March 17th, 2012 03:19pm
billmarshall
Scotland’s rugby season has just ended with an appallingly inept performance against Italy which consigned us to a whitewash and left the overall structure of the team even less certain than it was at the beginning. The lineout, which had been a strength even in defeat earlier in the season, was a shambles with Ford overthrowing horribly and the preparation seemingly confused and giving Italy easy targets. Generally there was a lack of urgency and a lack of leadership and awareness – in the second half with an Italian down injured why was Denton not told to spread the ball from his mark rather than passing it back for a kick?
Yet we’ve had two of the standout forwards of the season in Ritchie Gray and David Denton, the back-row in general has been a good-looking unit, Mike Blair has looked much more like his old self and we have an exciting new full-back in Hogg. So what has gone wrong? Admittedly the match against England was a horror story for Dan Parks and caused his retirement – we should have won that easily but couldn’t cross the line. With Jackson still recovering his form after injury that pitched in Laidlaw, who has done quite well but his small stature has been occasionally exposed in tackle situations. The bad injury to Rory Lamont both removed a strong player and disrupted the momentum in the game it occurred and evoked bad memories of the injury which finished Thom Evan’s career – we do seem to have been unlucky with injury in this way.
Given the platform that the forwards produced early in the season we should have had a better functioning back division. There seems to be a lack of direction and pace about the backs in set-piece attacks which suggests lack of belief – the defence always seems to have the command of the situation and is never under pressure, while the attackers always seem to be looking to see what to do instead of running fast first and then reacting to the gaps that open because of it. There also seems to be a reluctance to engage in broken play attacks which we used to be so good at exploiting. To me the responsibility for this has to rest with the backs coach Gregor Townsend – never a favourite of mine during his playing career – though Andy Robinson will undoubtedly come under pressure too given his 3/11 record. If the rumours of Townsend going to Glasgow to replace Sean Lineen are true then we may see some difference there next year depending on who is appointed.
Mervyn Davies
Sad to see the death from cancer of Mervyn Davies. Watching rugby as a youngster he was one of those player you couldn’t help but admire even when he was hammering your own country. A big man for his time he was a fine link between forwards and backs, and his ability to poach ball from the back of the lineout with a seemingly telescopic reach remains in the mind’s eye. But not just as a wonderful player but as a leader, who led by example and a quiet word here and there, is how he will be remembered. His presence had much to do with the two most successful Lions tours ever. In an era of incomparable stars – Barry John, Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, JPR, Phil Bennett, JJ Williams, most of them glamorous backs, he was a forward who everyone knew and everyone respected. He will be much missed.
December 31st, 2011 11:04pm
billmarshall
One of Scotland’s longest serving and best rugby stars announced his retirement from international play a few days ago and in today’s New Year Honours list was awarded a much deserved MBE.
After the World Cup I said I hoped that he would carry on playing for another year but it seems he’s decided that he wants to go out at the top, and maybe the current hip injury that is preventing him from performing his usual kicking duties for Edinburgh has been a contributory factor.
Always an exciting runner in whatever position he appeared, he also became probably the best kicker in the world for a substantial part of his career. The big question has always been what his best position was. His early career seemed to suggest he would be a natural running stand-off of a type that we haven’t had since John Rutherford, but a number of coaches seemed to disagree and since he wasn’t being played there regularly it was always going to be difficult to capture that spot in the national side. As a result he mostly appeared at either full back or wing and while he was often deadly in broken play there are many who will always wonder if he could have controlled games from the number 10 shirt and encouraged the sort of running rugby that we aspire to.
He’ll be missed, both for his jinking running and his faultless kicking; particularly as Rory Lamont seems to keep getting injured. Thanks for some great memories Chris – enjoy your remaining time club career.
December 3rd, 2011 02:46pm
billmarshall
I’m just about to watch the Wales v Australia rugby international at which Shane Williams will end a glorious career. The worry is that we might never see another like him.
Earlier this week no less a legend than Barry John praised Williams as a player who would get into the best ever Wales team – high praise indeed when you consider the wonderful wingers that Wales have had over the years – the immortal Gerald Davies with a side-step to die for, and the electric-paced JJ Williams to name only two of the obvious candidates. But John was also concerned that we may have seen the last of the small, fast, balanced wingers who run round people instead of the man-mountains who run through them. A few years ago I voiced the same concerns in a post here Rugby’s problem in the professional era – big strong men.
Somehow rugby has turned into American Football – everyone except the scrum-halfs seems to be built bigger than the lock forwards I remember from my youth. Only in sevens do we still regularly see the value of the smaller men. Remember the wonderful Scottish three-quarters from a couple of decades ago? If Chris Paterson is criticised for being too small for full back what chance would Andy Irvine have? What of that lovely pairing of Jim Renwick and David Johnston. Would even as magnificent a player as Philippe Sella the magnificent French centre get into a modern international team?
If there is no room for player like these to flourish in the game then the glorious entertainment of rugby played with flair and imagination may become a thing of the past and it will descend into a wrestling match with the occasional kick. And that would be a tragedy. lets hope the coaches that watch todays’s match recognise the value and excitement that Shane has brought back into rugby during his career.
October 9th, 2011 02:10pm
billmarshall
We’re now at the semi final stages of the Rugby World Cup. It’s been a strange tournament; engrossing at times but seldom spectacular. The weather may have played a large part in that – I’ve seldom seen so many kicks missed – but there seems to be something a bit apprehensive about much of the play, as if the worries of the home fans that everything could go wrong again have spread to the other teams too.
Some of the results have been a bit odd too. All of the teams that were in Scotland’s group, including England, are out. Ireland, who started so well with a victory against Australia and who have been playing some lovely stuff, are out. South Africa, who beat Wales in their group, are out.
France, who have looked disjointed and disinterested, who were hammered by New Zealand in their group, whose coach couldn’t even give away free beer to his players, are in. Australia, who seem to have lost their character, lost to Ireland, and were largely dominated by South Africa, are in. If you are a fan of either New Zealand or Wales then you’ll be feeling optimistic right now. Except that for the Kiwis there is the worry of whether any of their stand-in stand-offs can replace the injured Dan Carter.
What of Scotland?
The stats would suggest that Scotland had a bad tournament; after all this is the first time we’ve failed to make the quarter finals. We didn’t score heavily against either Romania or Georgia while our main rivals did. However it can be argued that we got them early when they were at their most determined and the weather was against high scoring or the game we wanted to play. Then there were the two games we lost. Argentina should have been beaten: only the referee seemed not to see one of the most blatant offsides at the crucial drop goal at the end of the game. We were in charge for most of the game and really should have put enough on the board to render their late try irrelevant but we failed to find that crucial finishing edge. Against England the final result was a travesty that was probably brought about by a failing optimism in the last few minutes that we could maintain enough of a winning margin to get the bonus point we needed. The fact was that despite bad luck in losing Jackson early and Evans at half time, and a couple of very dubious penalty awards that allowed England back within the magic margin, that we were again in control of the match for 70 minutes. Three times the excellent outside breaks of Ansbro were inches from escaping the last tackle (if only that had been Evans), Foden performed outstanding heroics in getting a hand to prevent Danielli scoring, and De Luca will still be having nightmares about the failed pickup with the line abegging.
So despite the results I’m optimistic about the forthcoming 6 nations and with England as the first game the players should be really fired up for it. I hope Paterson stays to provide both his experience and kicking ability for a little longer. I’d like to see Mike Blair back at his best as I think he’s still lacking a bit of his old sharpness, but Jackson is still developing very promisingly.
Semi final prospects
But back to the World Cup. Can New Zealand win without Carter? They’ve been the best team in the world for as long as I can remember yet they haven’t been World Cup winners for 24 years. It seem inconceivable that they can’t win on home turf. Yet their games against Australia often don’t go to form.
Can Wales re-emerge as a genuine world force and give their supporters some new legends to supplant the memories of the golden age of Barry John, Gareth Edwards, JPR, Gerald Davies et al. In Shane Williams they have a supreme finisher who would crown a fabulous career with a winner’s medal in what would probably be his last match. They seem to have come together as a team and have an inspirational captain. But you just never know what the French are likely to do next – they could be awful or they could be incredible.
I’d dearly like to see a New Zealand – Wales final full of running rugby instead of some of the boring finals decided by kicks that we’ve seen too often. And if that happens then the best team on the day will be worthy and popular winners.
October 1st, 2011 01:30am
billmarshall
I’ve just been watching a documentary on BBC 4 called Troubadors, the name taken from the Los Angeles club of that name and largely centred around James Taylor and Carole King but also featuring other luminaries of the time like Jackson Browne, Graham Crosby, Bonnie Rait and the band of LA guys who played on many of their albums.
It was a touching and well-handled programme and if it’s available on iPlayer then I recommend it – especially if you’re of my vintage and remember Tapestry and Sweet Baby James from when they came out. It brought back many lovely memories of times with my old friends John Sampson, Gordon Dougal, and Colin Craig when we played many of the songs and wrote others that were often inspired by them.
It also reminded me of something I sometimes forget in the bustle of making a living – that music, and the connections with friends through music, has given me my very happiest times. Though I’m a poor player of various instruments I have the musician’s ear, the ability to hear the communications that pass between musicians as they play, the little jokes that make us smile and baffle those who can’t hear them.
I’m lucky that I work in a couple of subjects – web design and SEO – that are creative and challenging and which I enjoy very much. But my happiest years were as a sound engineer, working with some wonderful musicians and actors, and creating moments of magic, moments that reach people’s hearts and make them feel something that lifts them above the boredom of their working lives.
It’s always a shock to see someone whose youthful album cover pictures you grew up with looking kinda old. Reminds you that you own face in the mirror isn’t getting any younger. Carole King is now white haired and could be any American Jewish grandmother if you passed her in the street, while James Taylor is bald and angular and stooping. But when they talk to each other the light shines in their eyes, and when they sing, particularly together, the years roll away and the vitality of youth is still there in their faces and voices. And you see the love and musical connection that passes between them and you know that for all the special vibes and communication that they are sending out to the adoring fans, that they are also sharing a far deeper level of connection through the music that even those of us that speak a little of the language can only guess at. It was lovely to watch and to listen to. A big ‘well done’ to the director and cameraman of the documentary.
And from me a big thank you to the musicians and friends who shared those times with me over the years.
August 30th, 2011 09:33pm
billmarshall
A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Linda Gillard had a new book coming out and I hoped to be reviewing it. It comes out today and I’ve been working on a new set of web pages for it on her site – Untying the Knot.
Review
The book is perhaps the closest to a romance that Linda has yet written, but as always with her it’s so much more than that. Indeed if that were all it was I wouldn’t be finishing reading it let alone enjoying and reviewing it. She has the knack of creating characters that you can believe in as if you’d met them, and imbuing them with exactly the sort of flaws, errors and misconceptions, balanced by persistence and courage and refusal to give in, that signal something more akin to real life rather than fiction.
It tells the story of a family which is separated, indeed the two main characters have been divorced for 5 years. One (Fay) is a talented textile artist – something of a Gillard trademark from her first book Emotional Geology – while the other (Magnus) is a former bomb disposal expert. The other characters are Magnus’ mother Jessie, who Fay has stayed close to, their daughter Emily and her fiancé, and Magnus’ girlfriend Nina. Despite this being a small group Gillard finds plenty of resources for characterisation and plot twists as we learn more about their history and about why Fay and Magnus can’t live together but can’t be happy apart.
What principally sets this book apart from the average romance and gives it its cutting edge is that much of the story focuses on the strains of living with the demons of mental illness – another theme which Gillard uses both frequently and with astonishing clarity and sympathy. Magnus suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and has terrifying flashbacks – having been blown up in action. We see what it’s like to have to cope with such a dramatic and invasive problem and also what it means to be their partner and to try to cope with the stresses it causes. And in understanding it in these characters we learn to understand it in real life; and realise that it’s neither unusual or something to be frightened of.
The scene for much of the important action is a once ruined Scottish towerhouse which Magnus has rebuilt, and as events unfold and we get sections of past storyline – something that the author handles seamlessly and better than any other I’ve read – we gradually see her talent in using the house’s symbolism, connecting interwoven plotlines through it, and connecting it to the past events which have shaped the characters’ lives and brought them to where they are.
As is the case with all of her books, this one has a couple of unexpected twists which serve to absorb the reader ever more deeply in the story and to shed much more light on the characters than could have been done by any form of exposition. We come to understand them and appreciate the reasons for their mistakes even as we pray that they won’t make them. We feel their yearnings, we cry with them when things look black and impossible, and we feel the shiver running down our spine when the tension becomes unbearable. (You’ll know what I mean when you read it!)
This is storytelling of a high order. I can almost, but not quite, understand the inability of publishers to classify it (see my earlier post), because a simple explanation of the plot makes it sound like the sort of throwaway, read-once and forget, novel that fills airport rubbish bins the world over. But the ability to convey emotion and inner thoughts and the commitment to communicate difficult subjects, as well as the finely crafted writing, set this book far above that level. Like all Linda’s books you’ll want to read it again, and you won’t forget the characters.
It deserves to be available in paper form but I have no doubt that her growing legion of readers will snap it up in ebook form, wondering why it’s so cheap as they do so. Her last book, which was the first to be released as an ebook, has sold over 10,000 copies without the benefit of publisher’s advertising budget. I expect this one to do even better.
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