Sorry Ladies, But, I Don't Think You're Quite Ready

MEDIA manipulation is now so ingrained in society in this AD 2018, I sometimes think we don't notice we are being manipulated. The mainstream media does not help – it was the social media platforms who spotted the White House's cack-handed and ridiculous efforts to doctor video tape, to try to make CNN look bad, for instance.

We are not immune to media manipulation here in Scotland – even without going into the tsnumai of “SNP Bad” stories which have caused the news and comment pages of The Herald and The Scotsman to become comic pages, unworthy of these organs' great history, while the way the Scottish “sports” pages have virtually become advertising for the Old Firm is another shaming indictment of the poor management in the msm today.

The great Hugh Dan will hopefully be back for the BBC Alba coverage of women's rugby

Yesterday, we saw further evidence of media manipulation, with the news that BBC Alba is going to start showing Women's Rugby. Now I loved Alba's coverage of the PRO14, although I could follow little of what the excellent Hugh Dan McLelland ever said. But, it got Edinburgh and Glasgow covered, and they were covered well.

But, Women's Rugby, shakes head sorrowfully.

I have nothing against women playing rugby, I would not stop them, but, I am old school, it just doesn't seem right. Nothing against women playing football either, in fact, I have fewer objections to women playing with a round ball than an oval one. This may come down to the lesser potential for injury, and, having played in a couple of mixed hockey matches, I know fine well, old Rudyard Kipling knew what he was talking about when he wrote: “the female of the species is more-deadly than the male.”

I simply feel, Women's Rugby in Scotland is not yet ready for regular TV exposure. I know the girls, plus big Shade Munro and his coaching team work bloody hard. I appreciate they need encouragement, but, they simply are not yet good enough to be showcased regularly on TV – even on a “fringe” station such as BBC Alba, and it could back-fire, badly.

For me, the standard is not high enough, the depth of talent too-shallow. Women's rugby in Scotland's time is not, for me, here yet.

There is a suggestion, only a whisper as yet, that the Alba deal for the women might be the forerunner of a similar deal for Super-6. Let's hope so, the standard will certainly be higher, but, at the end of the day, I feel showcasing women's rugby is nothing more than a spot of box-ticking by someone inside Pacific Quay.

Now, the Scottish rugby community is perceived as being politically “conservative.” In fact, a large percentage, given their upbringing – the right type of Edinburgh school, followed by one of the older universities, will certainly be “Conservative and Unionist,” they might want to start thinking Independently.

Because, once Scotland is again Independent, and it is coming – the clammy, dead hand of BBC Scotland, the last outpost of the imperial broadcasting service - will be removed. We can hope, indeed, we must demand, that the post-independence Scottish Broadcasting Corporation will be encouraged to positively support Scottish sport, with better coverage of our national teams and our top exponents in more sports. And they ought to be telt, in no uncertain terms: in Scotland, we have more than one sport played, and more than two teams playing.

Have any of you noticed, by the way, what happens on Premier Sports, when they cover a Cheetahs or Kings game? Just before the match starts, up on the screens will flash the names of the commentators – you have an Afrikaans commentary, an English one and a Xhosa one. Why cannot we have this choice on BBC Scotland? Scott Hastings or John Beattie could do the English one, Hugh Dan the Gaelic one, it would be up to the viewer which commentary he or she listened to. I know, we occasionally had a choice of English language commentary on BBC Alba last season – this is worth expanding with the new coverage.

I AM told, as part of their preparations for the Fiji game, tomorrow, the Scotland management team had one of the young, up and coming club coaches do his homework on the Pacific Islanders.

And Hoggy's back too - hooray!

His research brought-up the amazing statistic – the Fijians score over 60% of their tries off breakdown ball. Apparently, this is a very high figure. So, the Scottish game plan is  to stifle them at source.

I might have thought, Hamish Watson, one of our very best breakdown “jackals” should have played as an antidote to this, but, maybe Toony, who has a far-better tactical brain than I, has something up his sleeve.

They are all big men up front, so maybe the bulked-up Scotland pack is designed to tie the Fijians down – as much as you can tie-down a free spirit like big Leone – to deny them turnover opportunities.

I suspect we might see Greig and Finn kicking more often than normal, to try to turn them. I am however, quietly confident the side Toony has picked can avoid what is definitely a potential and too-obvious banana skin game.

With four internationals in as many weeks, squad rotation will be key, hence the one or two unexpected selections for tomorrow, in a squad which reads (in 1-23 order):

Allan Dell, Fraser Brown, Willem Ne, Sam Skinner, Grant Gilchrist, Ryan Wilson, Jamie Ritchie, Matt Personage; Greig Laid law (captain), Finn Russell; Sean Mainland, Peter Horne, Alex Dunbar, Tommy Seymour. Replacements: Stuart McNally, Alex Allan, Simon Bergman, Jonny Gray, Josh Strauss; George Horne, Adam Hastings, Chris Harris.

Hogg coming back so quickly was something of a surprise, but, we need to have our few X-factor guys playing as much as possible. He will be ready.