Enigma Variations

Scotland bow out of the rugby world cup

Add comment October 8th, 2007

Disappointment at the loss to Argentina in the quarter-finals when the opportunity to really make an impact had been opened by the shock eliminations of the All Blacks and Australia.

More disappointing though was the lack of spark for most of the match. The forwards fought determindly in a mostly defensive role but there seemed to be something missing. I suspect it was another example of bringing back key players too soon after injury; something we see a lot in modern sport but which seldom works (think Beckham, Owen, Flintoff). At least three of our middle five have had serious injuries in the last few months and none of them have got back to the form they had showed previously. Jason White had been an inspirational figure both as player and captain but had had no real opportunity to play himself back into sharpness following a long spell out. Along with Ally Hogg and Mike Blair he was a shadow of his former self and we badly missed their rumbustious attacking around the fringes. Too often sports teams seem to regard one man as crucial and rush him back assuming his class will tell when he has no chance of being match fit. Often all that happens is the player concerned loses confidence because he’s trying to do things that he’s not yet ready for. Stephen Gerrard seems to be suffering that problem for Liverpool since he was played for England when injured.

Returning to the Scotland rugby team, our backs continue to appear somewhat one paced and we badly need someone with some flaring acceleration to provide a it of real penetration. While the Lamonts had some good runs the midfield seldom seem to explode onto the ball the way the New Zealanders do and too often they seem to look for the defence rather than trust to pace to cause that defence problems. Defences that have time to line up their targets will always win but if you run at them while they are still adjusting then chances can be made. Oh for the pace of a David Johnston. Sadly it seems that in the modern players are getting so bulked up that David would never get into the team now. The TV commentators were criticising Paterson for being too light! It’s hard to imagine Johnston’s classic outside arc try against Wales in that 5-try match in Cardiff happening now and that’s a great shame.

Ah well, perhaps by the 6 Nations our injured players will have come back into form and with Wales and Ireland seemingly in disarray maybe we can hope for a successful season.

Farewell to a rugby great – Bruce Hay

Add comment October 1st, 2007

I was stunned to hear today of the death from a brain tumour of Bruce Hay, one of the finest rugby players I ever saw. Bruce was the Boroughmuir full back when I was in my last year at school and I saw him play many times for club and country. I can only remember two players who could consistently make a crowd audibly draw breath in awe by making a tackle – one was JPR Williams, the other was Bruce Hay.

When he first toured New Zealand with Scotland the Kiwis were very impressed. They said that there was no harder, more correct, or more fair tackler in their country, which must be about the biggest compliment they could pay anyone. He broke his arm in his first test against them, but gained revenge by scoring a try when they came to Murrayfield in a drawn match and again in his final international.

He was unlucky to be playing at the same time as Andy Irvine, and because of that he only won 23 Scotland caps. But he went on two Lions tours and played in three tests as well as captaining the side in a number of games. The press tended to unfairly contrast his hard-tackling defensive abilities with the brilliant but sometimes mercurial attacking talents of Irvine, but in fact he was very much an attacking full back as anyone at the attack-minded Boroughmuir club could tell you. He was part of the superb team which won the final unofficial club championship in 1973 and he won a Melrose sevens medal in 1976.

Solid as a rock under the high ball and a fine line kicker he was also a strong runner with a very useful break, and fast enough to handle the most celebrated of opposition winger, though on one occasion after he’d scored an interception try against Ireland, outrunning the covering Tony Ward while playing on the left wing, Jim Renwick quipped that it was like watching the live action and the slow motion replay at the same time! Hay laughed as much as anyone, because he was an honest-hearted and thoroughly likeable man who gave his all and was admired by everyone in the game.

He will be missed by everyone in Scottish rugby. But for anyone who saw him thundering into the tackle or surging into the three-quarter line at speed the memory will last long in the mind’s eye. A true legend.