Some of us went again in time on the weekend. There was no Physician Who-style Tardis concerned, simply an easyJet flight (beware their petty hand baggage laws) to Scotland for a reunion of previous pupil associates. It was good enjoyable and, sure hairlines apart, reassuring to learn how little folks had modified within the 40-odd years since we first encountered one another within the fashionable salons – OK, the saloon bars and Spud-U-Like retailers – of Edinburgh within the Nineteen Eighties.
And since it was a beautiful afternoon on Saturday and we fancied reminding ourselves of our former athletic selves, a number of of us determined to wander up the street and soak up a recreation of membership rugby. Heriot’s v Watsonians enjoying in – checks notes – the FOSROC Tremendous Sequence Dash. Sitting behind the posts at Goldenacre, with the solar shining and Edinburgh’s historic skyline shimmering within the distance, the evocative previous venue actually did appear appropriately named. All of us loved the day immensely.
Because it occurred, the Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend was additionally there, watching his 22-year-old son Christian enjoying at full-back for Heriot’s. And after we piled into the clubroom for a mutton pie – £2, don’t study the filling too intently – it was unimaginable to overlook the massive variety of framed pictures of ex-Scotland internationalists hanging on the wall. You recognize you’re getting older when faces of a vaguely related classic are actually dripping in sepia.
By sheer coincidence, certainly one of our quantity discovered himself staring up at an image of his personal grandfather. Again within the day Dan Drysdale was one of many foremost full-backs of his period, a stand-out participant each for Scotland and the British & Irish Lions. The late Clem Thomas, in his Historical past of the British Lions, described Drysdale as having “performed marvellously all through as a working full-back” in the course of the 1924 tour to South Africa. The next 12 months, in 1925, he was a equally key member of the primary Scotland facet in historical past to safe a grand slam.
Virtually precisely a century later, it felt a well timed second to pay our respects to the fabled legend. Simply because it did, slightly additional alongside the row of images, to the touch the (vanished) forelock in tribute to a different sensible native full-back. Even in faraway rural England, a few of us noticed Andy Irvine as a supreme sporting hero, his fixed can-do enthusiasm for counter-attacking among the many world recreation’s most wonderful sights. It reached the purpose the place my adolescent thoughts began to marvel if “Heriot’s FP” stood for “Fabulous Gamers” slightly than “Former Pupils”.
Remarkably, one other celebrated attacking Take a look at full-back, Ken Scotland, was educated on the identical institution, making the lineage much more spectacular. Individuals used to speak about whistling down the mines of northern England for quick bowlers or monitoring the manufacturing line at Max Boyce’s Welsh fly-half manufacturing facility. If there’s a Scottish equal for full-backs, it may be discovered a well-struck punt away from Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Backyard.
Which begged a barely broader query. If the Heriot’s No 15 jersey charges among the many most legendary of British and Irish membership jerseys, which different clothes benefit potential inclusion within the final kitbag? The blue and black No 9 of Cardiff ought to definitely be within the body, with Gareth Edwards and Terry Holmes simply two of the distinguished alumni to have worn it. How in regards to the purple Munster No 10 jersey, worn so memorably by, amongst others, Tony Ward and Ronan O’Gara? Or the blue Leinster No 13 shirt, endlessly synonymous with Brian O’Driscoll?
There are lots extra contenders, clearly, simply as there are infinite previous stadiums inhabited by the ghosts of rugby’s previous. If you’re passing Redruth, for instance, go and pay homage to “Hellfire Nook” and picture the ominous studs of ferocious Cornish packs of yesteryear clattering in direction of you. Or, alternatively, stand for some time within the Shed at Kingsholm and visualise these chilly, darkish evenings when Cherry & White forwards would eat harmless Oxbridge half-backs for tea, howled on by residence supporters who, in lots of circumstances, seen a visit to Cheltenham as an unique awayday.
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Briefly, we’re speaking about heritage. Rugby has a great deal of it and, proper now, it’s not terribly in style. The skilled recreation has morphed into one thing very completely different – vastly improved in quite a few respects, much less fabulous in others – and anonymous-looking new stadia have largely changed the old-fashioned cathedrals.
Which is ok, up to some extent. Any recreation that stands nonetheless will stagnate; a sport that lives previously is inevitably doomed. However when, the opposite week, the massively promising England ahead, Chandler Cunningham-South, confessed to having no thought his mentor Richard Hill had been a World Cup profitable flanker in 2003 it additional served to underline how rapidly rugby’s once-central pillars can fade into the background.
The aforementioned FOSROC Tremendous Sequence, launched as just lately as 2019, is the most recent casualty, set to be scrapped this 12 months within the ceaseless pursuit of change. Precisely how the Scottish home scene will look in future stays unclear however mutton pies, old style full-backs and easy pleasures aren’t clearly a part of the zeitgeist. Whether it is good, although, the sport will realise rugby’s attraction isn’t just in regards to the shiny and the brand new. It is usually constructed on custom, fellowship and a permanent fact: the very best sporting recollections aren’t all the time created on the most important of levels or probably the most high-profile of days.
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