A day to remember for youngsters, and one to forget for Scots Sevens side

TODAY is a big one for several young rugby players with the Scottish youth cup finals taking place on the big pitch at Murrayfield. Currie and West of Scotland will compete in the U15 final while the U16 cup will go to either Stirling County or Boroughmuir. The first final starts at 1.30pm while the second kicks off at 3pm, with free entrance.

You can run but you can't hide, although it looks like the Scotland Sevens team can't do either. During the Wellington Sevens (5/6 Feb) the Scots plumbed new lows by losing 17-12 to Niue, an island of 100 square miles in the middle of the Pacific with just 1,398 bodies. According to the IRB's website, Niue's coaches can take their pick from any one of the 140 adult male rugby players.

The Scotland A team have a chance to redeem themselves against Italy A on Friday night in Biella, near Turin, after a spineless outing in Belfast when several full internationals looked as though they would rather be anywhere else.

There is a Magners League board meeting tomorrow and while some are expecting a decision regarding the bid by two Italian clubs to join, reports from Italy continue to identify the Scottish Rugby Union boss Gordon McKie as the stumbling block to an agreement.

McKie refuses to discuss the issue but it may be that the chief executive is simply playing for time. If he holds out much longer he can realistically claim that there isn't enough time to sort out the logistics for before September, 2010 and thus buy himself another year of negotiations.