Rugby is turning into a cheat-fest and creeping inexorably toward football-style behaviour. And the professional coaches and players who are at the heart of this should be ashamed. The rulers of the game should be even more ashamed.
The mistake rugby makes is in not briefing referees on the deliberate cheating some teams get away with week in and week out. A prop feigns an injury? Get him off the pitch.
I hate it. People lying there, on the wrong side of the ball, conning the referee with arms held straight as if to say: "Look ref, I am not in the way." Oh yes you are. And you are not rolling away. You are deliberately slowing the ball down, you have practiced this, and you are cheating. Fairly recently, my friend, we could have kicked you.
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I wish I were perfect, because I could criticise everyone knowing that I could never do anything wrong.
I don't know Craig Chalmers that well, but I think he deserves a chance. A punishment of some sort, or a warning, but to strip him of his current roles in rugby might just be a step too far.
Chalmers tried so hard to get in to see my band after the last weekend that he got very bad tempered after having too much to drink and . Earlier, he and one of his players .
If the object of our penal system is to reintegrate people, then the object of enquiries in rugby should be to warn them as to future conduct but always with the same aim.
The trouble with Chalmers is that he is something of an easy target. He is famously passionate and loud on the touchline and is the ultimate competitive animal. He was the same as a player.
Unfortunately for him that can be construed as arrogance and if you make a bit of noise, appear confident, and fall out with people then you are pretty sure to make enemies.
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Scottish rugby can't compete at a European level, but has English rugby fallen behind?
It's a hot day in Glasgow. By that I mean the needle must be touching, oh, 15 degrees and that entices the entire population into wearing shorts and skirts and getting sunburnt. My skirt is a bit tight.
I'm tired after a long day at Melrose on Saturday and . Hamilton won the Ladies' Cup. There were lots of people from Lanarkshire confused as to why they hadn't been invited, but this particular Hamilton is a rugby club from Cape Town and so named because a Scotsman founded the club.
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What's better, rugby or football? What do you think?
Our daughter, Jennifer, plays for Arsenal Ladies and I see her games when she is in her Scotland strip and I am growing to love football. Our son, Johnnie, plays rugby, as did I.
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Ok, it's after midday and so it's 'hands up' time:
But, , it did seem to me that his season has been extraordinary, and he has gone from being the outsider, in terms of Scotland, to the key player.
He is our country's most valuable players now.
Dan doesn't use a laser-guided kicking tee, he just lines the ball up the way he has done since growing up as a little boy in Sydney and kicks it over the posts.
There was a time when he used a pile of sand, but now it's a kicking tee he bought in Leeds some 10 years ago.
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I was born in Borneo, spent my formative years swinging from the trees, and you might know me as an international rugby player, but now I'm off to London to give you my opinion on all things Olympic as part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland Sport Nation Olympic team.
