NPR

Chrysoprase wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:05 pm Sympathy nibble - that's fucking rancid by the way

PlanetGlyndwr wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:03 pm despite being the reigning five nations champions they have had a horrid twenty years in the six nations why is this?

Biffer wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:29 pm Is this a Welshman trying to cause a distraction in advance of them sucking ass for the next ten years?

Tichtheid wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:14 am Accurate numbers are difficult to come by but I read that our player base is much smaller than Italy's and we are around the same as Sri Lanka in terms of numbers.

There was a perfect storm in Scotland when professionalism was mooted, I remember an article in the Scotsman newspaper about Scotland captain David Sole retiring after hearing that he'd been described by some of the blazers as "a cancer at the heart of the game" when he and Finlay Calder were lobbying on the players' behalf.
Geech recalls a moment when it all got too much for him at the SRU, he overheard one of those blazers saying, "I'm The Milkman, I milk the SRU for all it's worth". This was a "joke" about getting his grubby hands on tickets and free hospitality for his corporate clients, ie making money off the players they thought weren't worthy of being payed.

There is still a big underlying resentment towards professionalism, you only have to read the comments under the articles in The Offside Line to see it's still there.

In the 80s there was the problem whereby teachers were coaching several afternoons per week after school and giving up their Saturday morning to be with the school team - some schools ran more than one team per year, ours did in first year.
When the teachers refused to give up their time for free rugby was "outsourced" to clubs, some were more successful than others. I didn't go to a fee paying school, but imo those institutions did more than almost anyone in keeping rugby alive during that time, the sport could easily have died out in Scotland without them. I'm not sure we've ever quite recovered from that.

A BBC insider in Glasgow once said that rugby was faced with a huge inverted snobbery by the sports broadcasters in Scotland, they hated the "public schoolboys game", so it got minimal coverage.

The initial attempts at setting up pro teams was a mess, no one in the supposed heartlands of the Borders were turning up to watch, there was never a consensus of where the team should play, eventually two of the teams were folded and assimilated into the sides from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SRU put a lot of money into building a new national stadium, the debt crippled any attempt to fund the pro teams. Edinburgh were sold, sort of, but that didn't go well and the team was brought back under central control.

We've only just really started proper academies in the last few years, where players are given a pathway to the professional game. There is now a level below the pro teams called the Super 6, the idea being that some players who develop late and missed the academy system will till get a chance to be seen because the previous Premiership level was not fit for purpose in getting players ready for the step up. I'm told the conditioning of these guys is far superior to that seen in the Premiership.

So, we are making forward steps, but so is everyone else and when you start with a twenty five year handicap you are always going to be playing catch up.

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

Caley_Red wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:46 am

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

The best way to deal with wanky questions is to simply answer them. I'm sure he was secretly hoping for a pile-on but the longest suffering posters on the board resisted that temptation, perhaps reflecting our (dreadful) settled status in the pro era.

Yr Alban wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:50 am

Caley_Red wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:46 am

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

The best way to deal with wanky questions is to simply answer them. I'm sure he was secretly hoping for a pile-on but the longest suffering posters on the board resisted that temptation, perhaps reflecting our (dreadful) settled status in the pro era.

Quite. There are plenty reasons and they have been given.

Finding it more than a little ironic that this comes from a Welsh poster, given that Wales had their own long period in the doldrums not all that long ago.

Tichtheid wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:14 am Accurate numbers are difficult to come by but I read that our player base is much smaller than Italy's and we are around the same as Sri Lanka in terms of numbers.

There was a perfect storm in Scotland when professionalism was mooted, I remember an article in the Scotsman newspaper about Scotland captain David Sole retiring after hearing that he'd been described by some of the blazers as "a cancer at the heart of the game" when he and Finlay Calder were lobbying on the players' behalf.
Geech recalls a moment when it all got too much for him at the SRU, he overheard one of those blazers saying, "I'm The Milkman, I milk the SRU for all it's worth". This was a "joke" about getting his grubby hands on tickets and free hospitality for his corporate clients, ie making money off the players they thought weren't worthy of being payed.

There is still a big underlying resentment towards professionalism, you only have to read the comments under the articles in The Offside Line to see it's still there.

In the 80s there was the problem whereby teachers were coaching several afternoons per week after school and giving up their Saturday morning to be with the school team - some schools ran more than one team per year, ours did in first year.
When the teachers refused to give up their time for free rugby was "outsourced" to clubs, some were more successful than others. I didn't go to a fee paying school, but imo those institutions did more than almost anyone in keeping rugby alive during that time, the sport could easily have died out in Scotland without them. I'm not sure we've ever quite recovered from that.

A BBC insider in Glasgow once said that rugby was faced with a huge inverted snobbery by the sports broadcasters in Scotland, they hated the "public schoolboys game", so it got minimal coverage.

The initial attempts at setting up pro teams was a mess, no one in the supposed heartlands of the Borders were turning up to watch, there was never a consensus of where the team should play, eventually two of the teams were folded and assimilated into the sides from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SRU put a lot of money into building a new national stadium, the debt crippled any attempt to fund the pro teams. Edinburgh were sold, sort of, but that didn't go well and the team was brought back under central control.

We've only just really started proper academies in the last few years, where players are given a pathway to the professional game. There is now a level below the pro teams called the Super 6, the idea being that some players who develop late and missed the academy system will till get a chance to be seen because the previous Premiership level was not fit for purpose in getting players ready for the step up. I'm told the conditioning of these guys is far superior to that seen in the Premiership.

So, we are making forward steps, but so is everyone else and when you start with a twenty five year handicap you are always going to be playing catch up.

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:27 am

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

Is it a defanged P.T.?

Or uh Da iawn diolch (who might also be PT)?

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 1:57 pm

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:27 am

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

Is it a defanged P.T.?

Or uh Da iawn diolch (who might also be PT)?

Think that's the one. What's PT?

PCPhil wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:01 pm Really good write up Titcheid. Not so long that everyone gives up but contains some good stuff.

I suppose the only nation with working class roots in the game is W..Wa....Wales (there I said it).
England has enough posh kids historically to be competitive. Don't know why Ireland have grown strong in recent years but I suppose with football team scraping along then the only slightly global game they can attach glamour to is Rugby.
Poor old Scotland with no historical roots in the game, detroying the borders heartland and with blazers holding their noses aginst the oiks were doomed.

Begbie wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:22 am

Tichtheid wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:14 am Accurate numbers are difficult to come by but I read that our player base is much smaller than Italy's and we are around the same as Sri Lanka in terms of numbers.

There was a perfect storm in Scotland when professionalism was mooted, I remember an article in the Scotsman newspaper about Scotland captain David Sole retiring after hearing that he'd been described by some of the blazers as "a cancer at the heart of the game" when he and Finlay Calder were lobbying on the players' behalf.
Geech recalls a moment when it all got too much for him at the SRU, he overheard one of those blazers saying, "I'm The Milkman, I milk the SRU for all it's worth". This was a "joke" about getting his grubby hands on tickets and free hospitality for his corporate clients, ie making money off the players they thought weren't worthy of being payed.

There is still a big underlying resentment towards professionalism, you only have to read the comments under the articles in The Offside Line to see it's still there.

In the 80s there was the problem whereby teachers were coaching several afternoons per week after school and giving up their Saturday morning to be with the school team - some schools ran more than one team per year, ours did in first year.
When the teachers refused to give up their time for free rugby was "outsourced" to clubs, some were more successful than others. I didn't go to a fee paying school, but imo those institutions did more than almost anyone in keeping rugby alive during that time, the sport could easily have died out in Scotland without them. I'm not sure we've ever quite recovered from that.

A BBC insider in Glasgow once said that rugby was faced with a huge inverted snobbery by the sports broadcasters in Scotland, they hated the "public schoolboys game", so it got minimal coverage.

The initial attempts at setting up pro teams was a mess, no one in the supposed heartlands of the Borders were turning up to watch, there was never a consensus of where the team should play, eventually two of the teams were folded and assimilated into the sides from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SRU put a lot of money into building a new national stadium, the debt crippled any attempt to fund the pro teams. Edinburgh were sold, sort of, but that didn't go well and the team was brought back under central control.

We've only just really started proper academies in the last few years, where players are given a pathway to the professional game. There is now a level below the pro teams called the Super 6, the idea being that some players who develop late and missed the academy system will till get a chance to be seen because the previous Premiership level was not fit for purpose in getting players ready for the step up. I'm told the conditioning of these guys is far superior to that seen in the Premiership.

So, we are making forward steps, but so is everyone else and when you start with a twenty five year handicap you are always going to be playing catch up.

Good answer. It's worth looking up the stories from when Budge Poutney quit as well. Pro players being given soup and a roll after training FFS
We went in to professionalism with a blind fold on and fingers in our ears and stayed like that for far too long.

Tichtheid wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:14 am Accurate numbers are difficult to come by but I read that our player base is much smaller than Italy's and we are around the same as Sri Lanka in terms of numbers.

There was a perfect storm in Scotland when professionalism was mooted, I remember an article in the Scotsman newspaper about Scotland captain David Sole retiring after hearing that he'd been described by some of the blazers as "a cancer at the heart of the game" when he and Finlay Calder were lobbying on the players' behalf.
Geech recalls a moment when it all got too much for him at the SRU, he overheard one of those blazers saying, "I'm The Milkman, I milk the SRU for all it's worth". This was a "joke" about getting his grubby hands on tickets and free hospitality for his corporate clients, ie making money off the players they thought weren't worthy of being payed.

There is still a big underlying resentment towards professionalism, you only have to read the comments under the articles in The Offside Line to see it's still there.

In the 80s there was the problem whereby teachers were coaching several afternoons per week after school and giving up their Saturday morning to be with the school team - some schools ran more than one team per year, ours did in first year.
When the teachers refused to give up their time for free rugby was "outsourced" to clubs, some were more successful than others. I didn't go to a fee paying school, but imo those institutions did more than almost anyone in keeping rugby alive during that time, the sport could easily have died out in Scotland without them. I'm not sure we've ever quite recovered from that.

A BBC insider in Glasgow once said that rugby was faced with a huge inverted snobbery by the sports broadcasters in Scotland, they hated the "public schoolboys game", so it got minimal coverage.

The initial attempts at setting up pro teams was a mess, no one in the supposed heartlands of the Borders were turning up to watch, there was never a consensus of where the team should play, eventually two of the teams were folded and assimilated into the sides from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SRU put a lot of money into building a new national stadium, the debt crippled any attempt to fund the pro teams. Edinburgh were sold, sort of, but that didn't go well and the team was brought back under central control.

We've only just really started proper academies in the last few years, where players are given a pathway to the professional game. There is now a level below the pro teams called the Super 6, the idea being that some players who develop late and missed the academy system will till get a chance to be seen because the previous Premiership level was not fit for purpose in getting players ready for the step up. I'm told the conditioning of these guys is far superior to that seen in the Premiership.

So, we are making forward steps, but so is everyone else and when you start with a twenty five year handicap you are always going to be playing catch up.

C69 wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:11 pm Well this is nice.

Scotland beat Wales last time out and will probably do so again this season.

PlanetGlyndwr wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:22 pm

C69 wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:11 pm Well this is nice.

Scotland beat Wales last time out and will probably do so again this season.

The 90s are back! get used to it boybach

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:38 pm In fairness, he was brought in to sort out the financials and he has done that

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

Openside wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 3:23 pm

Slick wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:22 am The OP does this every year around this time. Can't remember his name from PR but he is actually very knowledgable on rugby when he manages to stop being a dick for a few minutes.

Isn't it Toga ?