Ahead of his time

SPORT
Douglas Wood on the career of the versatile Pringle Fisher

Pringle Fisher is centre, front row

The recent death of Pringle Fisher, former Scotland rugby captain and basketball international, is a reminder of how rugby has developed as a handling game as well as touching on topical Olympic issues. At a time when the game was more commonly referred to as rugby football, ball skills for forwards consisted mainly of dribbling – controlling the oval ball on the ground and keeping close contact with it using both feet. In the 1960s it was still the era for shouting 'feet' and when skilful use of the foot-rush was considered an effective attacking weapon. Forwards seldom seemed capable of displaying handling skills, rarely able to give or take a pass successfully.
     As a back-row forward who had been a top-class basketball player, Fisher stood out with his dexterity at the tail of the line-out and in open play with ball in hand. Not surprisingly he was an outstanding sevens player in a successful Royal High School FP side that won many tournaments the 1960s, including Melrose in 1961. Indeed, on some occasions he would be fielded at stand-off half.
     It has taken several decades for rugby to develop to a stage where both forwards and backs display competent handling skills. As a consequence the nature of the game has changed, as has the profile of score-lines, while the laws have become ever more obscure. Pringle Fisher would have excelled in the modern game – he was ahead of his time.
     The other reminder is that Fisher was a member of the Scotland basketball team that represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in 1960. Presumably this arrangement for Team GB was the outcome of some rational process not involving politicians or negotiations with the international governing body.
     Except perhaps for issues relating to apartheid, sport was for the most part separate from politics until money became involved. As there was no public funding for Olympic teams or their preparation it was possible for athletes to go to the Moscow Games in 1980 against the wishes of the then prime minister, and for the likes of Steve Ovett, Allan Wells and Duncan Goodhew to become Olympic champions. Government funding has changed things; it has brought greater international success but at the price of political interference. The debate about a GB football team has shown us the down-side of this from which, in the end, there may well be no winners.