The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Restart games ‘mostly symbolic’
Scottish rugby finally emerges from lockdown, blinking into the late summer sunlight, at 5.15pm on Saturday at BT Murrayfield. The first two games between Glasgow and Edinburgh in the next week have quite a bit riding on them – PRO14 play-offs, although for the Warriors the two bonus point victories they require, plus Ulster not recording a match point in two games, is a stupidly outlandish target.
There’s the 1872 Cup, which is up for grabs in the first game, and I suppose that counts for something, as much as the inter-team rivalry which, to be fair, has been stoked quite generously in recent seasons by Richard Cockerill’s wind-ups and Edinburgh’s successes – two elements which might not be coincidental.
But these games are mostly symbolic. I’d be really surprised if they weren’t an almighty mess on the pitch, given they are what Cockerill describes as “preseason in competition”.
In an Edinburgh inter-squad hit-out refereed by international panel ref Mike Adamson – who also has the whistle for this weekend – there were 18 penalties in the first half, Cockerill revealed this week. These were almost entirely the result of the new interpretation of the breakdown law, where almost any movement after the tackle other than setting the ball immediately back is now penalised, while it seems all the game’s jackals have to do now is get their paws on the ball and they’ll either get the turnover or the whistle blast in their favour.
So you’re putting underprepared players into a full scale competitive match dealing with a fairly fundamental rule change. No wonder early games in Super Rugby and the Premiership last weekend were something of a muddle.
Glasgow’s new coach Danny Wilson has vowed that while their remains even a sliver of a chance of play-off rugby, they’ll play accordingly; that is, go in search of four tries, twice.
That’s a laudable sentiment, but I would contend an utterly unrealistic one, and Danny’s too smart an operator to truly believe it.
The fact that the worst-kept secret of this week is that Huw Jones will line up at full-back for the Warriors is partly borne of necessity – financial restrictions means Wilson has not been able to recruit a 15 – but it also underlines the pre-season nature of these games; let’s try a little something.
Similarly, Cockerill would like a playoff run for Edinburgh, of course he would – but he’s also going to try a few things because I think his real target is next season and especially another run in the main European competition.
How will it go at the weekend? I
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You’re putting underprepared players into a full scale competitive match with a fundamental rule change
don’t think there’s any question that Edinburgh are the least altered of the two teams after lockdown – they could stick out a team on Saturday that would have played this 1872 Cup decider on its original date in May, while Glasgow definitely cannot.
I think Edinburgh will win on Saturday, Wilson will then experiment further the following Friday, and Edinburgh’s far greater need to win and secure a play-off space will see them win that game, too.
A cautious toenail in the water There will be no spectators at this restart game, but there might be 1,000 at the second game between Edinburgh and Glasgow the following Friday as a “pilot” for all sport in Scotland.
Given the fluid situation of the pandemic at present, with hotspots flaring up all over the place and a second wave threatening, it’s still by no means certain – in fact, it’s by no means desirable, as all evidence suggests that mass-audience sporting events have the potential like few others to be super-spreader triggers for Covid-19.
However, we’ve got to start getting people back into stadia somehow and some time if sport as we know it is to survive, so the SRU have pushed to the front of the queue to be the guinea pigs, forgive me for the mixed metaphor.
The idea that success here – however that is measured – will open the floodgates is wishful thinking. We’re talking similarly limited crowds for the rest of this year, I think, and that’s without any mis-steps in the manner of the schools reopening. It’s a baby-step, a toenail in the water. No more than that.
Barclay a victim of lockdown? “When you know, you know” said John Barclay of his retirement decision. Strangely, he knew only in the last few weeks rather than when lockdown started. My impression was that Barclay, out of contract at Edinburgh, wanted to keep playing, but financial restrictions across the game meant he had nowhere to go. That’s sad if true.
I first saw Barclay at the Scottish Schools Cup final in 2003, when he was 16. He was a man among boys that night.
Fifteen years later, the 2018 Calcutta Cup match as Scotland captain was his finest hour, in my opinion. Like in the Schools Cup final, he was the best player on the pitch – yes, even more than Finn Russell – that memorable day. He became exactly the player you hoped he would, and you can give him no better tribute than that.