With the merciful release of no-side at Port Elizabeth on Saturday, we finally realised that 2013-14 was not in fact an endless season and there was to be some rest from rugby this summer.
It’s been a fraught year. In 2013-14, Scottish Rugby may have actually got itself in on a solid finanical footing for the first time in 20 years, yet at the same time it was almost hauled into ridicule and disrepute at various points.
Here’s a fleeting canter through the worse and best of the season just past, both parochial and less so
SCOTLAND
This wasn’t the season we lost to Tonga at home. It wasn’t the year Scotland were 43-3 down to Wales with barely 45 minutes played. It wasn’t the year Scotland were horsed 68-10 by South Africa. There was no Six Nations whitewash to suffer.
Yet cumulatively, this might be the worst international season in Scottish modern rugby history. They won one game at home, against mighty Japan, and were “nilled” twice in a season at Murrayfield. 50-point routs were endured in Cardiff and Port Elizabeth.
On reflection, it seems the entire season the Scots stood still and advanced not even half a step. For all the flurry of new caps dished out by first Scott Johnson and then Vern Cotter in the search for “strength in depth”, the popular first choice team remains roughly the same as it was at the start of the season.
The gap of a year waiting for Cotter really the 18 months since Andy Robinson was fired has been a complete waste. Actually, you have to hope it was, as Cotter must surely have carte blanche to change everything, from his assistants, to the playing personnel, to the style. You figure he might as well.
Far from preparing for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, we’re already aiming at 2019. Of course, if the current cycle repeats itself we’ll have had two new coaches by then.
2014-15 Target: Consistent competitiveness, against all opposition.
PRO TEAMS
The sole bright light for Scottish rugby this year was the Glasgow Warriors and their run to the PRO12 final. However looking at their season objectively, they made just one further step than last year, and played a lot less attractively doing it.
Still, Glasgow have the squad now that can keep them in the top four of the league for some time. They may have even unearthed an all-round 10 Scotland can use in Finn Russell, and a future Scotland captain in Jonny Gray.
Peace with star back Stuart Hogg needs to be made, and one more big-name signing maybe a scrum-half, although they had a world class one there who wanted to stay in Chris Cusiter – would help.
But the foundation is there for the one thing that has eluded them, a decent run to the final stages of in European competition.
Edinburgh, meanwhile, laboured through a season of recrimination about squad policy. At times the team looked at least serviceable, at others they looked directionless. Head coach Alan Solomons’ late arrival just a few weeks before the PRO12 season began undermined the whole campaign.
The perception that Solomons doesn’t rate native talent and trusts “journeymen” Southern Hemisphere players is too simplistic but appears to have become the pervading opinion.
With the benefit of full preparation, he needs to change that perception quickly while fielding a competitive team the dwindling Edinburgh fanbase feel they can get behind. Not easy with a squad with a turnover of more than 20 players this close season.
2014-15 Target: Glasgow, European quarter-finals, minmum. Edinburgh, European qualification, minimum.
CLUB RUGBY
Finn Russell, Gordon Reid and Adam Ashe’s advance to the Scotland national team just weeks or months after playing club rugby suggests the game’s foundation is more relevant than ever.
Yet at the same time scheduling issues have scuppered British and Irish Cup involvement, and there seems no clear direction toward the semi-pro league the club game needs to raise standards.
Hopefully that should be clearer by the time the SGU working party have reached their conclusion, but this being Scottish rugby, there will be someone probably a loud someone who won’t be happy.
2014-15 Target: A semi-pro structure plan that lasts more than one season and is representative.
Okay, some baubles to hand out
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
I still love the website that at the end of the Six Nations compiled their Team of the Championship, gave a serious discussion of all the candidates, and then gave all 15 positions to Brian O’Driscoll.
I also like the description by an Irish colleague who said that O’Driscoll started his career as an exceptional attacking talent who could defend, and ended it as an exceptional defender who could attack.
Rugby changed immeasurably in the 14 years he played. The fact you barely noticed O’Driscoll adjust to stay at the top level is the best tribute to his greatness.
TRY OF THE YEAR
Aviva Stadium, Dublin, November 23, 2013. It took 1 minute, 39 seconds, 1.22 of which were played after 80 minutes were up. There were only 10 phases and 24 passes, just one of which – a rather wild heave by Aaron Smith that bounced favourably for Ma’a Nonu could be described as risky or uncontrolled.
There was just one moment of apparent panic, by the great Richie McCaw of all people, when he rushed to tap the penalty that started it all form the wrong spot.
You’ve probably forgotten the scorer it was Ryan Crotty because his identity was incidental. This was the ultimate team try, scored to preserve an unbeaten year in the final seconds of the final game.
And it proved you can even stick a fork in these All Blacks and they still may not be dead.
TEAM OF THE SEASON
New Zealand went on to win another three games and by the autumn will surely have eclipsed the record for successive test wins. But that encompasses last and next season.
Instead, let’s do Europe’s team of the year. Yes, they were bankrolled by a millionaire and their playing staff was assembled at lavish expense. But the millionaire is a local who understands that the rugby club are a symbol of the town, and has revitalised them to such an extent that they no longer need his largesse; they have become self-sustaining.
The players are well-rewarded, of course, but they understand the club ethos here is real and have bought into it wholeheartedly. Their two games with Glasgow this season showed they can play either way; open and attractive and devastating in the French Riviera; tight, constricting and controlling in the wind and rain and mud at Scotstoun.
In the biggest club game of the year, they played all the rugby against Saracens – often compared to them but really quite artificial in comparison – who clearly thought they could simply batter them into submission with physique. Rugby won that day under the roof in Cardiff.
A week later, although probably exhausted, they managed to play the other style to overcome Castres to win their national title. The Heineken Cup and the French Top 14 are the toughest events in Europe, AND RC Toulon won them both. Team of the year in anyone’s estimation.
GAME OF THE SEASON
Well, the one out of the 40 or so I was at, at least. The Glasgow-Munster PRO12 semi-final, in front of a sellout, raucous crowd at Scotstoun, was easily the most exciting game I watched in 2013-14.
It was more intense and physical than any test match I watched live this season, and it showed what the PRO12 could become if everyone not just Glasgow fans bought into the competition.