THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
ALLAN MASSIE
THE SRU will soon have to replace the turnstiles at Murrayfield. The present ones are made for 1920s figures. Some day a ticket- holder with a 21st century figure will get stuck. The Fire Brigade may have to be summoned. The Health & Safety folk will get in on the act. Court cases may follow, and so on. The fact is that people are taller, bigger and bulkier than they used to be. It’s the same on the field, only more so. The giants of even the fairly recent past would be no more than normal size today, perhaps even less. Just over forty years ago Mike Campbell- Lamerton seemed huge, the biggest and heaviest lock Scotland had ever had. He stood 6ft 5in and his programme weight as I recall varied between 16 stone 10lb and 17.3; pretty average these days.

Bit on the light side compared to James Hamilton. But Campbell- Lamerton’s almost immediate predecessor in the Scottish second- row had been Hamish Kemp who won 27 caps , 1954- 60, and only just touched 6ft, while never, I think, weighing as much as 14 stone. Today in Paris we field a three-quarter line of which the shortest and lightest member is Sean Lamont who, according to the programme, stands a mere 6ft 2in and weighs in at a modest 16 stone. In the Calcutta Cup match of 1985 the two heaviest members of our back division were Dougie Wyllie in the centre and Gordon Hunter at scrum- half, neither as much as 12 and a half stone.

A year or two before that, the three- quarter line was Keith Robertson, David Johnston, Jim Renwick, Roger Baird. They will not, I trust, be offended if I say that, in comparison with Lamont, Dewey, Henderson, Walker, the words “ physically unimposing” spring to mind. All the same one would have loved to see Jim Renwick find a way of outwitting today’s heavy-brigade defences. There are even today a few backs with 1980s figures playing international rugby: Chris Paterson, Christophe Dominici, Shane Williams, for instance. But they almost deserve to attract the attention of the Rare Breeds Society, and it’s amazing that they can hold their own. Even fly- halves now tend to be bigger and bulkier. The new English No 10, Toby Flood, is 6ft 2in and almost 15 stone. So are the French pair, David Skrela and Lionel Beauxis.

Dan Parks and Phil Godman don’t fit the new bill, nor does the young English reserve Shane Geraghty. Freddie Michalak is another exception, but, though he is touched with genius, one wonders whether he will regain his place in the French XV when he recovers from injury: too small, too sl ight ? Indeed it has sometime s occurred to me that the IRB may some day follow the example of the Rowing authorities. Faced with the evidence that oarsmen were becoming ever bigger and heavier, they introduced a new category of races for Lightweight crews. At my club, Selkirk, for instance, we have three fine young players, Michael

Rutherford ( John’s son), Scott Hendrie and Lee Jones, all of whom have been in age group national squads. All three are fast and skilful, but small and light. What hope have they of honours at senior level? ( Lee Jones may make it because he plays scrum- half as well as wing and has a notably fast and flat pass) But 20 years ago players of their build and ability would certainly have been candidates for international recognition.

It would be interesting to see a match between, for instance, the Lightweight XVs of , say, Scotland and Ireland. A feast of running rugby as it used to be? Perhaps. Be that as it may, the prospect of seeing our Heavy Brigade three- quarter line in action is enticing, though one feels for Marcus Di Rollo, dropped apparently because he has been unable to find gaps or ignite the back division. This seems a bit rough, since the ball had scarcely ever been moved beyond the inside centre position in our last three matches – except of course to Italians. I doubt if Di Rollo has received more than half a dozen passes, from which incidentally he has made a couple of breaks.

Still he may come on as a replacement, just as Paterson may move up to No 10 where probably a majority of Scottish supporters would like to see him play. As for France their forwards were truly dreadful at Twickenham, which is why they lost. I was puzzled by Frank Hadden’s reported suggestion that England had been a bit lucky to win, for on the day they were much the better side. They may even end up as champions if Italy beat Ireland in Rome and Scotland win in Paris.

No doubt the odds are against these results, and it would be bizarre if the title went to England after the thrashing they suffered in Dublin. But it’s been a topsy- turvy tournament with no consistently outstanding team. Indeed, given that we presented Italy with their victory at Murrayfield and let Ireland off the hook last week, we should probably be going for a fourth win ourselves today. One can’t help thinking that all six countries are much of a muchness, and results reflect this. Nothing has happened in the championship to cause the All Blacks to lose any sleep.

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This article was posted on 17-Mar-2007, 08:21 by Hugh Barrow.