Allan Massie: Better to have captain leading from front

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 15:36

The All Blacks have usually chosen a forward as captain, though David Kirk captained them from scrum-half the only time they have lifted the World Cup. The reasoning is, I think, that it's better to have a captain whose position on the field requires him to say "come on" to the forwards rather than "go on".

Scotland's Grand Slam winning sides of 1984 and 1990 were each captained from loose-head prop, while the 1986-87 team, which I have always thought better than either of those which actually won the Slam, was captained by Colin Deans, the hooker.

There is obviously no rule or consensus about the best position from which to captain a team. Full-backs and wing-threequarters have done so successfully, despite being some way removed from the hurly-burly. More depends on the character of the individual than on the number on the back of his jersey. All the same, other things being equal, there is much to be said for having a captain who is seen to be leading from the front.

Rob Moffat's decision to give the Edinburgh captaincy to young Roddy Grant is bold. Last year Edinburgh seemed too often to lack leadership, not least because the captain, Mike Blair, missed so many matches on account of injury, and didn't always seem fully match-fit when he was able to play. Whether the responsibility of captaincy affected his form is questionable, but it may have done so.

In any case it is quite clear that both Edinburgh and Scotland will benefit if Blair can regain the form he was in when he was on the short-list of five for the World Player of the Year, and he is more likely to do this if he is free to concentrate on his own game.

Great players don't in any case always make the best captains and are not always happy in the job if it is given to them. One such was Mike Gibson whom many of us are old enough - and lucky enough - to remember in his prime and consider the best midfield back they have ever seen. Roddy Grant may still be outside the Scotland squad - if only just outside it, and that because competition for places in the back-row is so keen. But if he isn't in Andy Robinson's match-day squad this may be to Edinburgh's advantage. He was outstanding for Edinburgh last year, a player who never disappears from the game - and not only because his flaming red hair makes him inevitably conspicuous. He may have been born in Botswana and brought up in South Africa, but as Bob Burrell's grandson his Scottish and Borders roots are undeniable. In his style of play he is as close to Richie McCaw as anyone in the northern hemisphere. Like McCaw he is always in the thick of the action. Rob Moffat has made a good pick.

Meanwhile, down in the Borders, there is some disgruntlement on account of Melrose's recruitment of the Scotland under-20s prop, Nicky Little, from Hawick, and Ross Ford's younger brother, Euan, from Kelso. Euan Ford's decision to move is the more understandable, Kelso being stuck in the second division. Given that Hawick are back where they belong in the top league, Little's switch is more puzzling. The eagerness to recruit from Borders rivals doesn't make Melrose and Craig Chalmers very popular, but ambitious clubs will always seek to strengthen their squad at the expense of others, even when the others are their neighbours (some might say, especially when the others are their neighbours.)

Whatever the resentment, it is surely up to other clubs to keep their players happy so that they want to stay with them. Obviously there is always a temptation for an ambitious player to move to a club where there is a better chance of winning things and developing his own game and career.

Clubs in lower divisions accept, sometimes reluctantly, that they will lose young stars. This is in the natural order of things, and sensible coaches and club officials recognise it and take pleasure in the success of players whose development they have nurtured. Likewise they will offer nothing but encouragement when a player has the chance to move from the amateur to the professional game. Irritation only surfaces when a player is lured from their club to another in the same division. But quite often the club that loses this player has only itself to blame.

There are plenty of cases when a player turns down such a move because he is happy where he is, all the more so if the invitation is badly expressed. Fraser Harkness, this year's Selkirk captain, has rejected Melrose more than once. One approach, doubtless humorously intended, invited him to move to a better club. "Would that be one we've beaten more often than not in recent seasons?" he is said to have replied.