Putting their 20-0 loss to the Glasgow Tigers in 2011 firmly behind them, the University of Stirling Clansmen bounced back to record a 58-0 victory over the UWS Pyros.

 

Early in the first quarter, with third year RB Tony McDowall running across on a sweep, sophomore quarterback Cam McDonald - enjoying his first start for the Clansmen - faked the hand-off, cut back inside and opened the scoring with a 24-yard rushing touchdown. The Clansmen, on a wet and muddy pitch that occasionally gave way under foot, failed to convert.

 

The Pyros fought back but quickly found themselves under pressure with Clansmen linebacker Ahmed El-Hag forcing a fumble.

On the following drive the Clansmen's offensive running game looked efficient and well-oiled with the offensive line opening wide gaps for running-back Tony McDowall and quarterback Cam McDonald to glide through. Second year player McDonald, in his first start for the Clansmen, scored another rushing touchdown from 15 yards out, with the two point conversion thereafter duly converted.

 

After a series of short-yardage gains, occasionally losing yardage to a Pyros defence keen to put their 90-0 defeat behind them, the Clansmen opened up the passing game with McDonald, having already rushed for 57 yards and 2 touchdowns, threading a pass over the top to slot receiver Grant Fraser who cut up field for a 27-yard passing touchdown.

 

Just before half time, after an effective display from the Clansmen defense with third-year defensive-back Duncan Adams intercepting a pass from the Pyros' quarterback, the Clansmen once again forced their way into the Pyros' red-zone, which allowed second-year running-back Matthew Barrington to put his name on the score sheet with a 5-yard rushing touchdown.

 

Entering the second half, with a 30-0 lead, the Clansmen's spirits were high and unfortunately for the Pyros that meant that the scoreboard continued to tick over with another passing touchdown coming from QB Cam McDonald, this time to wide-out Chris McCrum and McDonald capped off his first start for the men in green with another rushing touchdown, before giving way to normal starting quarterback QB Luis Stephenson, who also rushed for a score.

 

Head Coach Rob Orr said " I am pleased with the result today, especially as we only just returned from the winter break." Orr continued "The game-plan worked well and after the disappointing loss to Glasgow just before the winter break, it was good to see everyone keeping their discipline and playing smart"

 

The Clansmen are now 4-1 for the season and lie tied for second in the Border Conference of the British Universities American Football League (BUAFL) behind the Newcastle Raiders, who remain 5-0.

 

The semester hadn’t even started and already sports teams had been out competing.  One of these was the Athletics club.  Half made the short journey to Glasgow for the Indoor Championships, with the other half making the longer (and snowier) trip to Cardiff for the British Cross Country Championships.

 

Although Stirling currently hold the Scottish Outdoor title, because of the competition time for the indoors being before semester starts, not much focus is placed on this, so only a team of 10 were competing.  From this, the team came away with 4 medals (Fraser Weir – High Jump silver; Andy Carroll – 60m bronze; Janelle McGurk – High Jump bronze; Michelle Durbidge – Shotputt bronze).  Many PB’s were also made by the athletes in attendance, and it was also a welcome return to competition for Vicky Stephen, having been out of action since the same competition last year.  Up next for the team is the trip down to Sheffield for the British Indoors, competing against the likes of Loughborough and Brunel.

 

The trip down to Cardiff went off without any troubles, although it appeared on arrival that some problems could emerge.  The course conditions on the Friday were not very good, with the ground frozen.  This would change on the race day (Saturday) when the snow started to come down an hour before the racing had started!  Luckily the races all still went ahead – unlike Aberdeen 2009 where the races were cancelled because of the snow!  Once the field of over 300 had congregated for the start of the race it was coming down heavily and a blanket of snow was covering the course, which would be looped 4 times. The stand out performance came from 2^nd year student Scott Green, who was the 3rd Scottish University athlete to cross the line in 32.28 (50^th). Just under a minute back was Russell White 33.23 (78^th). The other team scorers were Ross Christie 36.19 (180^th) and Joe Perry 38.56 (242^nd) with Kevin Shenck 40.11 (264^th) and David Lindsay 40.44 (271^st). Scott, Russell, Ross and Joe's points tally came to 550 in 28th positions, one place down from last year.

 

The womens long race was next to tackle the snowy course, 1 short lap and 2 full laps. Fiona Thompson came home in 27.53 (93^rd), Jess Pye 31.28 (227^th) and Aillie McGowan 32.04 (253^rd).  Alex Campbell unfortunately had to withdraw during the race. Despite Fiona and Jess racing through injuries and Ailie competing in her first ever race they still managed 553 points coming home as 58th team.

The final race of the day saw Andy Hood tackle the 3 full laps in the B race.  This race is for all the extra athletes who can’t compete in the A race, which is limited to 6 athletes per university.  He finished a strong 71st in 26.12

 

Well ciao then Fabio. Without so much as a backward glance or hint of regret Fabio Capello walked out of Wembley and turned his back on around £3 million he was due to earn by the end of EURO 2012. I appear to be in a small minority of England fans who are sad to see Fabio go. Most seem to be booking the Archbishop for Harry Redknapp’s inevitable coronation, but is the departure of Capello as a good a piece of news as every writer at The Sun would have us believe?

 

In terms of setting England up with a handy excuse when we inevitably lose to Germany in the quarter finals of the Euros, it’s great news! However Capello is a man who won more than 2/3 of his games in charge, the highest level ever. He was showing signs of having learnt the lessons of the disastrous World Cup campaign of 2010. Then players complained of feeling like they were locked away in a prison camp in Rustenburg (I don’t know of many prison camps with 5 stars, but that’s a topic for another day). This time around England’s players are to stay in a similar complex but in the heart of Krakow, allowing them ample opportunity to avoid felling cut off from the world. And yet despite obvious concessions to the players many were already anointing Harry as their choice hours after Capello’s resignation, suggesting they may not have been too unhappy to see him leave.

 

With his departure England loses a manager who has won major trophies with every club he has managed, and by appointing Harry they would gain a man who once won an FA Cup. Admittedly he has turned around a poor Tottenham side and made them into an exciting, attacking side on the verge of a title challenge. But he has done this with shrewd transfer dealings, something you can’t do with a national side! He also famously is not a training ground manager. He prefers to let his assistants, led by Joe Jordan, run the training sessions. How this would translate to the international arena where managers have limited time with the players is anybody’s guess.

 

One thing Harry has in his favour is his abilities as a man manager. He’s successfully kept all of the egos in his Tottenham squad onside, despite many of them seeing very little playing time. Most impressively he’s got Luka Modric playing well this season, even after he publicly expressed his wish to leave the club for Chelsea last summer.

 

Despite all this I just can’t see Harry having enough top level experience to justify taking over a team that went unbeaten in qualifying and has a realistic chance of a last four spot at EURO 2012. If I was in charge at the FA I’d be on the phone to Guus Hiddink. His experience and success in international management is almost unmatched in recent years. After a mixed time at his most recent job with Turkey he’s available straight away and wouldn’t need to be expensively bought out of a contract. So a more experienced manager for less money, hard not to see that as a win, win.