THE newly-introduced Conferences at schools and youth rugby level in Scotland appear to be working. Certainly, rugby writers such as my old friend Alan Lorimer are managing to get some articles on them into the Herald and The Scotsman - the two "heavy" Scottish newspapers, whose rugby coverage has been going south at a fair old lick since out and out football writers began to be promoted to executive level.
However, it will take a wheen o years before true democracy, or more-correctly meritocracy breaks out in Scottish rugby. The top clubs still dominate the top club conferences, while the same coterie of "public schools" still dominate the top schools conference.
I honestly don't know if it will be possible for schools, particularly state schools which really push rugby, to eventually break into the top conference, but, I hope the mechanism for this is put into place.
It is the same in the club conferences, where I note, in the lowest "Brown Conference", Cumnock, the lowest-ranked club, are right in the mix to win the thing. More power to their elbow.
The thing is, while the conferences will be won on a whole-club basis - every team at every level contributes - still, the newspaper focus is on the likes of the Under-18 results. I appreciate, the Under-18s are, indeed, the "big boys", but, by emphasising these results and perhaps ignoring results at a younger age groups, a false picture of strengths and weaknesses might arise.
It is all very well having a good Under-18 team, battling at the top of that age group's league. However, if there are age groups being missed-out lower down, or poorer results in the younger age groups, then that club, on the surface doing well, is headed for a fall.
I always treat over-emphasis on a single age group in any club with caution. Age group competition is all about building for a secure future for your club. It is a difficult balancing act to pull-off, but, you have to keep one eye on the future, or you are doomed.
A piece of history might explain what happens when a club gets it wrong. Some years back, Wigtownshire RFC suddenly found itself with a pack of forwards as good as any. Mind you that pack had about three surnames - there was Scotland B cap Hugh Parker, perhaps the unluckiest forward never to win a full cap - his younger brother John and a whole coterie of Drysdales, brothers and cousins.
This forward power blasted 'Shire up through the leagues, but, there was no future planning, nothing underneath and as that team, which included the SRU's Stevie Gemmell, broke-up, 'Shire's fortunes plummeted. Today, they play in West Division Three, which is about as low as a club can go.
Portobello FP can tell a similar story. The school produced one good XV, who stuck together, got the club up through the leagues, but, as with that great Wigtownshire team mentioned above, once marriage, job responsibilities and retirements kicked in, "Porty" sank, today to East Division Two.
My own Cumnock club, early-on in its life, had a cracking team, based on a fearsome pack, which reached the semi-final of the Glasgow Knock-Out Cup, where they gave a West side including internationalists Gordon Brown, Jimmy Currie and Lionel Weston, plus Ian Murchie - who should have been capped - a real fright, before Ardrossan Academical Murchie decreed: "I cannot lose to these Cumnock bar stewards": Ayrshrie rivalries run deep, and West won it at the death.
That Cumnock team was poised to rise through the ranks, but, within a year between accidental death, retirement, injuries and re-location, only two of the XV were still with the club. Today, nearly 50-years later, Cumnock is still not back to the standard whey were at then.
However, a youth development policy - which has already produced Mark Bennett - is now beginning to bear fruit and Cumnock's future appears bright.
IT IS the unspoken fear of everyone in Scottish Rugby - that Gregor Townsend might be enticed away from Glasgow, to the richer lands of the Aviva Premiership or the French Top 14.
Clearly, after his exploits over the last two seasons, "Toony" is a hot ticket; and we can only hope the SRU makes him an offer which will keep him at Scotstoun, at least until, as he surely must, he succeeds Vern Cotter as Scotland Coach.
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