He is also the president of Boroughmuir Rugby Club. He is also a former member of the board of the Scottish Rugby Union, the governing body of the game in Scotland.
When I asked him to speak to me on Saturday the exchange went as follows.
“Is it about last Saturday?” He asked.
“Well I think it has to be,” I replied.
“We’re saying absolutely nothing,” said George.
“Do you think that that’s an acceptable situation given the importance of the issue?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, I’ve got absolutely no comment to make about last Saturday,” he repeated.
“Have the SRU been in touch with you about it at all so far?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “But I have absolutely no comment to make. I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is. Absolutely nothing.”
“Given the profile of that particular subject across the whole country at the moment...” I countered.
He interrupted, saying: “This started with a newspaper article and we’ve absolutely no comment to make.”
“So the issue started with that?” I asked him.
“The first I heard... no, no, no, no,” he said, now interrupting himself. “Not the issue started, but a newspaper article started things as it appeared in the later part of the week. I have absolutely no comment to make about that.”
“I’ve just quoted you here as saying the issue started with a newspaper article,” I insisted.
“No...I mean, [it was at] the Hawks game. I’m making no comment about what happened at the game, what happened after the game...”
“So you’re not prepared to say whether your club has investigated this?” I asked.
“Of course we investigate anything that’s alleged, but we’re not making any comment about that investigation, or the outcome of it, or what action if any we took. Sorry that’s all there is to it.”
It is left to the reader to work out whether that is the position of a man whose club has found no wrong-doing within its ranks.
The allegation, for those who missed it last week, was that one of Boroughmuir’s players, Lynton Brinck, racially abused George Oommen, the Glasgow Hawks flanker.
Fergus Pringle, Boroughmuir’s player/coach and Brinck’s fellow South African, was more forthcoming, all be it marginally, saying: “The guys here don’t doubt each other’s character. Rumours can fly around or whatever, but as far as we are concerned that is exactly what they are.
“We put our heads down and carry on going, that’s it. As far as I am concerned, and George the president is dealing with the matter, it is done and dusted and we will move on.
“Rugby guys just put it behind them and move on, and that is it. All other rumours are just that, rumours.
Hawks have said they will not pursue the matter because the player does not want them to.
That may be because the allegation is false. It may also be in keeping with the position taken by one black rugby player in Scotland in the past. He has told people privately that he was fairly frequently racially abused on the field but chose to make no complaint because it would let the abusers see that they were getting to him.
That is a wholly dignified position and it is not for anyone to demand that another man, particularly a member of a tiny minority within this particular community, should set himself up as some sort of champion for a cause.
However, Scottish rugby has a responsibility to itself and to the wider world to examine this issue, just as Glasgow Rangers FC are apparently doing in the case of supporters abusing a player and as the BBC did when inviting the leader of the BNP onto their television programme.
On Saturday Brinck played for Boroughmuir. The authorities should now establish and publicly explain, whether this is because he has been exonerated by his club.
It may be that nothing serious happened at Anniesland nine days ago. However, it may also be that a light has been shone on something that contributes to the paucity of homegrown black players within Scottish rugby.
Silence can be sinister in times like this. It leaves a vacuum that can be filled by speculation, by hypothesis and, indeed, by prejudice.
The sort of men who should be seeking to ensure that there is not must surely include men of the law, men who would be presidential and men who seek office on the boards of the governing bodies.
This should not be left to George Oommen or other individual players to address. However, his namesake should perhaps look hard at his own unwillingness to explain his club’s position as it appears in black and white.
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