SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS

Capital in 7s heaven
IAIN MORRISON
NEXT weekend, the IRB's rugby circus will roll into Edinburgh and pitch its big top at Murrayfield for what is billed as a festival of rugby. If the weather holds out, fans turn out and the host team do their stuff on the field, the tournament may yet provide a happy ending to what has been a pretty grim season for the game in Scotland.

In addition to two days of top-class seven-a-side action from the best players in the world, a host of entertainment will be laid on for spectators. With prices pegged at £10 per adult per day, or £15 for the weekend, only Scrooge McDuck could argue about value for money.

Spectators should see plenty of action, since the IRB sevens are building to an exciting climax with as many as four teams still able to win ultimately - depending upon results from the Twickenham tournament today. Fiji, coached by the incomparable Waisale Serevi, are in pole position, with Samoa, New Zealand and South Africa challenging.

Ahead of this weekend's action in London, the Scots stood in eighth place. This is a respectable showing, since the full national team have just dropped out of the IRB's top ten, and even better when the Scots' horrible start to the series is taken into account: they were pointless after three rounds.

With a new coach in Stephen Gemmell, a wholly inexperienced team struggled to make an impact. Admittedly, losing to Tunisia 33-14, as happened in South Africa, caused an impact of sorts, but not the kind that anyone in a blue shirt expected.

Thankfully, results have improved markedly in recent events, with the Scots gathering points from reaching the cup quarter-finals in each of the past three rounds: USA, Hong Kong and Australia. Notable among their scalps were Australia, and while they have not beaten the big boys representing Fiji, Samoa or New Zealand, they finished within one try of the Samoans in Wellington.

Many of the sides have imported a few outsiders to bolster their squads, as the series approaches its climax next weekend. The southern hemisphere teams have turned to Super 14 players, who were previously tied up in that competition, while the Scots have drafted in one player from each of the remaining two pro-teams - Colin Gregor of Glasgow and Ben Cairns of Edinburgh - for the final two rounds of competition.

However important a contribution these two make next weekend at Murrayfield, they are unlikely to overshadow one outstanding regular in Michael Adamson. The little Hawks fly-half is in the form of his life at the tail end of a memorable season. He won the man of the match award in the club cup final at the beginning of May, and was subsequently rewarded with a full-time Glasgow contract. He recently gained a sports science degree from Glasgow University, and he lies seventh equal in the ranking of top scorers in this IRB Sevens series with 142 points to his credit, including 14 tries.

Not bad for a bloke who is built more like a jump jockey than a rugby player, tipping the scales at just 75 kg or 11 st and standing 1.73 metres or 5ft 8in from tip to toe. Adamson may be slight, but he is hugely skilful. He ran the show in the club cup final, taking the ball unfashionably flat to the gainline, and injecting some real pace into proceedings. He kicks goals from all corners but, and it's a big but, when it comes to professional rugby, he is very, very small.

Australian midfielder/scrum-half Matt Giteau is the yardstick on small professionals, and he is still five centimetres and 10 kg bigger than Adamson. Chris Paterson would not hesitate to kick sand in his face, if the Scotland winger were the sand-kicking type, and nor would anyone else for that matter.

Up against some of the behemoths that inhabit the pro-game, the fly-half looks more like an imitation of the real thing, a scale model of a rugby player: perfectly proportioned but built to half-scale.

"I've had that size thing hanging over me for years," says Adamson with the resigned air of a man who has addressed the issue more than once. "It started when I played at school in the centre at Dollar Academy alongside Graeme Morrison, who is six foot three." A little and large combination that must have had the opposition midfield cutting cards to see who tackled whom.

"I think that sevens helps me cope with that, because you are playing against professionals from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and, in my case, it helps me develop my one-on-one defensive skills. You really don't have anywhere to hide on the sevens field: you have to front up and be physical."

While the rest of us lie on the beach this summer, Adamson has a busy spell of weights awaiting in an intensive gym session worked out by the Glasgow conditioning team. He is expected to challenge Colin Gregor for the No.10 shirt while Dan Parks is on World Cup duty, but next weekend the two Warriors will likely end up playing in tandem as half-backs.

"I am likely to start at fly-half, but either I, or Max Evans, can play scrum-half if we have to," Adamson reveals."I'd like to think that Budgie [Gregor] and I are pretty much interchangeable on the pitch. I think Budgie is Scotland's all-time top-scorer in sevens, and Ben [Cairns] also played last year. For the first time this season everyone in the team will have played international sevens, and that experience is priceless.

"Our aim for the last few tournaments has been to get to the cup quarter-finals. For the Murrayfield tournament, we are aiming a little higher after achieving our previous goals, and going for a place in the cup semi-finals."

Adamson points out that shock results arise in every tournament. Kenya beat England in Adelaide, "and we are trying to knock off one of the big teams this time round. We have the strongest squad we've put out all season."

The hopes are that the modestly strengthened Scottish team can go one step further than they have ever managed, and reach the last four of an IRB event, but it won't be easy. If the rankings work out according to plan at Murrayfield, Scotland will meet New Zealand in the cup quarter-finals.

Whatever the rugby results, everyone involved will hope for a suitable celebration to see off the season. Hong Kong hosts the biggest thrash in the rugby calendar with near-anarchy reigning, and hopefully some of that good-natured madness will infect Murrayfield next weekend. A surprise result for Scotland in an encounter on the field would go a long way towards getting the party started - provided, of course, that it does not involve Tunisia.

NOTE FROM ED -DID THEY WEIGH HIM SOAKING WET?

This article was originally posted on 27-May-2007, 07:55 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 27-May-2007, 07:57.