When Will World rugby Waken-Up?

BALL GAMES are an ancient British tradition, still practised in places such as Ashbourne and Atherstone in England, in Jedburgh, in Orkney and in the Wall Game at Eton College. However, at the height of Victorian gentrification, in the glory days of muscular Christianity, the emerging middle classes, initially via the great public schools began to codify these wild mass participation games into smaller, more-organised games.

Thus began Harrow Football, Rugby Football and Charterhouse Football, then, as their old boys took their varying forms of the game to the two great English universities – The Cambridge Rules, agreed at that seat of learning formed the foundations of Association Football, while the disciples of the Rugby form of the game preferred the handling code.W

Over the succeeding century and a half and more, the two most-popular forms of Football have spread across the world. Those initial Cambridge Rules of Football have become Laws, while Rugby – or to be more precise Rugby Union has also seen its Laws being regularly refined.

In the past 30 years, since the game of Rugby Union went Open, and the advance of professionalism at the top end, it has become clear – the Laws of the Game have not kept pace with the thinking of innovative coaches such as Rassie Erasmus of South Africa.

A major rewrite of these Laws is now overdue. Unfortunately, the game's overall ruling body – World Rugby, and in particular the representatives of the more-established Unions have shown them unwilling to do more than indulge in token tinkering around the Laws and in some cases turning a blind eye to blatant law-breaking in every game.

OX NCHE – the Springboks' loose-head prop famously insists: “salads don't win scrums” - watching the manner in which the Ox and his chums Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw played such a dominant role in his side's wins over the All Blacks, I might add, having a referee who doesn't know the scrum laws also helps.

All game, but particularly at the crucial scrum which won the Bokke the match clinching penalty try, late in the third game, I felt Nika Amuskeli, in a performance some way below his best, let the Saffa front row away with murder. Particularly at that crucial short metres scrum, the home props were both boring-in. Rather than winning a penalty try, I felt that particular scrum should have brought a penalty to the All Blacks. The less said about Karl Dickson's performance in the game in Baltimore, the better.

World Rugby has, over the past decade, got a lot of things wrong, but, their biggest failing in that time has been the manner in which they have refused to sort out the scrum.

The game's problems around what, lest we forget, is a means of re-starting the game following a minor technical infringement, is that, particularly at the professional level, a failure to overhaul the Laws of the Game, the scrum has become a means of winning penalties – penalties which often appear to be awarded on a referee's whim, rather than any reasoned adjudication of what happened.

But, the scrum's problems often start right from phase one, when the referee allows the scrum-half putting the ball in to blatantly feed his own side; indeed, some nines can bend the ball further than the late Shane Warne ever managed with a cricket ball, to ensure their insertion lands at their number eight's feet, somewhere the opposing hooker has no earthly chance of reaching.

Back in the days when television coverage was in black and white, hookers would live or die by the tight-head count – the number of opposition feeds they could, by a combination of their own skill and with the help of a cunning tight-head, steal. Great hookers of those years, men such as Scotland's Norman Mair, Bob McEwen or Norman Bruce, English legends such as Eric Evans, Wales's Bryn Meredith or Ireland's Ronnie Dawson, they kept a separate score. The newspapers might print a result as 14-8, 9-3 or 20-18, but, to the men in the middle of the front rows, the result would be logged as 4-0, 5-2 or however many tight-heads they had stolen or, on a bad day, lost.

Of course, we still get the occasional strike against the head, although, to be more-accurate, these are normally a case of a well-executed eight-man shove, allowing a superior pack to put an inferior one into reverse gear. If, like the Bokke pack in so-many crucial scrums, they are not pushing straight to begin with, the easier it becomes.

I have long called for technology – such as “Spidercam” to be brought into play around the scrums. Locate that camera immediately above the front rows and the TMO immediately knows which Laws are being broken. Or, bring-in specialist scrum or line-out officials to assist the regular three-man team.

I've been saying for years, American Football needs seven officials to police play; Rugby Union is every bit as complex, so sticking with three plus a TMO is short-, changing the fans.

Mind you, modern referees are taught to ignore squint feeds, so, if World Rugby and the various Unions will not insist on the Laws being properly refereed, well we've got a huge problem.

I would also adopt the American sports system of one hour ball in play time. This would sort out the time-wasting and gamesmanship we see, with specialist time-keepers keeping a check on the various specialist timing issues – time it takes to set-up a line-out or scrum, the five second play the ball rules at rucks, etc.

And I would certainly differentiate between Technical Offences, such as a scrum collapsing, and Foul Play Offences. Penalties for foul play could be kicked at goal, or to retain possession at a line-out, technical offences would only be a free kick.

I offer these suggestions to World Rugby, safe in the knowledge – they will be ignored.

No Scotsmen - No Party

SATURDAY'S EPIC South Africa v New Zealand, First Test, in Jo'burg had, on the face of it, very little Scottish interest. In reality, Scots were deeply involved, if only off the field.

Mike Blair played a key role in the All Blacks' victory, in his position as Attack Coach. The men in black had less, territorial possession, fewer actual ball-in-hand possession, yet still out-scored the reigning World Champions five tries to one. In Football terms, that's a proper gubbing.

In one of today's leading metrics in the game, the fact the ABs scored at a rate of 2.5 points per entry to their opponents' 22, while the Bokke scored at the rate of 0.6 points per entry demonstrates how well Mike has got his side purring.

Mike Adamson also had a key role, as TMO, and perhaps, through the fact that not all his interventions resulted in the TMO's view of incidents resulted in referee Matt Carley changing his decisions, the way they worked together was to me an object lesson in how it should work.

It is often forgotten, under the Laws of the Game, the referee is the sole judge of fact; the TMO's job is to assist the man in the middle – highlighting incidents he has perhaps missed, bringing-up alternative angles and so forth. Of late, it has appeared that the TMO was running the game, over-ruling the referee; Mikey took a subservient role, leaving the big calls to Carley and the game was the better for this approach.

Of course, in the wilder fringes of the Saffa support – there were efforts to cast Mikey as the villain of the piece. As ever, beaten Saffa fans seldom come across as good losers.

It was a terrific win for the visitors, but, with a further three Tests to come, I would not say this series is already over. A wounded Saffa is a dangerous animal and they will come back, hard, at their greatest rivals. This could be a series for the ages.

BELIEVE IT or not, the domestic club season in Scotland actually kicked-off on Saturday, with 11 fixtures, mainly in the lower reaches of West Region.

Sadly, not every club was ready to rumble, two scheduled matches, the West Division Two clash between Cumnock and Mid-Argyll and the West Bowl/West Division Three double-header between Isle of Mull and Hyndland were called off because Mid-Argyll and the Boys from Balamorey couldn't raise teams.

In West One, Strathaven went straight to the top of the table, via a 55-22 home win over Oban Lorne. Elsewhere, East Kilbride beat Greenock Wanderers 45-21, Dalziel beat Strathendrick 15-5, Carrick beat Annan 37-28 and Cumbernauld beat Cambuslang 32-31.

In West Two, Loch Lomond/Helensburgh went straight to the top of the table via a 41-7 home win over Lochaber, Bishopton beat Uddingston 31-21, while Birkmyre and Irvine drew 25-25.

Biggest winners of the day were Paisley, who won their West Three meeting with Clydesdale 79-25, a good way for them to honour the memory of Jim Carswell, whose passing was announced last week.

Clydebank, who struggled to win even a scrum last season, got the new campaign off to a winning start, beating Waysiders/Drumpellier 49-28.

Elsewhere, there was one other match; North Police Scotland taking the ferry to the Outer Hebrides, to beat Stornoway 15-10 in a Caledonian North Two meeting.

 

Challenging Times

DECADES BACK - Ally MacLeod was under a bit of pressure at Ayr United. The team wasn't clicking, the wins were not coming and, with Ally's nemesis – Enclosure George Reid sniping from his position behind the home dug out and the Somerset Road End singing the descant, the great man was toiling.

From memory, the Honest Men dragged themselves to a draw and post-match, in that tiny manager's office at Somerset Park, one of our number addressed the elephant in the room, asking him about dealing with criticism from the terraces.

Ally didn't duck the issue, coming up with a nugget of insight which I have quoted before, do so again today and will surely use again in the future.

He said: “For as long as unhappy fans are having a go at the Manager, that Manager is fairly secure; but, the minute the fans start having a go at the Board of Directors, the Manager is toast”.

What – you ask, has that wee tale got to do with Scottish Rugby? Well, just this. No matter who has had a top coaching job in Scottish Rugby, he or she has to thole the Scottish default position, at best - a grudging: “Him! Ah kent his faither”; at worst: “He's a bawbag, get rid”.

So, the body of the kirk has a long history of being unimpressed by the men running the teams. Some not-so-good coaches haven't lasted very long, while some good men were perhaps not fully appreciated by the fans.

Sione Fukofuka didn't hang around long enough to have the Rugby Union Divisions of The Tartan Army quoting the first syllable of his surname at him, and, to be fair, his departure was not greatly mourned around the nation. However, the news that he has been appointed Head Coach of the Australian Women's team has rather tarnished his escutcheon.

His going is the latest in a pattern. To put it bluntly, whoever does the hiring at Murrayfield has got into a bit of a pattern – of hiring the wrong people. Of late, that women's team has had, if we take the Coach as the guy holding the wheel: “More Captains than Cunard”.

OK, having carnival knowledge of a secretary across his desk was an own goal, but, the short-lived and now disgraced last CEO was, in truth, never a great appointment. We have seen other appointments within Murrayfield turn out to be less than epic, with one or two chocolate fire-guards somehow surviving for years – so, to get back to that Ally MacLeod story – maybe it's about time we started asking tougher questions of the SRU's Board of Directors.

OLD MA'A NONU caused a wee bit of a stir on Tuesday, when he stepped out of the Sharks' ranks and answered the All Blacks Haka with one of his own. That was one spine-tingling moment.

However, it wasn't exactly a unique moment. Guided by some of the social media comments around the incident, I discovered, on You Tube, a clip of the five Kiwis in a Munster team, entertaining the ABs at Thomond Park, stepping forward and doing their own Haka. Look it up, it's worth watching.

The abiding lesson for me, however, is, for all the ABs have, of late, tried to turn the Haka into something of a production number – a group of men in black uniforms performing a choreographed routine: sport's version of Springtime For Hitler. Nothing beats the simplicity of Kamate Kamate. It is still for me, the real Haka.

I also found, via Google, an online page: Inherit South Africa, written by a guy named Michael Chorton, who told the story of the long-abandoned South African “Haka” - the Zulu Indlamu – apparently last performed by the Springboks in 1937. The Afrikaner Broederbond then put a stop to this nonsense – might it now be time, with this present Greatest Rivalry Tour to bring back the Indlamu?

From a Scottish perspective: we have the world's greatest March-On spectacle – the Scottish Football Tartan Army, behind a pipe band, marching towards a stadium, assuring the world: “When you hear the noise of the Tartan Army boys – we'll be comin' doon the road”.

We also have the greatest March-Off spectacle – proudly shown in Edinburgh, every evening, at the conclusion of the Tattoo – nothing stirs a Scotsman's blood like the massed pipes and drums giving it laldy with Scotland the Brave and The Black Bear.

Surely we could come-up with a pre-match challenge to rival the Haka or Indlamu.

the Greatest Rivalry Starts Tonight

THE LONG-AWAITED All Blacks tour of South Africa kicks off tonight, and I will be making the best-possible use of my Sky capabilities to watch the games. It should get those of us watching nicely built-up for the resumption of hostilities in the domestic game at the end of the month.

Of course, the big issue facing Scottish Rugby as we get ready for season 2026-27 I s – who is going to pick-up the poisoned chalice of being the next Chief Executive Officer at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Everyone makes mistakes – I mean, the good people of the United States of America have twice elected Donald Trump as President, moves which make the SRU's recent string of poor appointments look like sensible decisions. However, it is past time we got the right man or woman into the top job at EH12.

Of course, the Junta will totally ignore my advice – which is: get yourselves down to his office in Miller Road, Ayr and make Billy McHarg an offer he cannot possibly refuse – then sit back and let the outstanding club administration of this generation sort out the mess that is Murrayfield.

GOOD LUCK to Mark Bennett, who has come back from the American colonies and has moved into coaching, taking-up an appointment as an Assistant Coach with Marr – yet another case of that bunch from Troon stealing knowledge and talent from Cumnock!!!

I WAS SORRY but not al all surprised, to learn this week that Louise McMillan has joined the drift away from the Scotland Women's team; calling time on her international career after ten years and 61 caps.

Louise will now concentrate on her club career with Saracens – good luck to here there.

It would be fair to say, the girl from Birkmyre has suffered more than most from the many changes of coaches and directions in the women's side over the past decade. Some National Coaches clearly didn't fancy her but, when called upon, she always gave 100% to the jersey. Thank you for your service Louise.

THE NEW domestic season kicks off in 15 days; which merely proves how Rugby Union has now become virtually a year-round sport. We really need to look at the seasonal calendar and tweak things. The width has now exceeded the quality.

 

It Wasn't Rugby And It Was A Difficult Watch

OLD RUDYARD KIPLING had a way with words: including - “What do they know of England, who only England knows”. That line was written at the height of Empire, but, it didn't half land on the executives from TNT Sports, who were in charge of that channel's coverage of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, which ended on Sunday night.

Like a lot of my fellow Baby Boomers, I have occasional struggles with technology – I simply could not get my entitlement to HBO Max to work. One of my fellow Boomers, more technologically adept than I assures me that was the best way to watch the Games. Any way, stuck with the normal TNT service, I was less than whelmed.

Now, TNT does a good job of making the creakingly heavy play in a lot of the Gallacher Prem Rugby coverage they supply appear interesting. However, the underlying message is: “This is English Rugby, therefore it is the best”.

It isn't, in fact, if you were to rate the three major European Rugby Union Leagues, the pecking order would be:

1. France's Top 14

2. The United Rugby Championship

3. The Gallagher Prem

If you had to select a Best XV from the Prem, and the selectors weren't English, there would hardly be a home-grown English player in that XV. But that would not stop TNT's talking heads from picking English players as the majority of the team.

That unconscious, institutionalised, pro-English bias was all too obvious in the TV coverage from Glasgow. Of course, it's the price we pay for being an English colony. Yes, one or two Scottish accents were noted in the coverage, but, these talented locals had to adapt to the House Jock attitude which London demands of its TV talking heads: be polite Scots and remember to big-up the English competitors.

The TV coverage attracted a lot of criticism from viewers – mainly around the fact the Games were not covered by BBC. Now decisions made inside the BBC Headquarters are way above my pay grade, but, the mortal remains of some of the great broadcasting names of the past must be burlin' in their graves at what BBC Sports coverage has been allowed to become.

That said, I still think, had an English city: Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle say, picked up the baton when Victoria dropped it, then I am certain we would have had wall-to-wall Clare Balding and Gabby Logan; we would have had Steve Cram and Andy Cotter calling the athletics and everything would have been wonderful – while we Jocks would still be upset at the in-built pro-English bias.

Personal highlights:

• Melanie Woods being named Athlete of the Games, after winning her two gold medals in the wheelchair events. That moment when the Mauritian athlete pulled alongside her in the 400 metres and Mel immediately lit the afterburners to pull clear and win her second gold, that was a WOW! Moment.

• Josh Kerr winning the Mile. OK, he was the favourite, but, if every favourite won, the bookmakers would not be as rich as they are. The way Josh simply burst clear down the back straight on the last lap was pure class.

• Duncan Scott winning another gold – the boy is class, but, given the training load of swimmers, how does he keep motivating himself to go out there and do it again?

• Emma Finucane – Welsh sport has been in a bit of a slump of late, but her success, while it owes much to the excellent GB Clycling programme, will surely light a spark in the valleys. With Laura Kenny, Sarah Storey and Katie Archibald all retiring, we need an outstanding female cyclist, Emma is in pole position to carry the torch forward.

• Rosie Davies's track double. We seem to treat the 5K and 10K races as African events, with Eilish McColgan switching to the Marathon, there is a place for a Caucasian to get into the mix and Davies could be that woman. She was one of the leaders in a terrific effort by the Australians, just think what they might have won had the Games been in Victoria.

• Kyle Jiminez's buzzer beater in the 3x3 Basketball. I got into basketball watching lunch-time 3x3 games in the Cumnock Academy Games Hall, so, I appreciate this short form of the game and that basket was just about the ultimate Hail Mary!

• Zoe Hobbs winning the women's 100 metres. The commentators had this one nailed-on as an English gold medal but the little Kiwi, in the outside lane, pulled it off, brilliantly.

• Neil Fachie's performance. They never come back is a boxing maxim but the wee man proved it wrong with a gritty medal double. To get up after that crash and win, outstanding.

• Sir Chris Hoy's presence. The man is dying, we don't know how much longer we will have him, but, if Glasgow 2026 was the last we see of him in public, he went out where he has been all his public life – on top.

• Ellie Simmonds – wee Ellie is already a National Treasure, her sheer enthusiasm, allied to her deep knowledge of swimming, enhanced the coverage.

Those are my ten highlights – now for the lowlights:

• TNT's editorial decisions. At times they had two different TNT channels covering the same event – that's amateurish in the extreme.

• The pro-England cheer-leading of the commentators, again, amateurish, but, hardly surprising.

• On their day, Alec “Tattie” Marshall and Paul Foster are unbeatable. This was a nailed-on Scottish gold medal; in the end they didn't even medal, proving, even the best can be beaten.

• The absence of so many so-called track superstars. OK, the European Championships start in a week's time, in BIRMINGHAM, and, surprise, surprise, the BBC will be throwing everything at that. But, if Josh Kerr can double-up, what was stopping some of our so-called stars who run shorter distances, from also competing in Glasgow?

• I'm old enough to remember Raymond Glendinning and W Barrington Dalby getting it totally wrong when commentating on boxing bouts between an American champion and a gutsy British challenger – in Glasgow, Richie Woodhall, at times, reached their level of getting it wrong jingoism.

• The dimming of the light for the likes of Jemma Reekie, Laura Muir and Jake Wightman. These games were one too far for these Scottish talents, but, just about every sporting career wanes.

• OK, with Scotstoun handling the Athletics, there was no venue, but, that lack of Rugby Sevens and the chance to see the Fijian VII in action was a loss.

• No Shazza Davies at the swimming, Big Shaz is the only reason we gentlemen of a certain age watch these events.

• Delta Goodrem – ok, she's pleasant to look at, but why was she on? If the Aussie's had to send us an act for the closing ceremony, why couldn't they have conscripted Kylie?

• You were in Glasgow – Jim Kerr and Simple Minds!!! Why not Deacon Blue, finishing off with Dignity? That would have lifted the Hydro roof.

Good luck to Amdavad in 2030. If their contribution to the hand-over element of Sunday night is any guide, they will do it well. Mind you, such a pity the Centenary event isn't going to Canada, where it all started; and that is no reflection on India.

Politics Coming Into Play

I CAN ENVISAGE an international power struggle breaking out at the top of the game of Rugby Union, following the success of part one of the inaugural Nations Championship, which concluded over the weekend.

This first half of the first version of this new competition has been good for Scotland; “away” wins over Argentina and Fiji – albeit the win over the Pacific Islanders was achieved at Murrayfield and an encouraging loss to South Africa in Pretoria has left us second, behind France, in the Northern Hemisphere pool.

In Part two of the event, in November, we will entertain New Zealand, Australia and Japan, before all 12 participating nations come together for Finals Weekend in London at the end of that month.

Over the three weeks of games which have just concluded, there have been some terrific games: The All Blacks v France on the first weekend; our clash with South Africa in Pretoria in week two and our clash with Fiji on Saturday, all these games stood out, but, there were other crackers as well.

My reason for contemplating a power struggle is this: the Nations Chamionship is NOT a World Rugby event; certainly World Rugby has sanctioned it, but, it is run by a combination of the Northern Hemisphere's Six Nations and the Southern Hemisphere's Rugby Championship.

However, should part two, In November, be as successful as part one has been and should it attract big crowds then, you can bet your bottom dollar, World Rugby will want to be more involved moving ahead.

That could be a problem. If they do stick their noses in, it will perhaps be to down-play the tournament, since, they will still want their World Cup – only held every four years remember – to be bigger than this annual event. That could cause friction.

THE NEW COMPETITION also brings new problems for the Scottish Rugby Union, principally that of player burn-out. Received wisdom in the game today has it that asking a player to play more than 30 games in a season is asking a bit much. 

Take Sione Tuipulotu as a test case. He is Scotland Captain so he is likely to be, if fit, involved in every international. If the Summer Tour games and the Autumn Tests were still “friendlies” then he could, in theory, be stood down for a couple; however, with the introduction of the Nations Championship, these are now significant games. Therefore, the likes of Sione will be involved in all 12 internationals in a year: the 5 Six Nations games, the 6 normal Nations Championship games, plus the final placement game on Finals Weekend.

That level of involvement leaves him only available to his club for 18 fixtures. Glasgow's regular United Rugby Championship season consists of 18 fixtures. However, if, as has become their want, Warriors qualify for the knock-out phase of the league, that means an additional 2 or 3 games. Then there are the European games to factor-in – a minimum of 4, a maximum of 8 additional games.

So, should Warriors have a dream season and reach both the Champions Cup and the URC finals, their top players such as Sione would be facing, in-theory, a 29 game season, before they have played a single international.

The SRU is consciously working towards a system whereby Edinburgh and Glasgow have squads which are almost entirely Scottish – the players from these two squads will form the basis and bulk of the international squad. The Murrayfield Junta as I like to refer to them, are well aware, the SRU cannot afford to compete with the big French clubs and the financially-stupid English clubs for the top talent.

A future Finn Russell will be unlikely to persuade the SRU to pay him £1 million per year – I would not like to be the CEO or Treasurer attempting to justify the Union paying that much to a player – so, the Union will always be likely to need to accept, the SRU will lose control over some of our top talents. The pressure is now on the Union to be able to keep most of their top talents and provide a package which might persuade these players to forego big money in England or France, because they are better looked after in Scotland than there.

The Fiji game showed, we have not yet got the balance right in how we handle and integrate into the international team, our journeymen or second line players. If we are to get this right, so we can see-off the lower tier one and upper tier two international sides, we need to review our selection and player development policies. We have to think smarter.

I was not surprised that we struggled in the first half on Saturday. However, I always felt we would pull clear in the fourth quarter. We canot leave players idle, training yes, but not playing, for weeks on end, then expect a top-class performance when they are fielded.

Again, we have to be a lot smarter than we have been.

Still, while we are only at half-time in this inaugural National Championship, being ranked second in the Northern Hemisphere is a nice place to be. The difficult part will be maintaining, or even getting to Number One, via the three November tests. That is the challenge facing us, I'd like to think we were up to it.

 

Great Expectations Versus Self-Knowledge

LET'S GET THE ELEPHANT in the room out of the way immediately. On 15 June, 1996, England beat Scotland 2-0 at Wembley, in a group game at UEFA's Euro '96 Championships. This victory reinforced the narrative of the England fans, that football was coming home.

While the England fans celebrated, The Tartan Army, held back in the stadium by the Metropolitan Police's crowd control plans, once released, “celebrated” as only they could, marching out of the stadium singing: “We're shite – but we know we are.”

Thirty years on, they were still singing that song as they departed Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, after Brazil had ended another Scottish championships dream. The Tartan Army might be Football's ultimate party animals, but, unlike the England fans, they don't have delusions of adequacy on the global stage.

Euro '96 was supposed to be about ending 30 years of hurt for the English, of in some cases, a failure to even qualify for the big show. Instead, it was another failure. A further 30 years on and nothing has changed.

Egged-on by a Football press corps from Fleet Street, BBC and ITV, England expects, only to see those expectations dashed once more. The post-mortem will be brutal, although, they do have a handy scapegoat lined up – by the time the English media has finished its review, poor old Thomas Tuchel might well be looking for his next gig.

The difference between Scotland's Tartan Army and England's Barmy one is quite simple: We Scots are following a shite team, but we know and accept this; England are also following a shite team, arguably providing a higher quality of shite, but the essential fact – they're not as good as they think they are - hasn't hit home yet.

To us, every tournament, be it the latest Euros or the World Cup, is an adventure, an excuse to party; to the English, it's an expedition to demonstrate that England is still a force in the Football World.

To be fair to our southern neighbours – England's average final position in the 15 World Cups since 1966 is Ninth. They have managed to qualify for 12 of the 15 tournaments since they won the thing, and in those 12 tournaments their finishing position has been:

• 5 – 7 – 8 – 4 – 9 – 7 – 8 – 15 – 26 – 4 – 7 – 3 or 4.

So, they have been genuine contenders (quarter-finals or further) in 9 of the 12 tournaments since 1966, but, no finals and only three semi-finals over those 60 years is hardly consistent evidence that, perhaps it might be coming home.

Over those 15 tournaments, the ten most-regular qualifiers are:

1. Brazil

2. Germany

3. Argentina

4. England

5. Spain

6. Italy

7. France

8. Netherlands

9. Sweden

10. Uruguay and Belgium

If you take their actual record – each nation's final finishing place at the World Cup over these 15 tournaments, the pecking order is:

1. Germany

2. Brazil

3. Argentina

4. Italy

5. France

6. Spain

7. England

8. Netherlands

9. Croatia

10. Poland

I compiled this table by awarding 100 points for each World Cup win, 90 for reaching the final, 80 and 70 for the third and fourth place finishers, down to 10 points for finishing tenth.

So, while England are ranked fourth when it comes to consistency of qualifying for the World Cup Finals, once they get there, they fail to justify their regular qualifying spot.

The English may hype their top division as: “Europe's Premier League”, but,the fact is: a single Spanish club – Real Madrid – has, since the formation of the Premier League, won the European Cup more times than all the Premier Lerague clubs combined. Over the years since the Premier League was formed in 1992-93 the European Cup has been won by the following nations:

• Spain – 13 times: (Real Madrid 9 – Barcelona 4)

• England – 7 times: (Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea 2 each – Manchester City 1)

• Italy – 5 times: (AC Milan 3 – Juventus and Inter Milan 1 each)

• Germany – 4 times: Bayern Munich 3 – Borussia Dortmund 1)

• France – 3 times: (Paris St Germain 2 – Marseilles 1)

• Netherlands – 1 win (Ajax)

• Portugal – 1 win (FC Porto)

Therefore, whether we go on the national team's achievements or those of their clubs – who have multi-national playing staffs and very-few English managers – it has to be admitted – in the big competitions, England are eternal contenders, but relatively poor at converting that contenders status to that of winners.

One final point, of the England team which won in 1966, four players: goalkeeper Gordon Banks, left back Ray Wilson, left half Bobby Moore and centre forward Bobby Charlton were arguably the best in the world in their positions. Jimmy Greaves, who missed the final, also came into the conversation around the best finisher in the world at that time.

Seven or eight of the 1966 England squad, it could be argued, were the best player in their position in England's top league. At the 2026 World Cup, the best player in each position in the Premier League was playing for a nation other than England.

Maybe, if the English clubs, used more English players, they would have more players of international class available to the English national side.

That is their problem – England expects; but, their Great Expectations always crumble in the reality of elite international competition. Oh well! How sad! Never mind! There's always the next tournament.