calcutta Cup, when Welsh referee DC Joynson disallowed what looked like a legitimate try, by Scotland prop Tom Elliot. The Gala man went to his grave convinced he and Scotland had been robbed. Today, the referee would surely tell the TMO something like: “On field decision – no try, but can you check it.” The try would be given, and Scotland would win. But, back then that didn't happen.

Then there was that glorious length of the field Welsh try, at Murrayfield in 1977. Today, barely would Phil Bennett have touched down, but the TMO would have been asking the referee to look at Gerald Davies's pass on half-way to David Burcher, a pass which, to the entire Scottish nation, was at least a yard forward. It would not have made a blind bit of difference to the outcome, we'd still have lost, but, had that try been disallowed, we would have felt better.

Trial by television has perhaps allowed us to not make errors which were made in the past, but, it has made life harder for the poor match officials, who are key individuals in any match.

Of course referees make mistakes, but, they almost certainly make fewer errors than do players. Look at it this way, if no player ever made a mistake, every game would end 0-0. Because players make mistakes, we need referees to decide who gets the advantage accruing from the mistakes.

We need to accept, players will boob during games – so too will referees. All we ask is that the officials make fewer than the players and are consistent in how they administer the Laws. If a team, or a Union (when it comes to internationals) feels hard-done-by by an official, then they should take it up with World Rugby, or the body running the competition, get a ruling, and, if the referee is found to have fallen short of the expected standard, the he ought to face some kind of sanction. And believe me – this already happens.

Conducting a trial by television is not the way to go about things. Sadly, Rugby Union's mass media seems hell-bent on following Football's down the road of having famous ex-players as the arbiters of right and wrong.

Just because someone has won a barrow-load of international caps and gone on a couple of Lions Tours over a ten year career, doesn't mean he can read a game and analyse it better than a journalist who has been reporting on the game for the same length of time, or usually longer.

Bill McLaren, by all accounts, would, but for contracting TB, have played for Scotland. But, The Voice did not hang-up his boots one week and slip behind the microphone the next. He went off and learned his new trade on the local paper and worked his way up to becoming the definitive rugby commentator – the people hiring the talking heads of today would perhaps be well-advised to think on the McLaren career trajectory.

I may have gone for a dauner there, from my original premise, but, unless we back World Rugby here and put numpties like Erasmus in his place, anarchy will follow. We have to back our referees and find a way of shutting down those people who, if decisions don't go their way, will, like Violet Elizabeth Bott: Skweam and skweam and skweam until I'm sick – and you know I can,” as Rassie should perhaps have said.

I just wonder, did the Spitting Image team ever encounter Mr Erasmus.

Toonie's Selections Are Never Straight-Forward

I WOULD suggest, Gregor Townsend might be a bloody good poker player, since you can never second guess what selection he will come up with for any international. Take the squad he has just announced for Saturday's Test against Japan. In 1-23 order it is:

1, Jamie Bhatti, 2, George Turner, 3, Zander Fagerson, 4, Scott Cummings (all Glasgow), 5, Grant Gilchrist, 5, Jamie Ritchie, 7, Hamish Watson (all Edinburgh), 8, Josh Bayliss (Bath); 9, Ali Price (Glasgow), 10, Finn Russell (Racing 92); 11, Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester), 12, Sam Johnson (Glasgow), 13, Chris Harris (Gloucester), 14, Darcy Graham (Edinburgh); 15, Stuart Hogg (captain) (Exeter).

Replacements: 16, Pierre Schoeman, 17, Stuart McInally (both Edinburgh), 18, Javan Sebastian (Scarlets), 19, Sam Skinner (Exeter), 20, Dylan Richardson (Sharks), 21, Matt Fagerson (Glasgow), 22, George Horne (Glasgow), 23, Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh).

 

 

I felt he might have included one or two more of the less-well-established players, and am surprised he has gone for a 6-2 split on the bench. I am, however, delighted to see Javan Sebastian (pictured above in his Ayr days), being lined-up for a debut off the bench – back-up tight-head is a role to be cemented in the Scotland squad.

Japan will offer a stiff test, but, I have a feeling we will win this one fairly comfortably in the end.

REGULAR FOLLOWERS of these rants and ravings will be aware, I am currently party to a push to get some otherwise uncapped Scots' on-field performances recognised.

Yesterday, via Facebook, I realised I was not alone in seeking recognition for the hitherto overlooked. Wayne Barnes no less, posted a picture of himself (below) and some other English referees, proudly wearing the England caps presented to them by the RFU in recognition of their achievements in officiating in international matches.

 

 

Initially I thought: “Surely it is World Rugby who ought to issue these caps,” however, on reflection, referees are put forward for international duty by their Home Union, so, why shouldn't they be awarded caps by that Union?

I therefore look forward to the likes of Alan Hosie, Jim Fleming, Ray Megson, Norman Sansom, Mike Adamson, Hollie Davidson, plus one or two I have missed but ought to have remembered, being similarly honoured at BT Murrayfield.

After all, it is a damned sight harder to get an international appointment as a match official than it is as a player. And, never forget - “No referee – no game.”

JULIAN MOMEN (above) will, in January, become the new kid on the block at BT Murrayfield, when he starts work as Chief Commercial Officer with the SRU. It's not quite the same job as Dominic McKay had, before his sad rush of shite to the brain and decision to throw in his lot with the Glasgow Murphyia; but, his main task, no doubt, is to get-in enough money so that TCD can look good and claim the credit.

At least, given how, during his time at Carlsberg, he enjoyed a close and warm relationship with Northampton Saints, he knows his way around the rugby landscape. I wish him well, but, if I ever find out he had something to do with Carlsberg Elephant being almost impossible to get hold of at the moment – he's toast.

WORLD RUGBY is getting something of a bad press at the moment. Some of the criticism might, I will concede, be justified, but, like every sporting governing body, the decision-makers have to somehow try to find consensus from a body of delegates, some of whom will never see eye-to-eye with others. Also, much of their work is done in committee – so we end up with camels when we were looking for horses.

Take this current stooshie about the effects of brain injury and what's to be done about it. Yes, it's a serious issue. Certainly repeated knocks to the head must cause some level of lasting damage – but, what can World Rugby really do about it?

We have to accept, Rugby Union is a collision sport, do we make it non-contact and simply play touch rugby? Who would watch that? Yes we can and should seek to make it safer, but – how?

Some have suggested lowering the tackle height even further than the current nipple height. However, even at this level, say waist height, we will still see high tackles, which bring varying levels of punishment.

Suppose World Rugby was to say: “The tackle line is non-negotiable, every tackle above it is a penalty.” Each match would degenerate into a procession of penalties, until the players – who by then would probably be almost afraid to make a tackle – cottoned-on and rigidly obeyed the Law. Even then there would still be the occasional offence.

This assumes the game had survived the sheer horror of a penalty every second contact. It's a minefield, and I am so-happy, doing the clean-up is way above my pay grade.

I SAW an interesting short video clip on Facebook yesterday; it showed the Glasgow Warriors players messing around at American Football at the end of a training session.

OK, we cannot have forward – far less “Hail Mary” passes – in Rugby, but, given all the time they have to train and practice, I am surprised we don't see teams coming up with more audacious set plays off tapped penalties, or even scrums, lines-out of rucks and mauls.

Yes, I know Scotland probably leads the world in fancy line-out moves, but, these apart, we don't appear to be trying things which are different – which, since we have Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, arguably the two best broken field runners in the game, is maybe something we should be spending time on perfecting.