Should Hogg stay or Hogg go?
Stuart Hogg is used to making big decisions.
Boom a high ball back from whence it came, or set off on a strutting, shimmying counterattack?
Stay in the backfield or explode into the line?
Thunder through a gap, run a swooping arc past his man, stab a deft grubber-kick behind the defence or snap the wrists and release the player outside him?
On the rugby field, his is a life lived at searing pace.
The Scotland full-back plays with joyous and instinctive flair fortified by hours of practice on the training paddock.
It is brilliance underpinned by graft and is a wonder to watch.
Hogg is the youngest Scot to win 50 caps.
He has twice been named Six Nations Player of the Championship and has two Lions tours under his belt, even if he was callow on the first and injury brutally curtailed the second.
His career is peppered with dazzling flourishes of skill and guts, from the outrageous, slaloming decimation of England Saxons aged just 19, to the roaring performance that propelled Scotland to within a Kieran Read slap-down of a first win over the mighty All Blacks.
Yes, Hogg is used to making big decisions and making them correctly.
There’s a whopper of a choice looming towards him now.
The most significant he will ever have made in a rugby context.
Hogg’s Glasgow Warriors contract is expiring and his will be among the most coveted signatures in Europe.
Should he stay at Scotstoun, where his workload is carefully managed and his welfare sacrosanct?
Or is it best to move on, flit to England or France where the rugby will be more frequent and more brutal, but he can realise the vast extent of his earning potential?
Frankly, Hogg holds all the cards here. Warriors want him to stay and have opened early discussions to that effect. Several clubs in England and France are already eyeing him very closely.
If Scottish Rugby are to keep him, they would almost certainly have to fork out an unprecedented wage to do so.
Even then, even though the union has deeper pockets than ever, it cannot and will not get close to the eye-watering sums offered in the Premiership and Top 14.
Hogg has watched his Glasgow and Scotland pal Finn Russell move to Racing 92, where he will pocket in the region of £800,000 each year of his three-season contract.
He has a family to consider and in the savage and perilous throes of modern rugby, careers can die painful and sudden deaths.
Just ask Sam Warburton.
But the financial argument is more nuanced than asking who offers the most cash.
Hogg will play less rugby in Glasgow than in England or France and thus the risk of injury is lower.
For most of his career, he led a largely injury-free existence, but professional rugby fells every player sooner or later. A sickening collision with Conor Murray ended his Lions tour a year ago.
That facial damage, a shoulder problem and subsequent hip injury kept him out for months at a time.
He underwent surgery on a troublesome ankle this week and will miss Scotland’s autumn internationals.
Would he be wiser to stay in Glasgow and accept a lower, but still ample, salary while banking on a longer career?
Hogg has done a lot of growing up since the days of bamboozling the Saxons.
Back then, he could be a bit full of himself.
He was good – very good, widely lionised as the saviour of Scotland’s frequently toothless backline – and he knew it.
There were acts of petulance and symptoms of what we in Scotland would call Daft Laddie Syndrome.
He got big-headed and agitated for a move to Ulster, so Gregor Townsend left him out of Glasgow’s run to their first Pro12 final in 2014.
There was a red card.
There was a dive and there was a Nigel Owens put-down.
That is gone now.
Fatherhood and responsibility has brought maturity.
Hogg has ditched the arrogance but kept his swagger.
He is growing into a fine leader for club and country, the man Glasgow and Scotland turn to when they need dug out of a hole.
He will make this most vital of decisions from a position of strength.
And just as he does on the field, he will back himself unequivocally to call it right.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments