The catalogue of head injuries suffered by Scottish players has prompted distant memories of adolescence.
Facing opponents who were a class apart, but whose number included long-standing friends as well as a cousin, there was an awareness of individual and collective inferiority, leading to a sense of embarrassment.
As technically and psychologically feeble a tackler as has ever pulled on a rugby shirt I decided that some sort of statement had to be made, for once threw myself head long, literally, at their most dynamic player whom I had known since we were seven-year-old cub scouts.
For once I momentarily slowed him down, but the method of doing so was head on knee and was insufficient to prevent yet another early score.
Worse still, as we convened behind the posts the world started to blur over. More than a few have suggested down the years that the blow to my head - which resulted in watching Graham Mourie’s All Blacks complete their historic Grand Slam at Murrayfield from a bed in Dundee Royal Infirmary - explains a great deal. However had one of our teachers, Brian Moore, not had sufficient first aid training to realise I had swallowed my tongue the consequences could have been even more serious.
It is relevant only because the number of head injuries suffered by Scots lately has generated widespread concern and for all that the respective abilities of those involved are poles apart, it is tempting to wonder whether similar issues are at play.
What remains a relatively lightweight Scotland side, that has not won in either Paris or London this Millennium, is heading into matches knowing that it will have to find a higher level of commitment to have a chance.
There is a thin line between courage and recklessness in such situations and for all that each incident can doubtless be analysed and explained away, when up against physically superior specimens, men who are that bit stronger and that bit quicker, the Scots may too often be neglecting technique in their readiness to put their bodies on the line and getting their heads into places they should not be.
Not that such lily-livered thinking is likely to be countenanced by the gruff old Kiwi who is in charge of the team for a few more days.
“It is a contact sport,” Vern Cotter replied when the matter was raised after Saturday’s game.
“That’s why the players play it. They enjoy the contact. At the moment we have injuries coming from it. I will try to deal with what’s in place and get on as best as possible. Some days you have them and some days you get more of them.”
Maybe so, but corroborative evidence for the case that recklessness is a factor is provided by the incident which saw the visitors’ crucially reduced to 14 men at the start of Saturday’s match.
An inferiority complex leading to over compensation in terms of the aggression applied? Perhaps.
On the other hand there is also a valid hypothesis that Scotland’s backroom staff are tending towards being slightly more cautious than some of their international counterparts.
Certainly no man takes his duty of care more seriously than James Robson, the Dundee doctor who has for so long been the touchline medic for both Scotland and the British & Irish Lions and he will have been deeply concerned by the growing attention paid to the long term consequences of head injuries.
It is a critical issue for the sport in general, but in terms of Scotland’s specific spate of concussive injuries, there has to be suspicion that one way or another a mindset within their camp is a contributory factor.
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