THESE are not golden days for the Scots.

NOT A great week for clubs in rugby, if you look at the headlines.

ONLY yesterday morning one of the great cliches was set free once again and allowed to snort its way across breakfast tables everywhere.

PULSELESS and saurian have been my adjectives of choice for the last few days, having come across them somewhere or other the weekend before last.

YOU CAN get cynical in this game pretty easily. You meet idols with feet of clay, the clay ending somewhere in the mid-thigh region.

AT SOME point this morning a middle-aged man in Northern Ireland will look in his wardrobe for a particular item of clothing, one that’s kept for specific occasions.

ON THE surface, Saturday in Temple Hill was business as usual in the All-Ireland League.

THE Guardian’s elegant columnist Frank Keating had a typically sharp piece in his newspaper last week, a simple concept butexecuted with precision and wit.

YOU can call off the search.

ON ONE hand, writing about Munster playing at home in the Heineken Cup is the simplest assignment in the world.