IRB Rule Shingler As Ineligible For Scotland

by Dugald Skene

The IRB Regulations Committee Panel concluded today that Steven Shingler is not eligible to play for Scotland.  Shingler, who plies his trade at London Irish, has competed for Wales at U20 level. 

As the Welsh do not have an equivalent to a Scotland A or England Saxons team, the U20 team is considered as the second senior national representative Welsh team, as it is in France, under IRB Regulation 8.  Because Shingler played for Wales U20's against the French U20's in a competitive match, the IRB have ruled that he is tied to Wales and therefore cannot compete for Scotland.

Steven Shingler has been ruled as ineligible to play for Scotland

The decision sees the IRB stick by their initial ruling where they favoured the Welsh but were forced to investigate the situation further after Scotland appealed.

In an IRB statement on the matter, they stated "The Panel noted that, in accordance with IRB Regulation 8, playing in a designated capturing match was the key determining factor with regard to the player's eligibility.

"In this respect the Panel accepted the evidence of the Welsh Rugby Union that although Shingler had not signed the Union eligibility confirmation form he had been fully advised by the WRU that playing in the France Under 20 v Wales Under 20 match during the 2011 Under 20 Six Nations would capture him for Wales."

In response to the findings, the SRU released the following statement:

"Scottish Rugby notes the decision of the IRB Regulations Committee hearing the Steven Shinger eligibility case.

"We remain fully supportive of Steven Shingler, a talented young rugby player, who has expressed his sincere and earnest wish to represent Scotland.

"We await the full written decision of the IRB Regulations Committee and may comment further on receipt."

It brings to an end the ongoing can he/can't he debate that has been circulating the game since Andy Robinson first selected Shingler in his initial Scottish 6 Nations squad back in January. Now that the matter is over, I hope Shingler can now get on with his career.

What are the chances he will score the winning points against Scotland one day? The way things are going, it would just be Scotland's luck.

Ireland vs Scotland Preview

Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Date: Saturday, 10 March
Kick-off: 1700 GMT

by Dugald Skene

By their own admission, Ireland are gutted they couldn't hold on to the 11 point advantage they gained by half time in their clash in Paris.  Not for decades had they a better opportunity at the midway point to beat the French in their own backyard.

What we can count on this weekend is the Irish backlash as they look to atone for their defensive sins which led to silly penalties and a Wesley Fofana try to let France claw themselves back to get a draw.  As inept as the French were going forward during the first half on Sunday, the Irish blitz defence was explosive.  The D'Arcy/Earls combination worked well for the majority of the game without being spectacular and Tommy Bowe capitalised on sluggish French back play to pick them off and get 2 touchdowns.

With talismanic second row and captain Paul O'Connell ruled out for the remainder of the tournament along with scrum half Conor Murray and Sean O'Brien ruled out at the last moment, Ireland will look to Rory Best who has recovered from some knocks sustained against France to lead out their team.  Regarding his fitness, he said "It was more precautionary having the scan and it's comforting to know there's nothing sinister there. I trained fully today".  It will be Best's 58th cap and will see him match Keith Woods as the most capped Irish hooker. 

Captain Paul O'Connell is out for the rest of the tournament

I don't see the withdrawal of Conor Murray being particularly problematic for the Irish.  If anything, I think Jonathan Sexton will benefit from having his club partner Eoin Reddan playing with him, a partnership that has proved so valuable for European champions Leinster the last few years.  The late withdrawal of Sean O'Brien due to a skin infection to his foot is a huge blow for the Irish.  One third of a revered back row partnership, his loss is a big plus for Scotland and the breakdown.

Scotland’s build up to Saturday’s game in Dublin has been much the same as the previous two games against Wales and France with an overriding message coming from the camp that they are on the right path and all that needs to change is the eradication of small errors around the field.
 

After the multiple injuries from a hugely physical battle with France, it is only Rory Lamont (broken leg) who doesn't make it back into the starting line up.  Sean, his brother, moves out to the wing and the open centre berth is retaken by the returning Nick de Luca, a place well earned after a fantastic substitute performance 2 weeks ago.

Despite the availability of Euan Murray, Andy Robinson has kept faith with the same forward 8 that competed so well against France, a tangible signal to players and fans alike that he is happy with the way the team are playing.

Ruaridh Jackson and Max Evans return to the fold and take their places on the bench with Duncan Weir the man giving way. 

To date, Robinson's tactics have been spot on.  As has been said so often the last few weeks, results have come down to execution, or lack of it in most cases.  As happened against France, the Scots will look to run through multiple phases in order to create defensive mismatches.  I think one target will be Andrew Trimble on the wing.  Lee Jones should look to expose the defensive frailties of the Ulsterman with his pace.  Trimble often comes infield to look for ball and if Stuart Hogg and/or Sean Lamont come across to create an overlap on that side, Scotland could get some success.

Perhaps the most anticipated battle will be at the breakdown where the Irish and Scottish back rows have been excellent to date.  Robinson has pinpointed the area as one that Scotland must win in order to gain overall supremacy in the game.  He also pointed out the Irish tactic of 'choke' tackling, keeping the man off the ground when he is tackled to form a maul.  There's no doubt that Scotland will have been working on this in the past couple of weeks.

Scotland will have to be at their very best against an Irish team that has underperformed to date.  The same could be said about the Scots and both teams will know it and would be foolish to underestimate their respective results.  Time will tell whether the added one week break the Scots have had will benefit them on the day.  The Irish on the other hand will be pleased they get the chance to put the French disappointment behind them as quickly as possible, but even 6 days is a quick turnaround in test rugby.

It will prove to be a very tight contest.  My bias and eternally rebounding optimism tells me that Scotland will win, but only by 5 points at most.  This has already been a very close tournament and Saturday's game looks like it will only continue the trend.

Ireland:

15. R Kearney, 14. T Bowe, 13. K Earls, 12. G D'Arcy, 11. A Trimble, 10. J Sexton, 9. E Reddan, 1. C Healy, 2. R Best (c), 3. M Ross, 4. D O'Callaghan, 5. D Ryan, 6. S Ferris, 7. P O'Mahony, 8. J Heaslip

Bench: 16. S Cronin, 17. T Court, 18. M McCarthy, 19. S Jennings, 20. T O'Leary, 21. R O'Gara, 22. F McFadden

Scotland:

15. S Hogg, 14. L Jones, 13. N de Luca, 12. G Morrison, 11. S Lamont, 10. G Laidlaw, 9. M Blair, 1. A Jacobsen, 2. R Ford (c), 3. G Cross, 4. R Gray, 5. J Hamilton, 6. J Barclay, 7. R Rennie, 8. D Denton

Bench: 16. S Lawson, 17. E Murray, 18. A Kellock, 19. R Vernon, 20. C Cusiter, 21. R Jackson, 22. M Evans

Magic Messi Does It Again

by Dugald Skene

Last night, Lionel Messi once again showed that he is the best player of his generation and possibly ever as he scored a record 5 goals in Barcelona's Champion's League match against Bayer Leverkusen.

There are things that are so hard to explain about Messi, he simply makes the game look effortless.  What's more, he appears so humble and takes it all in his stride, remarkable considering he is still only 24. 

Messi scored 5 in Barcelona's 7-1 win

He has now scored almost 50 goals in 64 UCL appearances and at this rate will eclipse the likes of Raul in the coming seasons.  His fifth goal last night meant he has now scored 50 for club and country this season. 50!  Is it me, or is it only the beginning of March?

So many superlatives have been thrown out there to describe the Argentinian maestro, his abilities, records and talent.  I won't try to add to them but I will recall an interview that Ronaldinho gave during the height of his powers at the Catalan club in around 2005/6.  When asked if he was the best player in the world, he simply responded with "I'm not even the best player at Barcelona".

He was of course referring to the great Lionel Messi.

Saints' Halos Knocked But Not Smashed After NFL Findings

by Dugald Skene

It’s only been a few weeks since the New York Giants won Superbowl XLVI and the off-season headlines have been flying in thick and fast.

So far we’ve had the Combine, the ongoing speculation as to where Peyton Manning is heading and the fact that Drew Brees apparently refuses to sign his contract with the New Orleans Saints claiming they are ‘miles apart’ with the terms.  Failure to reach an agreement could see arguably the best QB in the NFL become a free agent!

But perhaps the most dumbfounding headline of all has also come from the Saints. 

This week, the League announced its findings from an investigation into the New Orleans franchise that the players were financially rewarded by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for inflicting career threatening injuries on opposition players from what the NFL is calling a ‘bounty’ fund. 

The NFL discovered that somewhere between 22 and 27 defensive players were involved in the bounty system and that it amounted to up to $50,000.

To me, this is incredible.  Sure, I’m a fan of the NFL but I don’t think that is necessary to understand the abhorrence of the crime.  Any fan of any professional sport must surely appreciate that.

To translate this, it’s the equivalent of saying a top team (the Saints won the Superbowl in 2009 and can be considered among the elite in the NFL right now) in the Barclays Premier League have spent the last 3 years rewarding their players for going out to try and break opposition players legs when tackling - it’s ridiculous!

The men at the centre of the 'pay-for-pain' system who are still at the Saints are general manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Sean Payton.  In a joint press conference, they announced "…We acknowledge that the violations disclosed by the NFL during their investigation of our club happened under our watch.

"We take full responsibility this has brought undue hardship on [owner] Mr. Benson, who had nothing to do with this activity. He has been nothing but supportive and for that we both apologise to him.”

Despite this, it is reported that Tom Benson has no intention of firing either Loomis or Payton.

Saints head coach Sean Payton has apologised for his

involvement but faces no further action

For Gregg Williams, who was recently hired as St Louis Rams defensive coordinator, the future is a bit murkier.  The NFL may yet suspend and fine him after it was found that he may have instigated similar schemes whilst at the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills.

The whole issue has divided opinion among fans and commentators in the NFL.  Some believe that the physical nature of the sport is inherent and that violence and injuries are par for the course, so what’s wrong with providing an incentive to go out and do what you would be doing anyway?  Those people have come down hard on the League believing that the opening of an investigation was an overreaction.

The flipside of course is that there are those who believe ‘bountygate’ undermines the integrity of the sport, a sport that prides itself as the best professional league in the world.  Of course, American sports fans have a skewed and short-sighted view of the world and what they actually mean is their own country (where else invents their own sports and whoever wins the national championship is coined ‘World Champion’?).

Nevertheless, the NFL is an ever-expanding brand, evidence of which can be seen by the spread of regular season games to Europe.  The last thing the League needs is for its image to be tarnished.

For all the furore now, it seems that the NFL is keen to put the whole saga behind them as quickly as possible.  Aside from potential punishment to Williams, there doesn’t appear to be any signs at the moment of sanctions to be placed on either the franchise or the other individual co-conspirators. 

In a final statement from team owner Benson, he said "I have been made aware of the NFL’s findings relative to the “Bounty Rule” and how it relates to our club. I have offered and the NFL has received our full cooperation in their investigation. While the findings may be troubling, we look forward to putting this behind us and winning more championships in the future for our fans."

It may be that Benson's hopes will be realised and we will hear little more about this in the coming weeks, but there is a general consensus and growing fear from Saints fans that the NFL, who have strived so much of late to reduce the number of head injuries and concussions in the game, will come down hard on the Saints.

How?  The most obvious way would be to restrict them in the Draft, perhaps to remove their first two or even three picks.  For a team that builds around the Draft and uses it so effectively, this would be disastrous for a team like the Saints.

If the NFL is keen to get this over with quickly, we will likely hear soon of the outcome. In the meantime, there will be plenty in New Orleans crossing their fingers as they await he NFL verdict.

Scotland Announce Team To Play Ireland

by Dugald Skene

Andy Robinson has today announced his team to take on the Irish in Dublin on Saturday and there is one change to the line-up from the team that took on the French.

With all of the injuries that happened two weeks ago, all but Rory Lamont have recovered to take their place in Dublin.  Sean Lamont will take the place of his brother to play on the wing.  That means that Robinson has picked Nick de Luca to partner Graeme Morrison in the centre after a rousing substitute's performance against France.

Nick de Luca returns to starting XV

Try scorers that day Stuart Hogg and Lee Jones continue at full back and wing respectively while Mike Blair is preferred as starting scrum half to Chris Cusiter.

The pack remains the same, with Geoff Cross keeping his berth at tighthead despite the availability of Euan Murray who comes in on the bench.

Elsewhere on the bench, Ruaridh Jackson displaces Duncan Weir and Max Evans returns after sustaining his ankle injury against Wales.

Scotland:

15. S Hogg, 14. L Jones, 13. N de Luca, 12. G Morrison, 11. S Lamont, 10. G Laidlaw, 9. M Blair, 1. A Jacobsen, 2. R Ford (c), 3. G Cross, 4. R Gray, 5. J Hamilton, 6. J Barclay, 7. R Rennie, 8. D Denton

Bench: 16. S Lawson, 17. E Murray, 18. A Kellock, 19. R Vernon, 20. C Cusiter, 21. R Jackson, 22. M Evans

Celtic Winning Run Ends But Lennon's Young Squad Looking Strong

by Dugald Skene

Celtic’s 1-1 draw at Aberdeen on Saturday ended a superb run of 20 consecutive wins in all domestic competitions. But for a deflected Gavin Rae strike off the unfortunate debut starter Andre Blackman, Celtic could have stretched it to 21.  But that number isn’t wasted.  With rivals Rangers failing to get any result at home to Hearts, Celtic’s lead at the top of the table is now 21 points.

Celtic haven’t lost a game since their 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid on 30^th November and they haven’t dropped points in domestic game since a 0-0 draw with Hibs on 29^th October.  Their last domestic loss was on 2^nd October in a 2-0 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle.

With all of the off-field problems across the city at Rangers, Celtic have kept their concerns on the pitch and manager Neil Lennon has ensured that whatever is happening at Ibrox, it cannot and will not affect Celtic’s bid for the domestic treble.

Neil Lennon has matured himself and his team this season

Celtic have played the best football of any side in the league and their results mean they deserve to triumph in a league that they are increasingly looking like winning.  Whether or not you consider the 10 point deduction inflicted on Rangers, Celtic still have a healthy lead over their rivals and that cannot be ignored.  Given the 15 point deficit they had to Rangers back in September/October, it is a remarkable turnaround.

The most encouraging factor for the Celtic fans about the form and the way the team are playing, bearing in mind particularly that they have conceded only 5 goals in that 20 game winning run, is that the average age of the team has consistently been around the 23/24 year old mark.

Neil Lennon has made plain his early ambitions to bring in experienced talent to the club when he first joined, touting names like Sol Campbell and Jimmy Bullard.  Ultimately, these players were considered beyond budget and so Lennon’s hand was forced to go for younger and more inexperienced players with the likes of Beram Kayal, Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama all coming into a new look squad.

It’s a credit to Lennon, his team and his youthful cohorts that they have managed to gel so quickly and start to turn out the results they have.  Should they go on to win the league as looks most likely, it will be a huge achievement for such a young group of players and coaching staff.

Murray Victory Over Djokovic Scant Consolation For Open Loss

by Dugald Skene

Andy Murray suggested in the run up to his Dubai Masters semi-final with Novak Djokovic that victory would go some way to getting over any hangover pain following the epic semi-final loss in the Australian Open a few weeks ago.

As it turned out, Murray beat Djokovic as he so often does when he plays the other three quarters of the top 4 in the second tier of tennis tournaments.  As much consolation as Murray may have got from this, he would have wanted it to actually mean something and that would have been to follow it up by beating Roger Federer in the final.

Murray has been here so many times before and we are starting to see it more often in the grand slam tournaments through each year.  It’s all very well beating one of the big boys, but he will realistically have to do it twice in quick order if he has aspirations of winning a major tournament.

Sunday’s match with Federer was the classic example.  Having reasonably comfortably dispatched Djokovic in straight sets, it was thought that Murray would have adequate reserves to give Federer a run for his money and for many, myself included, he entered the final as favourite.

As much as he played very well however, it was Federer than came out on top winning 7-5  6-4.

Andy Murray came up second best in Dubai against Federer

Ok, it wasn’t a major final, but it was symptomatic of how Murray has been performing in those larger tournaments. Murray has now made it to 4 grand slam finals and each time has come unstuck to other members of the all-powerful quartet.

Physically, he seems stronger and fitter than he has ever been and looks to be right up there in that respect.  Technically, he is extremely gifted and has all of the shots in his locker.  That only leaves the psychological element and it’s here that we all seem to question his ability.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Murray is playing tennis in an unprecedented era.  At no other time in the game has there been three other players at a level higher than a player of his calibre for such a long period of time.  I firmly believe that in any other era, say up until 2005 or 2006, a player of his current quality would have won a major by now.  It must be incredibly frustrating to play against these guys and lose consistently on the biggest of stages.  Just as Federer’s star appears to be fading slightly and Rafael Nadal’s form isn’t quite what it was, Novak Djokovic steps up a level to start sweeping the board.  It must affect him mentally.

He will win a major, of that I am sure.  How he does that is yet to be seen, but many predict that if he does, it will be a tarnished victory because it will come down to an injury to an opponent or rival, or he didn’t have to beat one of the other 3 top players.

Although he didn’t win on Sunday, he has proved over the last few years that he can beat these guys.  If he does it again to win a major, all the better, but he would deserve that victory regardless.

Bowe & Fofana Looking To Beat Townsend Record

by Dugald Skene

After an intriguing game that saw the honours split in Paris, two men came away each with a shot at beating Gregor Townsends’ 13 year old record of scoring a try in every game of the championship.

Tommy Bowe scored his 4^th and 5^th tries of the tournament in Paris, meaning he has scored against Wales, Italy and France while Wesley Fofana’s try on Sunday means he has scored in each of his three opening caps for France against Italy, Scotland and Ireland.  No player has scored a try in all 5 of the fixtures in the history of the 6 Nations which began in 2000.  Townsend is the last player to achieve the feat and managed to do it in the final 5 Nations tournament in 1999.

Tommy Bowe touching down for his 2nd try against France

With France still set to play England (H) and Wales (A), the odds are potentially stacked a little bit more against Fofana to complete the feat while Bowe and Ireland are still to play Scotland (H) and England (A).

It would be a very special achievement indeed, especially for Fofana as it would mean he would have scored in each of his first 5 games for his country.

What’s also amazing is that these two players have so far scored 8 tries between them in a tournament where there is a relatively low average of 3.4 tries per game (31 tries in 9 games).  That means that they have scored just over a quarter of all of the tournaments tries.

So it’s another element to look out for in this weekend’s games in Dublin and Paris.  Let’s see if either one or even both can continue their run.

Abramovich's Patience Wears Out Again

by Dugald Skene

Roman Abramovich has spat the dummy and once again thrown his latest play toy out of the pram.  The departure of Andre Villas-Boas from the hottest managerial seat in football is the 6th since Jose Mourinho left in September 2007.

With all the money in the world, Abramovich cannot buy success at the moment, but I hardly think the latest dip in form it is entirely Villas-Boas' fault.

Roman Abramovich isn't one for treading water

AVB came into the job off the back of a flawless record season at Porto.  Unbeaten in the league and winners of the national cup competition and the UEFA Europa League, Porto were unequivocal masters of Portuguese football.  But that's Portuguese football.  Chelsea are placed in the far more rarified atmosphere of 'the best league in the world' (not my words) where the expectation to deliver and win has proved unbearable for some of the top managers in Europe and the world.  Just look at the list of those who have held the job since Mourinho:

• Avram Grant (9 months)
• Luiz Felipe Scolari (7 months)
• Ray Wilkins (1 game)
• Guus Hiddink (4 months)
• Carlo Ancelotti (12 months)
• Andre Villas-Boas (10 months)

Perhaps it's the lesser known on that list that actually proved the best for Chelsea.  Grant led them to the Champions League Final, the holy grail for Abramovich, which they lost by a 4 inch wide post.  Ray Wilkins stands out for being the only one with a 100% winning record!

With the timescales that these managers have had (with the exception of Wilkins and Hiddink who knew their tenure was temporary), none have been allowed the time to build a squad to compete at a level and with a style that the manager wanted.

With the arrival of AVB, we all thought that might have changed.  He was talking about longterm goals with Chelsea, a determination to see out the contract that Abramovich had compensated Porto so much for to get.  The Russian also looked to back up his new man with his seemingly bottomless pot of cash to make high profile signings like Juan Mata.  Everything seemed to be looking a little different at Stamford Bridge. But then the results didn't start to go the way of Chelsea and the stern Siberian face was back in the stands.  For a man who demands instant results, it wasn't good enough.

But again, there were signs that he might be growing up a bit, not making the impulsive sacking that many predicted.  AVB was telling journalists in the endless stream of press conferences that confidence was high, and he had the full support of his boss. 

Ultimately however, it wasn't to be and the results never did turn around.  Much was made about the relationship of the manager with his players, particularly the senior players who played during the glory days of Mourinho like Lampard, Drogba and Cole. Is the fact the AVB is only about 5 minutes older than them got something to with it? I doubt it.

There's no smoke without fire and I'm sure there were some awkward and maybe unpleasant exchanges between some or all of the players and the manager.  I suspect it was because he wanted to do things a little differently to what they were used to and it didn't suit them.

Whatever the resons, Villas-Boas didn't have the time to make it stick and his ejection from the club is just the latest unfortunate chapter at Stamford Bridge.  He is a good manager, that seems clear.  His peers have lauded him since his arrival and it seems hard to think he has made enemies at Chelsea with such an affable personality.

I believe he can walk away maybe not with his head held high, but certainly with the knowledge that he did the best he could under extreme circumstances, and of course a multi million pound payout. 

Roberto Di Matteo, AVB's assistant, takes over until the end of the season with no real expectation that he is the answer to their problems.  As Grant did after Mourinho, maybe the assistant can take the club on in Europe particularly, but even those odds are stacked against him after the first leg in Napoli.

With a likely longer term replacement coming in the summer, I find it hard to think of a top manager who would want the job.  Even with the lure of huge transfer funds and a chance to manage one of England's biggest teams, there will always be a dark Russian cloud not far away.

This Week In Numbers

by Dugald Skene

257 – the number of days that Andre Villas-Boas’ reign at Chelsea lasted.  Roman Abramovich’s patience finally ran out as he fired the latest instalment in the hottest seat in football.

119 – the number of caps Ronan O’Gara has now achieved with his substitute’s outing against France in Paris on Sunday in the RBS 6 Nations, extending his run as the most capped Irish player of all time.

969 – the number of minutes Celtic managed without conceding a goal before Gavin Rae’s wickedly deflected strike beat Fraser Forster for Aberdeen in the 1-1 draw on Saturday.

1.22.030 – the time set by Kimi Raikkonen as he came away from the final F1 practice session as the fastest driver at Jerez.  In a season with 6 World Champions competing for honours, 2012 is being predicted as the closest fought in years.

72 – the number of ranking titles Federer has won following his Dubai Masters final victory over Andy Murray.

4.33 – the fastest time at the 2012 NFL Combine for the 40 yard dash, set by Central Florida cornerback Josh Robinson