The problem for Scotland now is that the Lions will be chapping on Andy Robinson's door to coach them on their next tour. Andy Irvine is the manager of Down Under 2013 and he must see what is happening.
But let's leave that subject for another day.
Sometimes you just get lucky. Sitting on the train on the way back from Aberdeen looking at the cars parked on the A90 all the way from Dundee to Gleneagles and imagining the real hardship with which they were presented, reminded me that pure luck, in my case, drove me to buy a train ticket.
Scotland more than deserved to beat Samoa at Pittodrie. But, as Ruaridh Jackson stepped up to kick the winning penalty with seconds remaining, I was reminded that sometimes, just sometimes, you need a substitute player from the opposition to try to pick a ball off the ground in a ruck, within kickable range, and present a local hero with the chance to win a match.
Read the rest of this entry
Does Scottish rugby at last have strength in depth?
I live opposite a pitch and, as I write, the mini rugby boys and girls have an extra swagger because their national team beat world champions South Africa for the second time in 41 years and have now won four out of the last five matches.
Andy Robinson talks of inspiring a nation and that's what his team did.
What was it down to? Well, a few things added together to make it work: a change in tactics first of all, for sure.
The forwards ran off Rory Lawson as a preferred option, instead of Dan Parks, which was their station against the All Blacks a week ago, and were quicker to breach the gain line.
Scotland achieved a more basic go-forward game and it worked.
The set-piece was as good as it has been too. Euan Murray provides a scrummaging presence at tight-head and with Nathan Hines at six it was a heavy Scottish pack at no time troubled in the scrums.
South African line-outs were similarly dealt with and the forwards coped with the Springbok rolling maul for the most part.
Read the rest of this entry
One hundred and five years since we beat the All Blacks? It's a record that's stuck in a groove.
And I wonder if we'll ever beat the All Blacks as I thought that was as good a Scottish rugby team as we can pick just now.
And we didn't come close. Perhaps the All Blacks having been together for two months made a difference.
Read the rest of this entry
Can Scotland beat the All Blacks? That's the big question for this weekend, given that we have never done so.
Oh, and thank goodness they performed their old Haka before the England game, as the new one is an insult. And I liked the English crowd reaction as they tried to drown it out.
What makes All Black rugby special? Well, there was one ball carry against England by Kieran Read, the number eight, which summed it up.
He fielded a kick and ran into the opposition as hard as he could. It was no training-run entry into contact, he went for it as venomously as was possible.
Rule number one is that All Blacks don't hold back, and the try they conceded to England was their first in their last three tours.
And ever since Andy Haden jumped out of a line-out in Cardiff when nobody had touched him, I think most of the world realises that the All Blacks would do anything to win. Anything.
Richie McCaw, on Saturday, had one of the most unsubtle bits of lazy running, an act of which even Zinzan Brooke might have been proud.
Read the rest of this entry
I was born in Borneo, spent my formative years swinging from the trees, and you might know me as an international rugby player, but now I'm off to London to give you my opinion on all things Olympic as part of the BBC Scotland Sport Nation Olympic team. 
