Sporting all-rounders are a vanishing breed in these days of specialisation

Commentary Allan Massie

Profoundly disappointing. That’s the indisputable Scottish verdict on the Heineken quarter-finals. Edinburgh opened the door an inch to Munster and so let slip a match they had the winning of. You had to conclude it wouldn’t have happened the other way round.

Glasgow, after scoring a truly beautiful try in almost the first play of the game, proceeded to make so many mistakes

that they condemned themselves to a heavy defeat. If you put restarts straight into touch, miss touch from a penalty, kick full into touch after taking the ball back into the 22, and repeatedly fail to deal with opposition boxkicks, you are setting yourself up to lose against pretty well anybody, let alone a team of Saracens’ quality. Well, both have a chance – some might say, the duty – to redeem themselves this week. Glasgow will, of course, have played Ulster by the time you read this, and done so knowing that victory would take them a step further towards a home semi-final. Edinburgh have a stiff task away to Scarlets, aware, too, that defeat might have them teetering on the edge of failing to qualify for the Champions Cup next season. This would be a bitter thought, knowing,as they must, that a week ago they should have secured their place in this year’s semi-final.

Still not all was doom and gloom on Saturday. Down at Philiphaugh, Selkirk held on by the proverbial skin of their teeth to beat Gala 19-18 and so secure their place in next season’s new top division of the amateur game. All Selkirk’s

Ali Price played youth-grade cricket for Cambridgeshire.

points – a try, conversion and four penalties – were scored by fly-half Rory Banks.

He belongs to a vanishing breed, the all-round sportsman, for he has also captained Selkirk Cricket Club, being an attractive attacking batsman and a more than useful bowler. This crossover from the winter to the summer game used of course to be common. Twenty years ago in the Borders there were men like Adam Roxburgh, Rob Moffat and Neil Crooks (affectionately known as that “bald-heided Gala bastard”) who had their whites on as soon as the Spring Sevens were concluded. It’s partly the extension of the winter games’ season and partly the ever-greater demands on players’ time and commit