I HAVE always believe Jim Telfer got it right, when he (allegedly) pushed through the idea of Scotland going to two full-time professional teams, playing in the Celtic/Italian league and in Europe.
Hard though it has been for some people to accept, Telfer's dictum that, you need a potential half-million strong fan base for a professional team to survive, is correct. The Borders may be the heartland of Scottish Rugby, but, economically, far less emotionally, where the rugby public will turn out in all weathers (allbeit these days in diminished numbers) to watch the toon team, but wouldn't cross the road to watch a Borders pro side - and they certainly, if from Hawick, Melrose, Kelso, Selkirk, Langholm or anywhere else, wouldn't head for Netherdale, in case they put a penny in Gala's pocket.
Just as, in football, without managerial geniuses such as Fergie or the crabbitist of the McLean brothers, the rest cannot hope to match the Old Firm in Europe, in rugby, even our biggest club sides would be too-wee to compete, unless some big-hearted billionaire rugby fanatic fancied lightening his wallet.
So, I think we are stuck with two pro teams for the immediate future. However, we still haven't got the under-pinning right. I believe in the RBS Premiership, not least because, while its football near-equivalent, the SOFL Premiership is all about, at the moment: "who's going to be second" - to become: "Who's going to be third", if ever Rangers get their act together; in rugby, this is a terrific competition, in which any team can potentially beat any other team.
However, I feel the SRU still hasn't cottoned onto just how good a competition it is, and doesn't give it enough praise or promotion.
That said, as was shown, somewhat starkly, at the weekend - for all the effort put in by our semi-professional amateurs from the Premiership (semi-professional amateurs, by the way, is not an oxymoron - can anyone else come up with a better description for our Premiership players?), against the full-timers fromEngland's second tier, they were badly mauled. The gap is there and it is growing. Murrayfield minds have to put in some hard thinking to find a way of, initially, stopping the gap from growing, and, in the longer term, narrowing and indeed closing it.
We have to have a system whereby players from the likes of Ayr, Hawks, Gala, Hawick, Melrose and Heriot's, and the rest, can seamlessly step-up if needed, to Edinburgh or the Warriors, while those full-time pros not in any given match-day squad, can be kept working in the Premiership.
This, of course, will take money; and that's another area of discord. I heard one club president, who knows his way around a balance sheet, at the weekend waxing less than lyrical about the fact that the second-tier RFU member side which had just inflicted a big beating on his Scottish side received between £250,000 and £500,000 per annum from the RFU - the Scottish side gets nothing from Murrayfield.
OK, there is no way Murrayfield could hand-out anything like that sum to the 12 Premiership teams, but, a wee bit more largesse - provided it was channeled into developing Scottish players, rather than recruiting overseas mercenaries - just might prevent future humpings such as we saw at the weekend.
In case anyone hasn't noticed in the four RFU Sides v SRU Sides British & Irish Cup ties at the weekend, the aggregate score was 232-47 in favour of the sides which play south of the Solway.
Money itself will not close that gap, but, money and energy, properly targetted and spent, will, in the long run.
Can we please stop being Scottish, end the inter-clan warfare and sniping and pull together for the common good? The benefits will spread downwards.
To do nothing, to guddle along as we have been since professionalism arrived, will not do either.
No comments:
Post a Comment