Scots pioneers took the game global, now it’s rewards time
The eclectic nature of Scotland’s teams these days seems to attract a deal of criticism – and I have always hated the idea of project players – but on pausing to think everything through I actually find myself defending the SRU. Strange times indeed.
Yes the ‘Bok Jocks’ seem to have taken over from the ‘Kilted Kiwis’ and some onlookers aren’t happy – for example nine of their ten tries against Tonga recently were scored by players not born in Scotland. As well as the southern hemisphere connection the Scots also do a nice line in creaming off some of the more promising players the English system has nurtured at schools and U20 sides – Sam Skinner, Josh Bayliss, Chris Harris, Cam Redpath et al.
But let’s not waste too much time on debating the pros and cons of that other than to say a distinction must be drawn between genuine heritage players – players with a parent or at least one grandparent born in the nation they seek to represent – as opposed to the mercenary project players who in many cases aren’t good enough to get picked for their country of origin.
They see an opening elsewhere, deprive genuine patriots of their moment in the sun and then disappear back from whence they came with burgeoning bank
accounts and minimal ongoing contact with the nation they once represented.
No, it’s time to rather buck the trend and thank, lest the modern generation forget, the Scots for their massive contribution to the world game. In modern times they might have to duck and dive and spend many hundreds of man hours tracking and tracing those with Scottish lineage, but the worldwide game remains in Scotland’s debt.
It has never been one way traffic. Scotland are well entitled to pull in a few favours now and then, they have gone the extra mile and beyond countless times for other rugby communities.
It was after all the Scots who inspired the concept of international rugby and kick started the entire shooting match. It was the Scots who invited the rugby clubs of England to form a team in 1871 to take on the rugby clubs of Scotland at Raeburn Place and it was Scotland who played in the first four internationals, all against England.
It was a Scot who learned his rugby at Edinburgh Academy – Benjamin Burns – who was the initial point of contact with the English clubs as Burns was playing with Blackheath and serving as their secretary. He took up their challenge on behalf of the English clubs and even made the ultimate sacrifice and played for his new English mates in that first ever game. It was also Burns who, with Edwin Ash, wrote the famous letter to in December
1870 inviting the English clubs to meet and regularise the rules and playing conditions.
That letter led directly to the formation of the RFU in January 1871. Burns, a banker, soon headed for Calcutta where he helped introduce rugby to the Calcutta cricket and football club, a development that led, circuitously, to the Calcutta Cup match between England and Scotland.
Burns proved to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of rugbyminded Scots who scattered across the globe serving the Empire while also exporting their love of the game.
Samuel Johnson may have been at his spouting verbose worst when he declared, “The noblest prospect which a Scotsman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England” but there is no denying they scattered to all four corners of the planet.
Their influence – direct and indirect – in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa was fundamental in the development of the game in those great rugby nations while others over the decades have also benefited from the Scottish influence, not least in South America and Asia.
The Scots got everywhere; their missionary zeal unabated. Take New Zealand for example. Ten All Blacks in the early days were Scottish-born and scores more were first generation expats while other more recent New Zealand internationals have a direct and close Scottish lineage such as Richie McCaw, Dave Kirk, Terry Lineen and Andy Leslie – whose father used to play centre forward for Hibs.
Consider also the rugby heritage of Otago University in the very Scottish city of Dunedin. At the last count the Uni has produced 68 All Blacks – including two World Cupwinning captains in Kirk and McCaw – and comfortably tops the league table of Kiwi clubs that have produced the most All Blacks.
And who founded Otago University and established it as a place of academic and sporting excellence? Well that will be two Scotsmen Thomas Burns from Ayr, and James MacAndrew from Aberdeen.
Over the Tasman we have Scots College, Sydney founded in 1893 by three Scots – Archibald Gilchrist, William “Fighting Mac” Dill-Macky, and Arthur Aspinall. I make it they have spawned at least 19 Wallabies. It’s a similar story in South Africa. Not only were a fair sprinkling of the early Spriongboks either Scottish born, or the sons of Scottishborn parents, many subsequent Boks learned their rugby at educational establishments with that distinctive Scottish tinge, such as Grey High School in Port Elizabeth and Michaelhouse near Pietermaritzburg.
Grey HS was founded by John Paterson from Aberdeen while Michaelhouse was all down to John Cameron Todd, a brilliant schoolboy player at Edinburgh Royal HS before he emigrated to South Africa. It’s not just rugby that has benefited from the Scottish connection in South Africa; the entire Pollock cricketing dynasty derives from Andrew MacLlean Pollock who emigrated between the wars.
Meanwhile the early expat Argentina sides were full of Scots while two Scots brothers – Ian and Donald Campbell – were the founding father of rugby in Chile.
All this might be worth bearing in mind next time you want to have a rant at the Scots. There are two sides to every story or as Rabbie Burns
himself was fond of saying, “Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!”