The Glaswegian reports

Glasgow Club Bosses Lambast Rugby Conmen After Six Nations Agony
Feb 18 2010 By Matthew Leslie
IT'S time to get tough with the cheats is Scotland legend John Beattie's verdict after the latest round of Six Nations action.

Beattie, who won 25 caps between 1980-87, was speaking after watching Scotland being cruelly denied a famous victory in Cardiff as Wales stole a 31-24 win in controversial circumstances.

Scotland, affected by injuries to Glasgow's Thom Evans, Dan Parks, ex-Warrior Rory Lamont and Edinburgh’s Chris Paterson, were clinging on before referee George Clancy was conned by a blatant dive from Wales’ Lee Byrne which allowed the home side to square the match and set up one last attack which they took advantage of thanks to a missed forward pass.

Byrne, realising his chip to the tryline was to be gathered by Mike Blair, fell as if he’d been shot when running past Phil Godman – an act which sealed Scotland’s fate.

Beattie said: "The past year has seen an awful lot of skull-duggery in rugby and it is time the International Rugby Board acted.

"We've had the furore with gouging, the bloodgate farce at Harlequins and now playacting
is becoming a factor in deciding games.

"Lee Byrne's acting was one example but the other two games over the weekend saw this as well.

"The Irish front row were at it during their match with France while England's Ugo Monye took a dive against Italy while his captain Steve Borthwick was making card gestures to the ref in order to get a fellow professional sin-binned.

"It is a shame this has crept into the sport and the IRB have to bring in retrospective punishments for those who indulge in it otherwise the game will become more like football.

"Despite Lee Byrne's actions, we still should have won the game but the positives we can take out of the game was Dan Parks proving the doubters wrong and the way in which we controlled the game for the first 70 minutes at least."

Meanwhile, another ex-Scotland star – and Glasgow Hawks boss – Peter Wright blasted referee Clancy for failing to control the scrum.

Time and again did the Irish whistler blow up for a poorly set scrum which given Wales' strength was in the loose – and Scotland’s being the set-play – benefited the men in red.

And Wright as a former front-rower says it is time for the IRB to give refs more clarity on what constitutes a good scrum.

He said: "It was poor for both sides and the ref made a number of errors.

"Refs have been told to manage the scrum but are not 100 per cent sure of what goes on which results in the tit-for-tat decisions you saw.

"The referee was poor throughout and the missed forward pass for the final try was poor. But then again, it was George Clancy who missed a similar pass to allow France a try against us last year."

This article was originally posted on 23-Feb-2010, 18:54 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 23-Feb-2010, 18:55.