I was with my mother yesterday so we watched the rugby. At 93 she has become a fan and after watching Scotland beat France 50-40 I could see why. I decided to stay for the second leg which was promoted by my family as “England beating Italy”. I am in two minds about that game. Whoever is in charge of managing the England rugby team should be sacked, they have created out of brilliant players a boring team that is constrained by a style that was devised in a boardroom, not on a pitch.
But to happier things. The six countries battling it out to be the number one European team this year are down to two who can win it and while we’d have expected France to be one of them, who’d have thought Scotland will be the other. Next week will be spent in Scotland in its capital and I will be reminded that Steve Borthwick said that the other one would be England! England v France next week may decide the winner of the tournament but only if England beat France to give it to the jocks. I think that unlikely but it may be that England throw off their constraints and play a kind of ruby we expect!
I have had a little experience of the lifestyle of an England rugby having stayed a night in their HQ at Pennyhill Park. I was pampered beyond my due but only for a night, these rugby players stay there for ages and clearly the adulation that they get from the hotel has turned them into believing they are what they aren’t!
Their style of rugby is not enjoyable to watch and yesterday the joy was all with the Italian players and their crowd. I doubt that sitting on the sidelines under yellow cards is part of the management consultancy that governs the team’s behaviour. It is however indicative of the petulance of a team that has been led to believe that things should go there way.
The England team and its management should be given an intensive four hour session watching how they were beaten by Scotland and Italy and then another session watching how Scotland and France battled out a 90 point spectacular.
The conclusion will be that they are playing a game and not acting out a management consultant’s strategy. Pennyhill Park is a plush place but it has nothing to do with the roots of rugby union. Rugby Union in England is now owned by wealth managers who sponsor it and those who commentate on it with appalling seriousness!
By watching how they get beat and how other countries win and lose with joy, they may get back their sense of humour. As for Wales, they are going through a dreadful period which I suspect Ireland can remember a couple of decades ago. It is not something for them to be worried about because like Ireland, the roots of their game are still with players and clubs.
The moneymen have come and caused Wales a lot of trouble but I am sure they will recover as Ireland did. But England’s problems are different. They are about attitude, contempt for the roots of the game and the loss of any sense of humour.
Thanks for the shout out to our respective rugby teams, Henry.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed yesterday’s win a lot, but nevertheless it felt very much like a typically Scottish manner of both winning and yet failing at the same time.
We led 19-14 at half time, which became 47-14, at which point we had an opportunity to stand the Six Nations table on its head.
Instead, we allowed the French to score four tries, secure a bonus point and change the points difference in the Six Nations league table to leave France with +79 to Scotland’s +21 (during the game it had been +56 to +44 at one point).
Our stand off, Finn Russell, reminds me ever so slightly of Slim Jim Baxter who strutted his stuff for Scotland’s football team in the 1960s.
While many choose to remember the 1967 win over England as Baxter’s finest moment, those of us of an older age prefer the 1963 game when Baxter scored both Scotland’s goals. He’s even said to have joked with ‘keeper Bill Brown that he fancied making it a “hat-trick” by scoring an own goal. Fortunately, Bryan Douglas then scored for England so the ten-man Scots (no injury subs in those days) had to hold on for a 2-1 victory.
Had yesterday’s Murrayfield game been over 90 minutes rather than 80, I fear France might even have won, as Scotland were left with only 14 men at the final whistle. There weren’t only yellow cards in Rome yesterday.
The other occasion that comes to mind is the football World Cup in Argentina in 1978. We scored a famous goal to lead the Dutch 3-1. A fourth goal would have put The Netherlands out and Scotland into the second group stage. Instead it finished 3-2 and the Dutch went on to (lose in) the final …
“And if you know your history, It’s enough to make your heart go ohohohoh …”
Enjoy your time up here in Edinburgh this week, Henry.
Were it not for a second half monsoon in Italy , you would be top of the league. As it is , you are widely acknowledged the best team this year!