SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Under foreign skies some home truths become evident
JOHN BEATTIE
I BELONG to Glasgow, but home is where the heart is. Where is the home of Glasgow rugby and does it matter?

Tradition is an important factor, but more importantly home is where you make it - as long as you make it successfully.


Sitting here, in a hotel lobby in Kuala Lumpur, you get a different perspective on what it means to be Scottish and of where home is. Of how important it is to be Scottish and yet at peace with your neighbours in your adopted surroundings. I have been blown over by the ex-pats in Malaysia and their love of Scotland. It's funny how, when we have things on our doorsteps, we don't support them - the Scottish rugby team being a case in point. Wouldn't it be good, sometimes, to understand how Scottish people in far off places feel about home?

I was born in Malaysia - my father worked there for a while as a rubber planter along with Rory and Tony Underwood's father - and Jill and I were guests of the Selangor St Andrews society's dinner last night which, unknown to me or indeed them, was mentioned in a Scotsman editorial last week. I was also ignorant of the fact that Glasgow flanker John Barclay's father had been a chieftain of the Selangor St Andrews society. Jill and I enjoyed a curry lunch in the Selangor club, from where the word "sundowner" is derived as the rubber planters drank and watched the sun set over the clock tower once upon a time.

The people have smiled, a long taxi trip costs £3, a meal for four with drinks is less than a tenner, there is lots and lots of rugby on the go with framed pictures on the clubhouse wall and facilities that take your breath away.

And it's no surprise that Malaysia is trying to get British pensioners to come and live here. In the United Kingdom, most of us feel we have the friends we need so we are down right anti-social at times. Here, people make friends instantly.

The St Andrews dinner had all the tradition and pomp and ceremony you'd expect. But what was interesting was that there were more non-members of the St Andrews society than members and the English, Welsh, Irish, Malaysian, Chinese, Korean, Indian, and other guests had a whale of a time. It was, I tell you, a model of what we'd like in the world, with all the nations mixing in peace.

Over drinks, the Scots told me of sitting in bars all over Malaysia glued to the screen watching Scotland take on the All Blacks, and before that the Lions tour, and before that the Six Nations. They live every kick and their hearts burst with pride at the dark blue. When a Scottish rugby team takes the field there will be thousands of Scots all over the world staying up late, or getting up early, to watch them. One bloke I met moved here in 1962 for goodness sake.

And then the question of home arises. Where is home? Well, I think Scotland is the best small country in the world, but many of these Scots may view Scotland as their spiritual home yet view Malaysia as the place they live and their new home. Home is where you end up in a successful move, after all. Many Scots view Malaysia as their home.

So as Glasgow move to Maryhill, where is Glasgow rugby's home? Hughenden's pitch was a wet one and with a significant drop from one end to the other unless it's an optical illusion. It was a rugby ground, but not a good one.

Firhill is a good ground, and if we get down to the petty argument about "not being close to the West End" then get a grip because most top class stadia in the world have the facilities for a drink or two afterwards and some are well out of town. I hope Firhill has a good bar.

We need a brand new rugby stadium in Glasgow, built fit for purpose without an athletics track around it and full of bars and food outlets for post match entertainment. Firhill might just be workable, as long as money isn't going out of rugby into football's coffers. Time to look forward and stop mumping.

This article was originally posted on 5-Dec-2005, 07:57 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 5-Dec-2005, 23:21.