Money makes the world go around…

So in this time of global financial hardship the SRU have decided they are open to outside investment in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

At a special general meeting on the 28^th of October, they will ask their member clubs to vote on this change to the rules.

So how is this going to work then?

Well currently Glasgow and Edinburgh have an annual budget of £5million a year to bring in players and pay wages. Compare that with someone like Racing 92 who have an annual budget of £20millon and you can see that the gap is chasmic and the Scottish teams find themselves in real danger of being left behind the way that Scottish football sides have been in the Champions League. Only last season Racing flexed their financial muscle when they bought Leone Nakawara out of his contract and left the Warriors minus one of their star players.

But there are many hurdles that would need to be overcome before a penny could be put into either side.

As things stand they are in sole charge of both clubs, their players, their facilities and all their coaches. Anyone who wants to put their own money in to the club is going to have their own ideas about how it is spent. Can the SRU give up that control?

Multi-millionaire A, let’s call him M. Onopoly, has £1million in cash burning a hole in his pocket and he’s a big Edinburgh fan. He thinks they need a better centre partnership and wants to give that money to the club to buy Matt Scott and Huw Jones (just for talking sake!). But the SRU thinks that can be spent elsewhere. Who’s going to come out on top? I know that’s an extreme example but who’s to say that won’t happen and M. Onopoly takes his cash elsewhere because he’s not used to being told no.

The danger is we end up with a situation similar to what happened when in 2006 Edinburgh were declared a franchise and financed via a private company.  The SRU were given a seat on the new company and were to continue with the provision of development funding. Following a dispute between the owners and the SRU, and after lengthy battles, the alleged threats of removal of SRU funding and an attempt to revoke the associate membership, the franchise agreement was terminated and Edinburgh ended up back in SRU control.

So what about player contracts? The SRU would no doubt love someone like Stuart Hogg or Grant Gilchrist to stay under contract with them and agreements would have to be reached about who owned the players and their welfare because would the SRU still be in control of when they were rested? If Scottish Rugby want a player to sit out a game they tell the club. What if they don’t own the club though? Would they have it built in to any agreement that players can be rested on their insistence? Imagine telling Mourad Boudjellal he couldn’t use any of his players that he’d spent his money on? Not going to go down well is it?

I myself think that there is definitely a case for outside investment to be allowed. Having watched big Naka leave for France and discovered that the season before it was Niko , I can only see this being the start of a very expensive trend in world rugby and without some serious investment from either the SRU or outside forces, then both Glasgow and Edinburgh will find themselves at the very bottom of the pile. At the moment they are able to keep players like Hogg, Nel, Gray and Hardie on 2,3 or 4 year deals but if the money men from France and England come calling then they will have very little choice but to take the cash and run.

Once we know the outcome of the vote on the 28^th then the rules will no doubt be ironed out by greater minds than me but on the face of it, there are very real issues that need to be sorted out…

“Why can’t you be more like your brother?”

Right, here comes a bit of a verbal volley from The Black & Red (@TheBlack_n_Red)

“I try to avoid writing any sort of blog, after all I find it easy enough to bore you all in the length of a standard tweet. Sorry but this time I felt the need to vent and couldn’t find the right emoji so have had to go longhand!

Now being an Edinburgh fan I am well used to weekends being impacted by defeat, you learn certain coping mechanisms soon enough! Four days after the game this weekend though I find I’m still riled. Not about the game itself but the media coverage of it. It wasn’t a great game; no-one will ever claim it was BUT I feel the bulk of the media coverage was well out of order. Whist the written press on the whole annoyed, it was the noise over the airwaves that really got my goat.

Pre-match, my thoughts were:

Maybe a little over dramatic but after the previous result, our sixth successive defeat, and with our forthcoming opponents not getting any easier this was a “must win” game to help us start to feel our way into the new season.

Looking at the opposition’s teamsheet I thought that our forwards should have enough but our backs may struggle. Scarlets have some stars, we have an untried line-up who haven’t had time even to go to CAU restaurant more than say 5 times together so far, let alone learn how each other plays….

The weather, it was just a horrid combination of squally wind and rain; not a great blend at the best of times but you then add in the fact we were in the cauldron at Murrayfield that then stirs it up a bit more – Not a place / time to try anything daft, you come a cropper. Ask the occasional England player for further details….

So with these three factors it was of little surprise to me that Edinburgh played a pretty limited gameplan. In wee Dunc we had a 10 that can play a kicking game to keep us out of trouble. He’s done it for Glasgow and Scotland and been praised for it. Nothing fancy but effective, he was rightly named Man of the Match, head and shoulders above the rest of the players on show, which is no mean feat at his height!

I won’t claim the match will live long in the memory (other than it being the day I find we now serve a half reasonable ale in the vans!) but it was ok, a step in the right direction after the season opener. Bring on Leinster!

I wake up the next morning and look to see what’s being said, first up the BBC where there’s an article from Solomons defending our style. I thought a bit strange bearing in mind the conditions, why was this the talking point? After some digging I went to listen to the playback of the BBC Scotland Sportsound post-match comments where it came from. Wow.

The main item in what is available to playback from the show is around our attacking style. Listening to it, it felt like we were halfway through the season, having lost umpteen in a row. I found myself shouting at my phone! We’re just 2 games into the campaign and have yet to play in anything much better than monsoon conditions. Give us a break! Theories/accusations were bounced around of players being in fear of their squad place and so on. Quite a listen…..

The topic of attacking play has actually been discussed regularly in pre-season and various people in the club have said it has been a focus area. Not surprising but good to hear nevertheless. I saw the Newcastle game and the backs looked to be trying some things, maybe tentatively, but there was certainly more movement than I’m used to! Same again in Cardiff but it just didn’t click, in fact it didn’t even get as far as that a lot of the time. Early days I thought, let’s see how this develops.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting a team of cheerleaders covering our games, for the media to be good for me then I feel there needs to be healthy debate, everyone agreeing is dull. To do this then you need some people to hold or at least give alternate views. What I heard on Friday’s show though was something very different to that. There was no sign of a new season clean slate, this was 3 seasons worth of disappointment spilling out. It just sounded bitter. Expecting us to turn into some hybrid of the All Blacks and the Harlem Globetrotters in 2 games is like expecting someone to look thinner 2 days after saying they have just started a diet!

This focus continued through an interview with Alan Solomons and if I was him then I would have just walked off. What further annoyed me was that any other potential discussion points were completely ignored as the agenda was solely about this one thing. I would have loved to hear them question him further on his comment about being undercooked at the start of season (why not have more pre-season games then Alan?). I would have liked to have heard what his thoughts were on our dodgy lineout, a few words on how well the ex-Glasgow boys have transitioned, maybe some praise for Tofilau, particularly having been up against such vaunted opponents that night. They could even have asked when Mata is arriving and whether he knows what to expect with the weather! But no.

When rugby gets so little coverage it’s such a shame to see it being wasted. I’m not sure who benefited from the rant on Friday night. If there was nothing to add on the game, why not use the time to discuss Glasgow’s Saturday game more? They rightly deserve coverage and with a certain football match hogging the headlines over the weekend this was a great opportunity to do so. You may have had the odd Edinburgh fan complain but the bulk of people would have understood and enjoyed the subject.

Whilst we’re talking Glasgow…….as the title of this ramble cryptically suggests, there seems to be a need in many of our media outlets to compare Edinburgh to Glasgow. Not in a healthy rivalry sort of way either. Many reasons for this comparison, there being only 2 pro clubs up here being the main one. But this shouldn’t cloud everything. A lot of the coverage just sounds like a parent at the end of their tether screaming at one child for not being like another. Anyone seen/experienced that in real life? How did it work out? Please celebrate how good Glasgow are doing, on and off the pitch, they rightfully deserve all the plaudits. Just don’t constantly use that success to belittle Edinburgh, it does no-one any good.

A plea to some in the media – next time there’s the offer of a trip to see us, how about you decline the offer and use the time to watch Super Nanny and see how she deal with siblings? Your current approach helps no-one.

And relax….

He makes some great points. Edinburgh get pilloried whether they win or they lose. Sure it’s not the most attractive of rugby plans but then how many times have Glasgow and their supporters, myself included, won playing ugly and the first thing that’s said is “That’s the sign of champions!”.

Granted Solomons has maybe not made the impact that was hoped for but he has stabilised Edinburgh somewhat. Their early season form last year was superb before tailing off and this season they have a 1-1 record. Thats better than last season winners Connacht and the same as the beaten finalists Leinster.

They lost to a very good Cardiff side and they’ve beaten Scarlets in terrible conditions when a fluid game was never on the cards.

Edinburgh deserve a bit more credit than they currently get. In the summer they strengthened considerably and finally in Duncan Weir they have a great 10 who knows how to control and win games. Glenn Bryce adds considerable pace to their attack and with the cracking centre partnerships they can create they will take a few scalps and given their previous for turning Glasgow over at Christmas we’ll have to be careful. 

So let’s hope the commentators and analysts keep their eyes on the here and now and stop dredging up the past. 

 

What makes a great captain?

 

Is it their leadership skills? There is certainly a case for this making up a large percentage of the role. Without a leader, a group can easily lose its way and stray of the intended path. But lots of people are given leadership and don’t know how to use it. They don’t know how to command and get the best of those around them so it can’t solely be that.

Does a captain have to be a fighter? Yes and no. If you look over the years at the great captains of the greatest sports teams, I’d imagine not a lot of those guys were the hardest man on the pitch, rink, field or court. In 1994 when the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup, Mark Messier was their leader yet he was not a man to get involved in altercations. Richie McCaw could mix it when require, but he wouldn’t have been Captain for so long if there wasn’t more to him than ability to scrap.

Are they the flashiest, most skilful player? Sometimes. But then look at the sportsmen and women who’ve captained their country or club because they were the best player and achieved nothing. Think of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. 2 outstanding sportsmen who have at times looked strained because of their position.

No a great captain is more than all of this. A great captain is all of these and more rolled into one.

Alastair Kellock was one of those great captains. He had bite, drive, leadership skills and he had total respect from those playing with him and those who supported him.

The one abiding memory that I have of Al, other than lifting the Pro12 title came in a game against Edinburgh in 2014. Glasgow had raced into a lead with a first half demolition of the East coasters but in the second half were losing too many penalties and points. Al stood up and gave those around him an earful of abuse and told them in no uncertain terms to get their head in the game. He could see what was happening and he knew it was his job to get his team back on track, even though they were winning reasonable comfortably.

I look back on Al’s time as Scotland captain and can’t help but feel he should have held the job for a lot longer than he did. He played with his heart on his sleeve and it was clear that so many of the others looked up to him for guidance and encouragement. I mean no disrespect when I say there were more skilful players in his position, but for an all-round package and the ability to lead the side and command respect, I genuinely believe he should have been on at least 1 Lions Tour during his career

Not only did Al represent the club on the pitch but he was one of the most engaging, genuine and warm players off it too. Never too busy to stop for an autograph or pose for a picture, he gave every single fan his time and took a great interest.

He’s a true gentleman and on this, the 10^th anniversary of his 1^st Glasgow Warriors appearance, we should celebrate that we were able to witness a true Warrior doing what he did best- leading from the front.

Seeing him lift the Pro12 trophy in his final game was absolutely the honour that he deserved and that he did it for his home town club made it all the sweeter.

Thank you for the memories Alastair!

Get Tae a Game!!!!!!

I’m fairly new to the world of club rugby. Before, I was only interested in Scotland and Glasgow Warriors games.

Club rugby was names I’d never heard of playing in places that weren’t always particularly accessible. Well let me tell you that has all changed as far I’m concerned. Between last season and the start of this, I’m more determined than ever to get myself along to as many games as I can.

I’ve been to Millbrae, Old Anniesland, Hamilton and Bridgehaugh so far and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at each and every one of these grounds.

This is the life blood of Scottish rugby and I’m determined to champion as many of these teams as I can.

My latest experience, at Bridgehaugh on Saturday was an absolute joy. With the Wallace Monument the spectacular back drop for an enthralling game between Stirling County and Hawick, the weather was being kind and the company most enjoyable, it was the perfect way to enjoy a fantastic Saturday afternoon. The ground itself is a cracking wee facility and while I didn’t get to sample the barbeque, I can tell you that the smell was absolutely tremendous!

This almost mirrors the experience I’ve had at every other rugby ground I’ve visited. Friendly people, great little grounds with bags of character and some excellent rugby. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there will be poor games along the way, but I watched Argentina v South Africa on Saturday night and that’s 80 minutes of my life I’m not getting back!

The one thing that all of these teams have in common is spirit. Every one of them has a team of dedicated supporters and volunteers who help out and do whatever they can because they have a deep love of their club and their game. It was the same at Ayr, Hamilton and Hawks and I have no doubt the same could be said of any club in the Scottish leagues.

There is something so simple and satisfying about rugby at this level. Gone is the TMO interrupting every 30 seconds, big screens and the army of sometime clueless stewards.  In come numerous kids playing at half time on the pitch, family pets sitting faithfully while their master roars on encouragement and coaches who aren’t analysing the game on laptops with big screens but who are on the touchline just inches from the action at times.

There is also a friendly atmosphere and I lost count of the amount of people who said hello to me and my boy. There’s also the chance of bumping into a few well known faces too from Scottish Rugby past and present and it’s great to see these guys at games, chatting with youngsters and players.

I would actively encourage those of you who don’t attend club matches to get along to a local game and see the great work that these teams are doing. I’m certain that where ever you go you will be made to feel very welcome and will no doubt have a cracking afternoon out. You never know, you may see the next  John Hardie, Stuart Hogg or Finn Russell of the future. There’s a good chance you’ll see might even see the real thing there as well. But one thing is for sure. You’ll be doing your bit to help the game in this country continue to grow.

I’m already eagerly looking at the fixtures for next Saturday and trying to decide if I can make it along and back in time to see the mighty Glasgow Warriors.

If you’re going to be heading along to a match, use the hashtag #GetTaeAGame and tag me in on the photo. I’ll retweet as many as I can!

Thanks to Craig Watson for the header and the Stirling v Hawick action shot. 

Did video kill the future rugby stars?

I’m not from a rugby background if I tell you the truth. In fact, sport was not a big thing in my house when I was a kid. It was not something my parents had any interest in and when I did watch it, it was football that was the biggest draw as there was Match of the Day, Scotsport and Sportscene to watch highlights. So naturally I became a huge football fan, only seeing any rugby during the 5 Nations or the occasional World Cup game.

Rugby was a sport played entirely by others and these guys were lawyers, managers and even the odd soldier or RAF man. Not people that I knew growing up on a council estate in a small village. We didn’t have a local rugby club (that I was aware of, don’t forget, this was the days before you could Google things!) and if they had would I have played? Probably not! I was only interested in football!

Fast forward 20 something years and there is so much rugby on the box that if you shook a stick at it, your shoulder socket would wear away. The Aviva, The Pro 12, Top 14 , Super Rugby, The Champions Cup, Challenge Cup, Melrose 7s. The Singha 7s, The HSBC World Series.. . and I’ve not even begun on international games! But there is a problem with almost everything named above… They are all on Pay TV services

So has Pay TV ruined rugby? Well, I’d have to say yes and no.

I’m very lucky and I have Sky Sports and BT Sport and therefore access to all the best games and I have a very tolerant wife who lets me watch it! In fact, it’s not unknown for her to join me in celebrating a try or watching an important match. But if I had only Freeview, what would I watch? The odd match in the Pro 12, as long as BBC Alba are covering it, the Aviva highlights on ITV4 and the 6 Nations and Autumn Internationals (usually these are limited to Scotland matches). Everything else has been snapped up by Sky & BT. Sadly money makes the world go around and with teams and players demanding more cash, the league bosses are forced to take as much money as they can from TV deals. It means that rugby joins cricket, golf and football as a sport almost exclusive to Sky and now BT…

While I accept there are a large amount of the population with Sky/Virgin, there are far more with Freeview. That means a significant number of houses are missing out on watching big rugby matches and, in my opinion, a generation of potential players is being side-stepped. When you’re a kid and see something on the TV you want to imitate it. I grew up watching the McCoists, Laudrups, Larrsons and Moravciks and I wanted to be like them at the time. Now, I want my wee boy to be the next Strauss, Hogg or Vernon or Hardie and if I want him to be that, I either have to take him to games (I’ll talk about ticketing another day) or I have to keep Sky or Virgin.

That said, a broadcaster like BBC Alba should be applauded.  Were it not for them, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh would only be seen once or twice a season on “council telly” as I believe it’s known. Alba have had dogs abuse for not broadcasting in English but what do you expect? It’s a Gaelic channel! We should be damn grateful for their presence as it allows so many people to see it.

Even this year we seen the 6 Nations split over ITV and BBC in an effort to keep it out of the hands of Sky, who wait in the wings and snap up almost every sport like Simone Favaro looking for the ball at the breakdown so it doesn’t look like this cycle is going to end any time soon.

They used to say that too much television was bad for your eyes. Maybe that should change to too much television is bad for your sport…

The Man From Middle Earth Cometh…

YA BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!

When it was announced the Gregor was leaving us at the end of the 2017 season I was pretty gutted to be honest. He’s been an exceptional head coach and will always go down in history as the coach that took us to back to back finals and gave us our first piece of silverware.

Yesterday, when the SRU announced they were “very close” to naming his successor, I was, to say the least, sceptical. The SRU have this wonderful habit of promising so much and delivering so little that you learn not to get your hopes up too much for fear of having them dashed.

So imagine my surprise, excitement and delight when earlier today they announced Dave Rennie as the new coach!

This is a statement. Not just by Glasgow to the rest of the Pro 12, but by the SRU to the rest of World Rugby. A two-time Super Rugby winning coach who has moulded one of the greatest attacking teams in the Southern Hemisphere. He really is a top notch signing to take over from a brilliant coach.

Dave Rennie’s Chief’s side were one of the most exciting, dangerous and exhilarating sides in Super Rugby last year. Their awareness, passing and offloading and ability to turn defence into attack was quite incredible and they literally ripped teams to shreds last year. He’s managed to get his team to the play-offs in every single season he’s coached there and that is a standard that we have now become used. In addition to the Super Rugby victories, he’s been successful as coach of the New Zealand Under 20s, leading them to 3 consecutive World titles and he was runner up with Manawatu in the 2011 ITM Cup. He is the real deal and his teams style of play should suit Glasgow, with fast attackers and intelligent players being able to make the most of what he coaches into them.

If I had a concern about his appointment, it would be in defence. His teams over the last few years seem to have lost a lot of points and indeed, in the 2014 season only scored 6 more points than they conceded (384 for to 378 against). Last year they posted a total of almost 500 points to 341 a significant gap but still there were times they found themselves outclassed and outplayed.

Glasgow Warriors have stepped in quickly to get themselves a quality replacement for Townsend and for that, the SRU, Mark Dodson and Nathan Bombrys should be congratulated. For now though, lets concentrate on giving Gregor the best send-off possible and ensuring that Rennie has the best platform available when he takes the reigns…

Questions, Questions, Questions!

Perhaps it’s too soon to write this piece when the news has just broken, but all I can say regarding the Scottish coaching set-up is that it has so many questions at this point unanswered.

1. Where is Vern going? The logical answer would be that he’s off to work for the British and Irish Lions in some capacity on the tour of New Zealand? I think he’d be the perfect man to take over as neither Schmidt nor Gatland is having a great time at the moment while Eddie Jones has made it clear that he has no interest in the Lions. Could he be going back to France? Possibly but you’d have to think he has something lined up in that case.
2. Why announce it now? Hell knows. The SRU press release broke the news without giving any real details. Townsend was contracted for the 2016/17 season anyway and if he was already lined up to replace Vern, then there wasn’t any worry of him joining another team in say the Aviva or the Top 14. The only good thing about the timing is that we now have a season to look for a replacement. Although I’d like to make an early thought on that
3. Mike Blair for Head Coach? Blair was brought back to Scottish Rugby last season to effectively be a player/coach . Sadly for Mike, the playing didn’t really come off as concussion issues curtailed his appearances and lead to his retirement. Instead he will be a coach for Glasgow this season. Coincidence? I think not…
4. So what can we draw from the Cotter era? Well we have to start with the highs. He led us to within minutes of a World Cup semi-final and restored pride in a battered nation. He also lead us to a fantastic 6 Nations win against France and began to get us playing to the best of our ability. But then there was the low points. A whitewash in his first 6 Nations, including a crushing home loss against the Italians and a failures against larger nations have led to questions over his coaching and whether he is the man to bring us success. Sadly with him leaving, it really feels like he’s leaving a job half finished. I’ve liked the Cotter plan and I think that he has brought us back from the international wilderness. With another couple of seasons I think we’d have been ready to challenge for the 6 Nations title.
5. What are Scotland getting in Gregor Townsend? Probably one of the hottest properties in club rugby. Gregor has continually excelled himself and is one of the main reasons for the Glasgow Pro12 win in 2014/15. His coaching skill set is extremely impressive and is shaped by his playing experiences in Scotland, England, South Africa and France. The style of rugby he plays is perfectly suited to Glasgow and with the vast majority of their players making up the Scotland squad you’d think that he is the natural progression. But will that translate to the international stage? This is a huge step for Townsend as he is dealing with a much more limited player pool. There is no option to bring in a talented Fijian or Canadian for example. He must work within the constraints of those eligible for the thistle. Another thing that has to be considered is how he will handle international coaching as it is much more hands-off than his current day-to-day job.
6. Will he be a success? Well only time will tell on that one. If I had the ability to tell you that, I’d be writing this blog from a beach in the Bahama’s!

So why the blog?!?

I know what you’re thinking. This idiot already has his own column in Scrum. Why does he need another? 

Well you see, I have a fair bit to say. And 500 words doesn’t always allow me the opporchancity to say it all! I love my Scrum columns but this is for the non-Glasgow stuff. With this little blog I can cover a wide and varied range of rugby and not only that, but I want to hear from you!!!!! If you have a suggestion on something I should cover, let me know and I’ll do my best! 

Thanks for reading my inane drivel! 
The Pen! 

The most successful sport at the Olympics? Try Rugby Sevens!

Cast your mind back to last May. Remember that petition I ran asking you to “Save our Sevens”? Turned out at the time it was pretty successful. Thousands of signatures later and the SRU announced that they would be keeping a sevens team on the HSBC World Series in some guise.

Since then, Scotland have had a bit of a renaissance. Their first ever Series win at Twickenham after being 11 points down with a minute to go against South Africa was the stuff of legends and to watch Captain Scott Wight holding the trophy aloft topped off what has been a very special year on that particular circuit.

Fast forward to the here and now and we were cheering on Scots Mark Bennett and Mark Robertson in the Olympic final.

It very quickly became clear that their Great Britain side would not attain the gold medal but in merely being there, they once again helped to strengthen the case for Scottish Sevens involvement. While we can only speculate, would we have seen Bennett and Robertson in Rio without a Scottish team in the World Series? A case could be made for Bennett since he never played for Scotland during that tournament but would Robertson have gone? In my own opinion, almost certainly not.

When Ned Haig and David Sanderson created the game of Sevens in Melrose in 1883, they could not have foreseen that 133 years later, the game would feature on the biggest stage of them all and make such an impact around the world.

And if it was Scotland who created the game, it is the small island of Fiji that has grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and shown just how it should be played.

Fiji played with tempo, speed, skill and an intelligence that was an absolute joy to behold. Their players seemed to have a telepathic connection and every single player knew where their team mates were and not just where they’d be to offload the ball, but where they would then have to be to collect that players offload.

It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. It was exhibition stuff at times and they made some very good Great Britain players look like they’d never picked up a ball before.

Sevens Rugby is rugby as it’s meant to be played. There is none of the arduous, time consuming and soul destroying scrum resets, almost no games of kick tennis and certainly no time wasting.

But for me the most important thing about Sevens Rugby is development. Look at the number of players who have come through the Sevens system in this country and others. Guys like Jonah Lomu and Brian Habana honed their skills in the seven aside game and our very own Fiji Weegies Niko and Leone were important cogs in the Fijian side before coming to Scotsoun.

With any luck, Sevens Rugby will be an Olympic fixture for many years to come after its phenomenal Rio debut and interest has probably never been higher. Bet the SRU are glad they chose not to disband the squad now…