Again the guest speaker hoodoo hit us when Rory Lawson was unable to make the journey from London. However, once again, triumph was snatched from the jaws of disaster when former Scottish internationalist Johnnie Beattie agreed to swap from April. What a triumph it was with the 124 GROGs in attendance enjoying one of the most articulate, knowledgeable and interesting talks ever given at a GROGS Lunch. Not surprisingly, Johnnie started by paying tribute to his 3 Lions tour father, John Snr. and his younger sister Jen, capped over 140 times for the Scotland Ladies football team. He called himself “the black sheep” of the family with only 38 international caps. He described his club career with obvious fondness from being a centurion player with Glasgow Warriors to being recruited by the future France national coach, Fabien Galthié, to join and later captain the top French side Montpellier before moving on to Castres and Bayonne. His ‘most incredible’ experience in France has made Johnnie a committed Francophile and his 3 children, all born there, consider themselves more French than Scottish. His description of Fabien Galthié was insightful and intriguing. He thinks of him as the best coach he has ever played under - “a tactical genius”! At the same time Johhnie acknowledged that he (Galthié ) was not everyone’s cup of tea and is not liked much in France in spite of his success. There was a curious comparison to his last season with Warriors when they were taken to the Royal Marine base in Arbroath and fully participated in their training to his first season with Montpellier when they ran 2 laps of a track and then repaired to the port where they helped fishermen with their nets and sat down to a couple of glasses of wine. He didn’t say which regime he preferred! No doubt his time in France playing with, and captaining, a range of players from many different countries stood him in good stead when he transitioned (as he put it) into a post playing career with radio and TV punditry and a collaborative role with World Rugby, which he loves! After the Scotland win over France, Johhnie posed the question:- “how far can they go?”. A Triple Crown title, he believes. Moving to questions, he described the coaching in Scotland as extremely hard working and pointed out that there are 20k registered players in Scotland whereas there are around 340k in France. Johnnie answered a number of questions with humour, insight and a depth of knowledge. Although he forecast a S. African win in the upcoming World Cup Johnnie was shown massive appreciation with the presentation of a bottle of Famous GROGS whisky.
