Martin Hannan

Multimedia Journalist at The National (Scotland)

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Articles

Lay of the land and hope for the future as I bid farewell to Scottish rugby

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Scotland remain on the right trajectory under Gregor Townsend (Image: Ross Parker - SNS Group) Just a few random thoughts this week, and if regular readers detect an elegiac note in my scribblings today then that’s perceptive of you.
Martin Hannan: Six Nations woes an all too familiar feeling for Scotland

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Scotland players after the Guinness Men's Six Nations match at the Allianz Stadium, London (Image: Gareth Fuller) So here we are again after the Guinness 6 Nations and not for the first time there is a general feeling that Scotland blew it. I never thought we would win the championship, and wrote that at the outset, but at the end I yet again have that feeling of what might have been.
Martin Hannan: How do we bridge rugby chasm between private and state schools?

Dec 10, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Stewart's Melville College celebrate their trophy win at Scottish Gas Murrayfield (Image: Mark Scates - SNS Group / SRU) The news at the weekend that the great baseball player Juan Soto is about to sign the richest deal in the history of professional sport got me thinking about how rugby here in Scotland could benefit. In case you’ve missed it, Soto has left the New York Yankees after his best season ever, which included helping them to win the World Series.
Martin Hannan: Is the new Six Nations branding out of touch with rugby’s legacy?

Dec 3, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

The new Six Nations logo which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the competition (Image: Six Nations) A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away – okay, it was Edinburgh, but it really was back in the day – I worked for an organisation which suddenly had an immediate need to provide vast amounts of promotional material.
Martin Hannan: SRU hiding behind digital barrier is bad news for Scottish clubs

Nov 26, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Last year's AGM (Image: SNS Group / SRU) No doubt about the best sight in Scottish rugby in recent times – the happy face of Jacqueline Thomson as she handed the Hopetoun Cup to her grandson, Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu, after that brilliant victory over Australia on Sunday. And it was brilliant. Remember this was the team that bested England at Twickers then trounced Wales in Cardiff, but Scotland outdid them four tries to one and it could have been more.
Martin Hannan: How Scotland can beat the Wallabies at Murrayfield

Nov 19, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Scotland will take on Australia this weekend (Image: NQ) We have had a cracking Autumn Series of internationals which will end for Scotland against Australia at Murrayfield on Sunday. I have watched every one of the Autumn Series games and I think it’s been one of the most exciting non-tournaments I have ever seen.
You might not like it, but Scotland must continue importing players

Nov 5, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

For reasons I don’t really want to go into I ended up watching the Scotland v Fiji match in a pub in Edinburgh. An England fan was sitting near us. You could guess his loyalties from the England shirt he was wearing and the fact that his poor wee face was crestfallen when the All Blacks scored that late try and conversation to win at Twickenham. He was also not a member of the ‘I am English but I support Scotland when they are playing anybody else’ club.
Gregor Townsend must use 'L' word ahead of Scotland's Autumn Tests

Oct 29, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Every four years at the start of the season, there is the quadrennial game played by just about every rugby pundit on the planet as to who will make the British and Irish Lions squad the following summer – except in France, of course, where the Lions remain a mystery to them.
Martin Hannan: I'm beelin' about the Rugby Sevens Commonwealth Games omission

Oct 22, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Scotland's Rugby Sevens team at Glasgow 2014 (Image: SNS Group Craig Watson) 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 surprised that rugby sevens did not make the final roster for this cut-down poor man’s version of the event which started life as the British Empire Games in 1930 and which seem to be heading the way of that Empire into oblivion.
Martin Hannan: World Rugby’s law changes approved - but is time on our side?

Oct 15, 2024 | heraldscotland.com | Martin Hannan

Scotland's Duhan Van Der Merwe scores a try during a Guinness Six Nations match against England (Image: SNS) 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 has approved further new laws variations which, barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely rebellion, will be rubber-stamped by the World Rugby Council, the supreme decision-making body in our sport, on November 14.