Scotland vs England

Off to Murrayfield to watch Scotland play England at rugby. The media talk is all about Scotland "the wounded lion" up against a less than totally convincing England. For me that would have rung true before the game against France but I'm not sure it does now. I think England will be too strong.

Interestingly of the 124 games played between the two countries have ended in 41 Scottish wins, 66 for England with 17 drawn. You'd think that with that margin of English wins that the average scores would be farther apart but it stands at 11 to 8 in England's favour.

UPDATEWell, England were woeful and Scotland were deserved winners, but the real losers were the paying public, unless of course you were Scottish and loved every minute of it. Without doubt it was one of the worst games of international rugby I've ever seen. Lacking in skill, ambition and entertainment. The best bit of the game was getting this rather nice shot.


As my friend Scottish David, who went to the match with me, reminded me. "Is that Edinburgh Castle?" "I do believe it is." (Miss Jean Brodie's words, not mine.)

Titanic England demolish French

YES!!!!

Frenchman Fiddling With The Facts.

Don't you just love Bernard Laporte the French rugby coach and soon to be French Minister of Sport. According to Bernie the Bolt from the blue (never trust a man who sings his national anthem with his arms folded). "This World Cup has been crazy. Who has played any rugby? The only ones are the All Blacks. They have the power and the genius, something that no-one else has. They are the best team in the world."

Well of course he would say that wouldn't he. France having beaten the New Zealanders it's his feeble attempt to try and salvage some pride. The fact is Bernie we beat you, beat you fair and square and whether or not we play better rugby is irrelevant 'cos winning is what counts.

Awfully sorry to gloat, but it's normally England who have to find such excuses.

Victory For The Spidermen

I went to Murayfield on Saturday to watch Scotland give Ireland a whipping at rugby - not that I was anticipating such a thing, and I doubt many of the 25,000 were either. Scotland played some good rugby, quick hands and were positive. It wasn't all good though, for long periods of the game Scotland kind of drifted. Apart from the rugby the chat with Mrs. H's sister's intended was mostly about the ineptitude of the SRU - the people that run the Scottish game.

They are mostly ex-accountants or amateurs trying to operate in a highly professional world and much of the time they fail dismally. First of all you can't just walk up and buy a ticket, you have to have done so online previously. Now I can see that on a big match day this is a problem but why not on friendlies? There's always a problem in Murayfield of creating an atmosphere given the shape of the stadium and the SRU do a pretty poor job of enhancing it. They have two records, Runrig's live version of Loch Lomond and the Proclaimer's 500 miles, which they play incessantly. It sounds pony and does nothing to create any buzz, in part because the sound system sounds even ponier! Someone needs to go study American football methods.

Finally there's the new Scottish strip. It has been changed from the blue to a blue and grey - they look not unlike a Spider Man outfit gone wrong!