Thanks for the kind words and suggestions.

David Pocock

I write this with a heavy heart, as the Wallabies have lost to Scotland. May I say something about the singing of anthems by national teams/players?

My daughters and I were very touched to see Michael Brial (who was playing his first test as a Wallaby in Paris in, I think, 1993) looking deeply moved by the Australian national anthem. A tear clearly glittered in his eye.

And so were the Ireland squad when the Irish rugby anthem was sung for the first time at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

Perhaps these men sensed that they were playing for the honor of their country above all.

We send you and the rest of the squad our best wishes for the Wales test, and hope that the Australian national anthem stirs the fire in your hearts.

That’s true, but you were referring to the competitiveness of the Scots, and thus the 6N as a whole. Logically the same consideration must apply to a tournament where one side has dominated to such a huge scale and has only lost at home a few times this decade, i.e. the 3N and NZ. At times this decade SA has been a joke which made their 1995 WC win pretty irrelevant. Scotland is poor, it’s a small nation with little resources. The same scenario would not doubt unfold were The 3N to become the 6N with Tonga, Fiji and Samoa being included.

It’s probably not particularly fair to include Italy in the debate. The gap between the haves and have nots has been widened since professionalism and, after all, it took France decades to win their first 5N title following their inclusion.

However, none of that changes the fact that Scotland and Italy are a bit of a joke.

THe 3 NAtions is different: Australia and SA have both won the World Cup. They have both had great players. They can beat anyone in the world ( apart, naturally, from themselves ). Not all of that could be said about the Scots.

France v Scotland earlier this year was probably the worst afternoon of my 27 years.

Best wishes

Bizarre.’

That hasn’t always been the case, however. Scotland has always had the potential to knock off one of the bigger teams: England in 07-08, Wales in 06-07, France & England in 05-06 etc. What Scotland needs is a coach to improve their consistency and broaden their playing depth by exposing more players to test rugby. You could reverse that attitude and wonder what the point is behind the 3N when NZ has won it so regularly? That doesn’t mean matches involving NZ are not worth watching, and the same applies to Scotland. Part of the significane of the 6N is tradition, and Scotland adds to that.

An Australian painting in Paris…

Anyways, there will never be relegation from the 6N. They sell zillions of tickets. The point stands, however: Scotland have no incentive, really. It’s a non=Rugby country with a guarantee of 5 big matches each year. They’re only likely to beat Italy but so what ?

Bizarre.

As for Chris Hoy, not even he could be considered a great sportsman. Track cycling is not proper cycling.

The Scots’ best cyclist was Robert Millar.

Miguel Indurain was a great cyclist.

Chris Hoy is NOT a great cyclist.

They could have taken it into schools, couldn’t they ?

Perhaps they’re too scared that the ( squeamish people, look away now ) proletarian jocks will take an interest.

They’d probably rather lose than see rugby played in the Gorbals, si j’ai bien compris.

It’s a shame. Un dommage.

I find it stunning that Scotland couldn’t manage to support three franchises and I do recall that a lot of fans purposefully rejected the Border club. Perhaps with continued ML improvement from Edinburgh and Glasgow and a national improvement under Robinson the 3rd side could be resurrected? If the Italian clubs don’t prove to be total lampoons then I don’t see why Scotland shouldn’t get another side and the ML should simply remove the home and away format and play out like the S14. There’s certainly enough Scottish expats and let’s not forget that players like Ford and Cusiter emerged from the Border effort.

That said, it’s fair to observe that the Irish were very fortunate in that they had a well-established provincial system which fit perfectly into the new era. The Welsh and especially the Scottish were left with structures of enormous sentimental appeal to fans but which were simply unfit for purpose in the professional game. The traditional heartland of Scottish rugby is the Border region, but it has been unable to sustain a professional team.

This is the problem of professionalism. Everything becomes a question of demographics and market size rather than tradition and sentiment.

There are novelists and painters in Australia?

If people in Scotland wanted RU to be popular, they would go out of their way to get kids involved. They won’t because they want to preserve its status.

A good friend of mine from Glasgow is unusual in being a Rangers fan who also likes Rugby. But then he went to a private school, so that explains it.

C’est logique, hein ?

Anyway, I think it’s a fair question to ask about Scottish rugby: what is the price of failure ? They will still be in the 6 Nations.

Rugby players in Scotland are like novelists or painters in Australia: because there’s no competition, the really terrible ones are treated with undue deference. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King.

It’s annoying when some hired individual / group use the occasion to provide their interpretation of a particular anthem. The recent butchery of the SA anthem, which I think is a great anthem, was disgusting and the team had every right to feel blighted.

I’m sure these people are paid a fee for their services…better put toward the development of junior rugby. I’m sure the governments of most if not all military / police bands would be happy to donate their services.

Excellent piece, it always a privilege to hear from a test player. Very few write columns although Wilko has a regular column in the Times which can be interesting although a little wierd on occasions when he become too cerebal.

Thelma

The French and the Irsh anthems are up there, but for my money I would say that the Italian anthem is the best. If you get a moment look at their performance on youtube before the AB’s game, simply wonderful, 80K+ singing their heart out with all the Azzuri singing with real emotion. Pity RWC2015 or 2019 isn’t in Italy, perhaps 2023.

Rugby in England isn’t actually that middle class, Mr cheese. Obviously middle and upper class people play it but most clubs I have played with and been involved with are full of builders and policemen etc, not solicitors and professors. I cannot speak for Scotland for obvious reasons but my perception is that rugby in Scotland is middle class as it is in Argentina but that may just be a stereotype. Even if Scottish rugby is predominantly class-driven the same problem applies to Scottish soccer, so I would suggest that national apathy is the key issue.

In the professional era Scotland should be doing better. The claim that the removal of rucking has seriously affected the Scottish game because their forwards are naturally smaller is piffle. Every professional player has top gym facilities etc Plus the Scottish ML sides exist in a league that is geared toward European competition. However, there is the issue of style v pragmatism. As a weaker nation Scotland cannot afford to drop any results and so when Frank Hadden introduced a running brand and Scotland lost to Italy the media and public went berserk and so Hadden had to revert back to kick, kick and kick some more. Maybe this time next year Andy Robinson will have achieved something?

My two rugby daughters and I tape all the anthems at World Cups, and we sing those whose words we know. We also buy the CDs of the anthems as they are rendered and sing to them in the car. One of the delights of rugby.

We have fond memories of the Irish well-wishes for the Wallabies before the RWC 1991 semi-final against the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road. The ABC crew went around Dublin asking the locals who they would support. They invariably said: “We don’t mind losing to you, provided you beat the All Blacks”.

The idea of a Grand Slam may be important to some but not all. Going undefeated and developing as a squad rates higher in my mind. The confidnece gained in touring in the North a leaving without conceding a game means alot more than a Grand Slam. By the way, good game. I don’t believe rotating you a George Smith is the best policy but hey, Deans obviously has a plan. Keep you fresh for the important games.

Let me just pick you up on one item which clearly impressed you: the national anthems. I think that is one small detail that the Irish sporting authorites have got right. The best way to perform them before the match is to have a military brass band (or in this case a combined military/police band) play the tune and no need for a solo singer or small group of pop stars to get in the way. Then the massed choirs in the crowd can sing each of their anthems and help builid up the atmosphere, as they did on Sunday and indeed the day before for La Marseillaise when the French soccer team played at the same venue (but we won’t dwell on that open wound)

This is the way it was always done in the past but in recent years most places have imported the American style of getting a solo singer, often some X factor type who is not particularly good at singing at all, to “interpret” the national anthem in their own idosyncratic way. This is tiresome at best and downright awful at worst. On youtube you can see an example of some bunch of sheilas called Bardot butchering the Australian anthem before a match a few years back, and you can also see what the French got some African reggae singer to do to the South African anthems before their recent test in Toulouse. That last effort was so cringemaking that they subsequently apologised to the South Africans, and rightly so.

Even a bona fide soprano like Kathryn Jenkins, who is a genuine rugby fan from a real rugby town like Neath, shouldn’t have to sing Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nadhau before a game. It’s a choral piece. Let the band and the choir that is the crowd take care of it.