Scotland’s meagre playing pool in rugby under 12,000 male senior players – means we have to be more creative than most with our talent.
These are actually improved figures, down to the SRU’s recruitment drive or cooking the numbers, depending on whom you believe. Still, according to the latest IRB figures England has a staggering 39 registered rugby players (both sexes, all ages) for every one Scotland has – two full teams with nine subs to share.
England has more rugby players than anyone, ten times as many as even New Zealand. But we lie 15th on the table of total registered players, just ahead of Fiji. Ireland have three and a half times as many players as us, Italy just under twice our total.
It’s these figures that you have to consider before any outright condemnation of Scotland’s player recruitment policy, which now openly encourages foreigners to qualify via the IRB’s three-year residency rule.
Currently props Mike Cusack and WP Nel and back rowers Josh Strauss and Cornel Du Preez, all of them less Scottish than even Tony Blair and David Cameron, are undergoing this process.
Cusack and Nel are both decent tight-head props, a precious commodity in the modern game, and a dearth of talent in certain positions has led to Scotland’s other solution other than recruitment, diversification.
The most famous example of this is Ross Ford, a former back rower converted in his late teens to hooker. Ford went on to be a British Lion, which for some would be a measurement of the success of the move.
However Ford’s problems this season, specifically in the key arts for the position of hooking at the scrum and throwing at the lineout, show the limitations. Undaunted, Scotland are attempting another conversion of this sort at present with Stuart McInally, good enough to be captain of Scotland Under-20s in the back row, trying his hand at hooker.
Switching front rowers from side to side has been common. Moray Low and Jon Welsh, both tight-head candidates for Scotland, were previously loose heads. Edinburgh’s Alasdair Dickinson is another example, although he has settled solely at his preferred loose head slot in recent years.
McInally has some serious bulking up to do in the upper body if he’s to be a hooker, and it’s a longer process than most. After a few club games he was farmed out to Andy Robinson’s Bristol in the Greene King IPA Championship for further seasoning.
The odd thing is that he was an almost perfect example of the big, athletic and speedy back-rower, able to play all three slots, that Scott Johnson clearly wants. But they’ve decided to make him a hooker.
Perhaps the most remarkable change of late features Richie Vernon, again a prime example of the big, quick and athletic back row forward able to play 6, 7 or 8, and with 20 caps for Scotland already, agreeing to convert to be a back.
For a long time Scotland had a surfeit of back rowers and few centres, odd given that the positions share a number of attributes. Vernon’s pace he’s one of the quickest over the ground at the Glasgow Warriors makes it theoretically viable, although wing is maybe more realistic than centre.
Richie starred in the centre against Cardiff in a recent PR012 game, his combination of speed, strength and handling suggesting he might have a future there.
But it’s a long haul and something of a career risk for a player who is 27. And it makes one consider the wisdom of making players change from one position to another quite as readily as we do in Scotland, whatever our desperate needs.
*In scoring Scotland’s first try of the 2014 6 Nations in Rome, Alex Dunbar became the fastest player in Scottish international rugby history.
Well, we should add that old standby, “since records began”. And since records began just three years ago, it’s a small sample size.
Dunbar clocked 33.8 kph (21 mph) while racing away to score in the corner. We know this due to the GPS unit players wear under their shirts (you’ll see a small lump between the shoulder blades on some shirt designs) which measures players’ health and performance.
The first thought was that Glasgow Warriors’ sprint and conditioning coach Huw Jones, who has added at least a yard of speed to Duncan Weir as well, is doing a fine job.
The second thought was, how quick did Dunbar move on a firm surface away from the quagmires that are Murrayfield and Scotstoun this season?
The third thought was Stuart Hogg surely went quicker when he was returning his interception try against Italy in last year’s 6 Nations. That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen a Scottish player move.
Fastest I’ve ever seen on a rugby pitch was, you’ll not be surprised, Jason Robinson. In 2002 when scoring two tries at Murrayfield you saw clearly where he got the “Billy Whizz” nickname; everything below his waist was a blur.
As for Scotland’s quickest? Clearly not “Eck” despite what the GPS says. Sean Maitland reportedly wins the spring contests at training with Hogg and Tim Visser next quickest.
But we have to go further back, surely. The legendary Eric Liddell was an Olympic gold medallist at 400 metres, that after he won his seven caps for Scotland.
But the man who replaced him on the wing in 1924, Ian Smith, was the one known as “The Flying Scotsman”. His record of 24 international tries for Scotland still stands, 90 years on.
Few people are left who saw Liddell and Smith at their prime. No matter, let’s give them this one.
*After three rounds of the 6 Nations, and checking back on my pre-championship column, I’ve come over all smug.
No Grand Slam? Check. England come unstuck in Paris? Check. France, despite that win, not really that much better than last year? Check.
Ireland just don’t have enough to beat England at Twickenham? Check, but it was close. Scotland win in Rome? Check, but that was much too close for comfort.
What was I wrong about? Well, I thought Wales would be better than they are, but they look largely exhausted by a three-year schedule that would diminish the best resourced teams.
I thought Italy were ageing, and they’ve got two 20-year-olds in the midfield. I suspected Ireland were ageing and would be injury-prone, but they’re still well in the championship without major damage.
Of the four teams with two wins, England to me seem favourites. I have the betting slip giving odds of 5-1 on them winning the championship purloined AFTER they lost in Paris, and it should deliver, starting by beating Wales next week.
Ireland look handy for a share of the title, but Scotland? More detail next week, but Picamoles, Nyanga, Fofana and Dusatoir all out? Scotland will never have a better chance to beat France than next week at Murrayfield, surely.
And if they do, what do we think of the post-Calcutta Cup hysteria then?