Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Beeb needs Scots broadcast, just ask Colin, or rather Chris


IF ever there was a compelling case for BBC Scotland producing its own broadcast for Scotland rugby international matches, it was from Cardiff.

On the occasion of Chris Paterson's historic 100th match for Scotland, he was introduced by BBC presenter John Inverdale as 'Colin Paterson'.

The excuse that this was just a slip of the tongue does not interest me, because

Inverdale went on to call the player 'Colin' again before the match had even started.

If Inverdale does not know Chris Paterson's name after 100 appearances for Scotland, during which he has become the best goal kicker in the sport, he never will.

It was an insult to Paterson to get his name wrong not once but twice as he achieved such a milestone in the game, with only a handful of other players having won a hundred caps for their country.

We then had the commentators twice going on about Alasdair Dickinson's error of judgment which led to his sin-binning. Dickinson must have been wondering about that as well, because he had been substituted some time before his team-mate Scott Lawson was shown the yellow card.

To make matters worse, after having to suffer Jonathan Davies willing Wales over the try-line, we then had to listen to incredible remarks from players after the match about Wales going on to win the championship.

While consistent with similar claims of huge strides being made off the field, the problem is that it is still 'jam tomorrow'. The other difficult fact militating against accepting Johnson's assertion is that it is difficult to see under what circumstances such latent talent will come forth. Having forced Ireland to make four times as many tackles and dominated possession, territory and the set-piece scrums, England are unlikely to be able to have better circumstances from which to challenge the better teams in world rugby. Though they had all this ball, all these positions, they were still outscored by three tries to one and their crossing of the line came from good forward play. When they tried to engage their opponents with a more expansive game plan they were taught a lesson in finishing.

For heaven's sake, they lost to England and then scored with the last move of the game against 13 men. Champions? Champions of Wales, maybe.

Scotland V England Hospitality

Ireland V Scotland Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

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