Player Welfare And International Appearances - Rugby Does It So-Much Better Than Football

HAVING played both games, albeit to a fairly low level, I well know the difference between Association Football and Rugby Union Football. Rugby is the harder game, both physically and mentally; however, against that, the skill level required to be an absolute stand-out is definitely higher in football.

There are obvious differences – handling against kicking the most-marked – but there are similarities too. Rugby calls for a greater degree of specialisation: but in both the same team ethos and group qualities are called for.

Leigh Griffiths - has opted-out of Scotland duty

This week's wee storm in a demi-taste coffee cup – over wee Leigh Griffiths' decision to opt-out of Scotland duty to get fit, brought firmly into focus, one aspect of team management, where rugby is leaving football miles behind: player rotation and care.

Even though the greater physical demands of rugby are a given, rugby players, certainly in Scotland, get better looked-after by their clubs than in football. Again, in international terms, the fact those rugby players who are in and around the full Scotland team are full-time employees of the SRU does make a difference.

However: let's look at the different approach of Celtic and Rangers, our European representatives in football, to that of Edinburgh and Glasgow, our two rugby teams who play in Europe.

Last Thursday, Celtic and Rangers both played Europa League matches against Austrian opponents. In their last SPFL games prior to these, Celtic played Aberdeen, at Celtic Park, fielding the following team: Gordon; Hendry, Boyata, Lustig, Tierney; Brown, Ntcham, Edouard, McGregor, Forrest; Griffiths – with Sinclair, Morgan and Rogic coming off the bench.

In Saltzburg in the midweek, Mulumbu came in for the injured Brown, while Ryan Christie was used off the bench instead of Rogic. These were the only changes.

Rangers travelled to Livingston on the Sunday, when they fielded: McGregor; Tavernier, Worrall, Goldson, Barisic; Ejavia, Coulibaly, Arfield; Candeias, Morelos, Lafferty; with Kent and Middleton coming off the bench.

Back at Ibrox for the midweek European match, Flanagan replaced Barisic and Kent came in for Lafferty, while Halliday came off the bench.

So, for Europe Celtic made two changes and Rangers three.

At the weekend, Edinburgh and Glasgow played their last normal league games before their European campaigns began. Against the Cheetahs, Edinburgh fielded: Sutherland, McInally and Nel; Toolis and Gilchrist; Bradbury, Watson and Vata; Pyrgos and Hickey, van der Merwe, Socini, Johnstone, Graham; Kinghorn. Their bench, all of whom got on, was: Ford, McCallum, Berghan, Ritchie, Hamilton, Kennedy, van der Walt, Dean.

Glasgow, against Zebre, fielded: Kebble, Turner, Nicol; Davidson, Gray, Ashe, Fusaro, M Fagerson; G Horne, Hastings, Hughes, Dunbar, H Jones, L Jones; Jackson. Their bench was: Allan, Stewart, Rae, Peterson, Smith, Tamielau; P Horne, Matawalu.

Allan Dell - the British Lion was rested from last weekend's Edinburgh game

Edinburgh rested Scottish internationalists Allan Dell, Matt Scott and Dougie Fife, all of whom seem certain to come back into the match-day squad for this weekend's European trip to Montpellier.

Glasgow left out Scottish internationalists Fraser Brown, co-captain Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Tommy Seymour, Rob Harley and Nick Grigg, plus New Zealand-born co-captain Callum Gibbons and Canadian internationalist DTH van der Merwe, all of whom will be back for their clash with Saracens, at Scotstoun on Sunday. They will also have their new signing Petrus du Plessis in their 23-man match-day squad, filling the crucial specialist position of tight-head prop.

Adam Nicol made his first start at tight-head against the Italians, because normal first-choice Zander Fagerson and last season's number two in the position, Tongan Siua Halanukonuka are both injured. SRU protocols meant D'Arcy Rae, who had become first-choice in the position, had to be rested, but, he was on the park after 51 minutes. Rae will almost-certainly be du Plessis' back-up on Sunday. In the second-row, Glaswegian Andy Davidson, on-loan to Glasgow from Newcastle, made his first start, because Glasgow have three locks – Scotland cap Tim Swinson, Scott Cummings and Brian Alain'uese (who has now been transferred to Toulon) injured.

Last season, Glasgow used 54 players in match-day squads over their 30-match club season. But, only 23 of these players were in the squad for 15 or more games. Ruaridh Jackson was in the most match-day squads, 23, 21 starts and two appearances off the bench.

Ruaridh Jackson - Glasgow's busiest player last season, playing in 23 of 30 games

A couple of paragraphs above, I mentioned SRU rest protocols. This is a governing body-backed rule, which means, if a player starts five successive matches, he must stand down for the sixth, in an effort to avoid burn-out. Such a rule would not, I am sure, go down well in football – even if the SFA had the power to impose it. It helps that, in rugby, the SRU is the players' ultimate employer.

Another thing which rugby does differently is, everything else does not stop for internationals. This admittedly is a somewhat recent development in the round-ball game. But, it strikes me as a daft one.

Scotland are playing in Haifa tomorrow night, then at Hampden on Sunday. Why does this prevent a full SPFL programme on Saturday? Only 11 SPFL players are involved in the national squad for the two internationals: Craig Gordon, Jack Hendry, Kieran Tierney, James Forrest and Calum McGregor of Celtic, Allan McGregor of Rangers, Graham Shinnie and Scott McKenna of Aberdeen, Steven Naismith and John Souttar of Hearts and Stephen O'Donnell of Kilmarnock.

 Stephen O'Donnell - Killie's sole internaitonalist, but, no game this weekend for his club

If Glasgow Warriors can play a league match minus six fit Scotland caps, plus two non-Scottish first-choices, why cannot Celtic play a league match without five internationalists, or Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hearts or Rangers without one Scotland cap?

Not playing makes no sense. Time and again, the SFA are told by the fans: “We would prefer football at 3pm on a Saturday.”

The 12 SPFL clubs in the Premiership list on their official websites, 308 “first team” players. Celtic list 33 “first-team” players, St Johnstone list 20, these are the largest and smallest squads. As I wrote above, just 11 SPFL players are on Scotland duty this week – that is just under 4% of the listed “first-team” players.

Celtic, with five players – 15% of their squad are the worst-hit club, Aberdeen are minus two players from a 27-man squad: 7%; Hearts are also minus two players, from their 25-man squad: 8%; Kilmarnock are minus one player from their 21-man squad: 5% and Rangers are minus one man from their 25-man squad: 4%.

Calling-off an entire league programme, when so-few players are absent on national duty – is that really helping the game, providing the fans with football and meeting the SFA's stated mission, to promote the game?

Just a couple of final thoughts from rugby:

• In 2015, during the Rugby World Cup, Glasgow Warriors had no less than 21 players on international duty, with Scotland, Canada, Fiji, Tonga and the USA – they continued to play PRO12 league games during this period
• If Celtic, Scotland and the player himself, really want to get Leigh Griffiths fit – maybe Brendan Rodgers should send him along to train with Glasgow Warriors for a week. Excuse him the contact work, but, let him do the rest, and I bet he will come back the fittest player at the club – or be dead.