Warren Gatland was 100% right to not pick George North for the Six Nations match in Edinburgh on Sunday.
Strictly speaking, by the laws of rugby, Gatland would have been within his rights to select him.
But he was totally correct to err on the side of caution.
North took two head knocks last weekend and even if there’s a bit of dubiety about whether it was full-blown concussion, there’s no dubiety that he was very groggy at the very best.
There’s so much that isn’t known about head injuries in sport, and ‘if in doubt, leave him out’ would be a pretty good motto.
Players will always be the last to say “don’t play me” whatever the sport and whatever the injury.
It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that North is said to be unhappy he won’t be running out at Murrayfield.
If he feels fine, he won’t see any reason why he shouldn’t play.
I remember an incident with a football goalkeeper last season being allowed to play on when it was clear to everyone that he shouldn’t have been on the pitch.
The manager made the decision after he was assessed by the club’s own medical people.
Players certainly shouldn’t make the call but neither should a manager, or perhaps even a team doctor. They all have a vested interest and, even subconsciously, could be influenced by sporting interests.
It should probably come down to independent medical opinion, so there’s no doubt that the choice has been made for the health of the injured athlete, and no other reason.
* Plenty of Olympians are happy with their lot after they’ve won a medal. Especially if it’s a gold.
But I could tell after getting to know Lizzy Yarnold that she wasn’t going to be one of them.
She’s the European skeleton champion this season and is going for the World title this weekend.
And she doesn’t want to stop there. Lizzy’s said she wants to be remembered as the best female slider ever. That would mean another Olympic gold in two years’ time.
With her dedication and talent, I bet she does it as well.
* Talking of the Olympics, this time last year we were out in Sochi.
Time flies!
It’s a bit of a milestone as we keep moving along the road to the next Games.
Mind you, none of us are thinking that far ahead just now. We’ve got the Scottish Championships starting in Perth on Sunday. Win those and we’ll be competing in the Worlds again.
There are six teams and I would expect that the rinks skipped by Hannah Fleming and Lauren Gray will probably be our main rivals.
We’ll be expecting them to be at the top of their form, so there’s no complacency.
Touch wood, we’ve been professional in the way we’ve won domestic titles in recent years and we’ll be looking to make our experience pay off again.