It's All About Playing For The Jersey

THE bottle-green, “jaggy” Hawick rugby jersey was one of the iconic items of sporting apparel. I am told by good Teris who wore it with pride, it itched, but, they'd have crawled over broken glass to put it on.

The green Hawick shirt, multi-nationals battled to supply it  

Apparently, every summer the committee of the Hawick club invited the various Hawick woollen mills to tender for the right to produce that season's strip. Now these firms included some iconic Scottish knitwear brands, whose logos were plastered all over the chests of the world's leading golfers, but - “fur the toon”, the were prepared to make, at no costs to the “customer” a run of rugby shirts, without logo, but, a shirt which meant everything to the people of Hawick.

Today, the Hawick shirt is adorned by advertisements, and is produced by an Australian company. Heaven knows where the shirts are actually made, but, I suspect somewhere in the Far East, but, certainly not in Hawick.

What has Hawick rugby strips got to do with Scottish football? You ask. Well, today the SFA have announced the new Scotland kit, naturally, this is an Adidas kit, a German company, with global reach, and, again, probably the shirts are made in the Far East.

Andrew Robertson models the new Scotland home kit

I do recall, in the 1990s, when Rangers signed with Adidas, the shirts were made in a factory in Patna, in the Doon Valley – and every kid in the village, where wearing a Rangers' top was practically mandatory, had his shirt before Richard Gough was wheeled-out, wearing it, at a plush Ibrox launch.

Why cannot THE Scotland jerseys – the rugby team's is made in Italy by Macron – be made in Scotland? We used to have a world-class clothing manufacturing industry here? My understanding is, when the Sportsman's Emporium – still my favourite name for a shop – in St Vincent Street in Glasgow was the SFA's kit supplier, the shirts were manufactured in Scotland.

Then, the “blazers” as they were then, were seduced by Umbro and it's been downhill ever since.

Actually, it hasn't. I like the new kit; it is, to my tired old eyes, a 21^st century take on the first Scotland strip I fell in love with, 60 years ago. Like today's it was navy blue, with a great big, white v-neck. The badge was massive – I got one from one of the guys in the Sportsman's Emporium and still have it – it was a cool strip.

George Herd modelling the classic Scotland kit of the 1950s

My only quibble with the new kit is the red stockings. I prefer the blue with red top stockings of my youth.

A wee aside here, in the video of the strip launch, the players are all wearing the new shirts outside their shorts – which gives an undivided line of the trade-mark Adidas three stripes.

Wearing the shirt outside the shorts used to be the preserve of Queen's Park, to. distinguish the “Spiders” as amateurs, playing for love. Celtic icon and a great Scotland captain, Bobby Evans also wore his shirt outside his shorts, and to do this was known as: “Bobby Evans style”.

This was frowned-on in some quarters. Indeed, one of my oldest friends was dropped from the Scotland rugby squad without winning a cap, because he insisted on playing with his shirt outside his shorts and his stockings round his ankles – this wasn't done, so the Murrayfield “Alickadoos” dropped him. Bloody good player too and better than one or two of his contemporaries who played by the rules and got capped.

MY BELOVED Kilmarnock FC is currently providing work and a wage to two constant finalists in: “The daftest laddie in Ayrshire” contest – which every year has a very competitive field. I refer of course to that great double act – Broadfoot and Boyd.

 It aint over till the Fat Bastard scores and celebrates

This pair of “daft laddies” did for Hearts at Murrayfield yesterday, and, scoring the opener gave Boydie a chance to hit back at the: “You Fat Bastard” taunts of the home fans after he scored – kudos, by the way to referee Kevin Clancy for NOT booking Boydie for his celebration, perhaps a rare case of soccer sanity these days.

I thought it was a very-good game, lots of good football from both sides, while that strike from Esmael Goncalves which pulled Hearts level was right out of the top drawer. The style of football Stevie Clarke is trying to get Killie to play is now becoming clear, I sense happy days are on their way back to Rugby Park.

Two And, Hearts fans, please, lay-off Craig Levein. On another day, Hearts would have won that, if the shots which hit the woodwork had been a couple of inches closer to the open part of the goal. They will play worse and win this season, but, clearly, they are pining for the often claustrophobic atmosphere of a packed Tynecastle.

BETWEEN our collective myopia in respect of the Premiership, and the sheer lack of numbers of foot soldiers in the media today, the “diddy” teams outside the top flight don't get the media presence they perhaps deserve.

It's maybe our loss because there are some cracking stories developing under the radar. In the Championship, for instance, the top five are covered by two points – that's half the teams in the division, with managerless Dundee United right in the mix. You have to ask just what that Chairman of theirs wants.

In League One, Ayr United and Raith Rovers are having a rare-old ding-dong for top spot and automatic promotion, while, behind them, five teams are in with a real shout of the other two play-off slots.

Of course, we all know: Scottish football is rubbish. Aye Right, maybe the quality is not there, but, the competitiveness sure is, and, if you've got real competition, you have something with which to entertain the fans and which can be sold.