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Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan

Herald Scotland

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Martin Hannan: I'm beelin' about the Rugby Sevens Commonwealth Games omission

When it was finally confirmed yesterday that Glasgow would indeed host ten sports at four venues for the Commonwealth Games in 2026, I was not...

23.10.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: World Rugby’s law changes approved - but is time on our side? There's several changes to World Rugby in the pipeline.

Earlier this year I wrote about proposed law changes which World Rugby were experimenting with and now it has come to pass that the Executive Board...

16.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Sean Everitt is right not to panic - but he must get Edinburgh firing Martin Hannan: Sean Everitt is right not to panic - but he must get Edinburgh firing.

One of my favourite characters in that brilliant sit-com Dad’s Army was Lance Corporal Jones played superbly by Clive Dunn. His catchphrase of...

09.10.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Glasgow Warriors can surpass last season's European glory Martin Hannan: Glasgow Warriors can surpass last season's European glory.

Can clubs in different sports in Glasgow learn something from each other? I hope so. After Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, their legendary...

18.09.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Scotland has too small a player base to waste any player Martin Hannan: Scotland has too small a player base to waste any player.

To get to play for Scotland at the highest level there used to be a fairly defined way of doing so, what is now called the pathway. Back then, and...

04.09.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Sevens final was advert for sport - Scotland's summer tour not so much The Team GB amalgamation approach seems here to stay especially as the 2026 Commonwealth Games are currently kaput - why do the authorities Down Under not take a lead from football’s Euros and have the various events moved to existing stadia and facilities around Australia? The Commonwealth as a whole should declare an emergency and do everything possible to make sure the 2026 Games ago ahead, even if they have to be postponed to 2027 – it was done for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for pandemic reasons so why not for the Games in which we get to see Team Scotland. 

France 28, Fiji 7, rugby won. The French were truly magnifique in winning the Olympic Sevens in the Stade de France at the weekend  and Antoine...

31.07.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Andy Murray's retirement is reminder that sports careers are short

I have participated in, watched and written about sport all my life, and I have so many memorable sporting moments that I simply could not list them...

24.07.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: People always want more, just ask Gareth Southgate

That’s the trouble with professional sport: you might achieve one aim but people always set you a new and higher target. Ask Gareth Southgate, a...

17.07.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: International victories bode well as Scotland build strength in depth

Any weekend in which Scotland’s men at full international level and at the under 20 age grade both notch easy wins has to be celebrated because they...

10.07.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Glasgow winning URC is one of the greatest Scottish rugby achievements Martin Hannan: Glasgow winning URC is one of the greatest Scottish rugby achievements.

Glasgow Warriors, eh? Pure dead brilliant, as they say in my home city.  What a pity their extraordinary success at the weekend was overshadowed by...

26.06.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Glasgow Warriors will have to be bullish to beat the Bulls Last week I called on Glasgow Warriors to save our Scottish season by doing the illogical and beating the might of Munster at Thomond Park. This week I am urging them to go to South Africa and defeat the Bulls by out-bulling the favourites in the United Rugby Championship final.

Last week I called on Glasgow Warriors to save our Scottish season by doing the illogical and beating the might of Munster at Thomond Park. This week...

19.06.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: I’m sending an SOS to Glasgow Warriors – please save our season Last week I wrote about the emergency of Scottish Rugby in regard to our many clubs that have dwindling memberships and resources. I am glad to say that I have had many club members and officials contact me, even including former internationalists calling to agree, and I will be looking in depth over the next few weeks about the possible ways forward to right the many wrongs of Scottish rugby. Not everyone will like what I say about the various options for our sport, but I will set out my case for the reform of the game in this country, because first of all, we can’t let rugby in Scotland dwindle any further in any way.

Last week I wrote about the emergency of Scottish Rugby in regard to our many clubs that have dwindling memberships and resources. I am glad to say...

12.06.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Bravery and bum notes - how the rugby season has thrown us through a loop For our two professional clubs, it looked at one time that both Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby might end the season on a crescendo

For our two professional clubs, it looked at one time that both Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby might end the season on a crescendo. Now thank...

22.05.2024 40

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

World Rugby rule changes welcome, but should only be the start - Martin Hannan

It’s better late than never and there are still many more improvements to come, but with a series of announcements in recent days, World Rugby seem...

15.05.2024 30

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Mosese Tuipulotu is shrewd signing but SRU player pathway needs fixed Martin Hannan has praised Blair Kinghorn for his efforts in France, hailed the signing of Mosese Tuipulotu but suggested the pathway needs fixed.

If you write about rugby long enough and make predictions now and again, the law of averages says you’re bound to get one right eventually. When...

08.05.2024 40

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Scotland Women improved in Six Nations but defeat is always failure Martin admits it is harsh to be too critical of the Scotland women's team but believes losing is always a failure.

In trying to sum up Scotland’s women’s overall performance in the Guinness Six Nations, several phrases came to mind. So near and yet so far, a...

01.05.2024 40

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: A game of high stakes for Scotland's women in Ireland

After that historic first win in Italy, Scotland’s women take on Ireland in Belfast on Saturday with a huge prize at stake, namely qualification for...

25.04.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Rugby players are workers - and they should be treated as such

Last Thursday was World Parkinson’s Day. Regular readers will know I have the disease, and that’s why I did not celebrate the Day so much as mark...

17.04.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Club World Cup no new idea as rugby looks to fill pockets again - Martin Hannan

Just when you think there’s nothing that the rugby authorities can do any more that would truly surprise you, along comes the revelation that there...

10.04.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Scottish women’s rugby is enjoying a bit of a boom period

Despite the loss to France at the weekend, Scottish women’s rugby is enjoying a bit of a boom period, with the national side putting together a...

03.04.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Don't be shocked if this Scotland side pulls off France shock

Close finishes abounded in the men’s Guinness Six Nations, with Scotland involved in the best of them, and having survived that late conversion...

27.03.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Basic errors and indiscipline prove costly for Scotland at Six Nations

Lady Luck is a fickle mistress. Just when you need a couple of breaks to go your way, they go against you and your goose is well and truly cooked. In...

20.03.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Where have all of Scottish rugby's hard men gone? - Martin Hannan

If it wasn’t for a duff decision by a TMO against France and a piece of unforgivable indiscipline by Pierre Schoeman in Rome, Scotland would be...

13.03.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Scotland must be wary of Italy to keep Six Nations hopes alive

In days gone by, the fixture between Scotland and Italy was often seen as the decider for the Wooden Spoon in any year’s Six Nations tournament....

06.03.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Calcutta Cup was victory for the ages as Scotland beat catenaccio

Back in the 1960s, an Argentinian football manager named Helenio Herrera devised a defensive system called ‘catenaccio’, Italian for door bolt,...

28.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Try drama or not - Scotland should've had France game sewn up

It was a try. No question. But it wasn’t a try. Was it? If like me, you have been following the many months of discord in Scottish football over...

14.02.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Covid times emphasised how much the Six Nations means

It is a truism in life that you never really know how much something means to you until it’s not there anymore. So it was in 2020 and 2021 that I...

31.01.2024 40

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Timing of letter couldn't have been better ahead of Six Nations

Most sports writers in Scotland will tell you tales of how readers often assail them with missives laced with vitriol. You have to develop a thick...

24.01.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

SRU have huge problem in finding right chief executive after Mark Dodson exit

The announcement of the forthcoming departure of Mark Dodson from the job of chief executive of the SRU was greeted with a chorus of delight from his...

17.01.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Why World Rugby should pay more permanent tribute to JPR Williams

One of the few advantages of getting older is that whenever a sporting legend dies, you can reply ‘yes’ when people ask you if you saw the man...

10.01.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Warriors take 'probables' tag while Edinburgh are the 'possibles'

Memory is the dodgiest of our mental faculties. You appreciate this fact as you get older and short-term memory becomes a trial and often disappears....

27.12.2023 10

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Conversation needs to be had about future of FOSROC Super Series

The FOSROC Super Series is now reaching the point where a mature consideration must be made about whether it should continue in its present form or...

13.12.2023 3

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

Martin Hannan: Rugby has huge broadcasting decision to make

The news that football’s English Premier League has signed a four-year deal with Sky and TNT worth £6.7 BILLION shows just why football is the...

06.12.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Martin Hannan

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