Letters: Solomons has big task at Edinburgh

If Alan Solomons had harboured any illusions about the enormity of the task facing him at Edinburgh Rugby, they will surely have been well and truly shattered by Friday’s debacle.

Edinburgh coach Alan Solomons. Picture: Jane Barlow

Why are the collective and individual skills of the Edinburgh players so poor? For goodness’ sake, these are professional rugby players who practise every day, not the Auchenshoogle 4th XV.

They really ought to be able to do better than this. I wish Mr Solomons all the best, but I fear he has been handed a poisoned chalice.

DAVID HAMILL

Preston Cottages

EAST LINTON

Scottish athletes struggling to meet qualification criteria

I WAS interested to read that our Minister for Sport foresees no problem in Scotland providing an Olympic team. I would recommend that she studies Power of Ten Athletics Rankings with especial reference to male and female events included in next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Each event gives the criteria that are required in order to qualify to represent Scotland and I think she will find that Scottish men qualify in only 50 per cent of the events, with the women doing better at just under 75 per cent. And that is with relatively lenient qualifying standards.

If we considered last year’s standards for the Olympics, the numbers would be drastically reduced. It is a sad reflection on the current state of Scottish athletics. Where are the replacements for the Stewarts, McColgans. Murrays, Wellses, Clements, Blacks, Ritchies (to name but a few) of yesteryear?

Yours in Sport,

WILLIAM S GENTLEMAN

Craiglockhart Terrace

EDINBURGH

New Hibs strike pairing stirs memories and bodes well

COULD the Collins-Heffernan striking partnership at Easter Road be the new Alan Gordon-Jimmy O’Rourke? While the bulldozer-like Collins lacks the elegance and artistry of Gordon, the bustling, harrying, determined Paul Heffernan could be Jimmy O’Rourke’s doppelganger.

Even allowing for the poor opposition, it was a new Hibs on Saturday at Easter Road. I was one of many calling for Paddy Fenlon’s head, but I must put my hands up and say he seems at last to be developing a team and, perhaps more importantly, a system.

They looked well-coached, determined, and every man knew his role and place. The Princes Street midfield and lone striker have been abandoned as tactics, as has the self-defeating idea that “containing” – for example Motherwell at Easter Road – was worthwhile.

Hibs were up for it and flying, and if memories of the early 1970s are a flight of fancy too far, there is cause for hope.

ALEXANDER MCKAY

New Cutt Rigg

EDINBURGH

Rangers clear-out would be welcome for sake of the club

TOM English is spot on in his assessment of Messrs Mather and Irvine at Ibrox (The Scotsman, 19 September). The betting scandal should have resulted in Ian Black being sacked, and Ally McCoist should also have been dismissed.

Glenn Gibbons wrote about Ally’s “howlers” a few weeks ago, and this latest episode confirms what I consider to be McCoist’s ineptitude. One can only hope that Jim McColl triumphs at the forthcoming AGM in order to purge both the boardroom and dug-out, for the sake of the future of the club.

D ROBERTS

Andrew Crescent

STENHOUSEMUIR