Monday's Meeting Fairly Got Folk Talking

MONDAY night's Dundee HSFP/Midlands District meeting at Howe of Fife certainly stirred things up in the Super 6 debate. I was snowed under yesterday with comments, all of which were very interesting.

 Gerry Tosh of Dundee HSFP, whose club were the drivers of Monday's meeting

Can I say from the start, IF, as Mark Dodson insists: Super 6 will happen, and IF, as the SRU seem keen not to admit, part of the reasoning is to have “District” teams, without going back to Districts (Dodson has said he wants the Super 6 clubs to take the lead in driving-up standards in their Districts), then the SRU should be funding and fully-managing these “District” teams.

Otherwise, he is asking clubs to take on a huge financial commitment and risk, for not a lot. But, assuming it goes ahead, then I see nothing wrong with a side based in Dundee, as a magnet for ambitious players in that part of Scotland.

But, this is Scotland, the land of the clan wars, I can only speak for my own part – Ayrshire, where: “Anywhere But Ayr” is advice still given to young players seeking to move up the rugby ladder. I assume that also happens elsewhere. Declaring six clubs to be better than the rest is a recipe for simmering discontent in the body of the kirk, which might, at any time, cause grief for the Murrayfield “suits”.

One btl (somebody asked – it means “below the line” - comment by a reader below the text being read) comment yesterday pretty-much nailed it for me:

“One of the things that strikes me is that this is a large scale change project with many elements. You referenced this in your Brexit piece.

“So where is the change plan? What are the success criteria? What is the contingency?

“It’s the working across the multiple features that concerns me.
* create a new tier of “part time “ rugby in Scotland
* reshape the rest of the men’s club game
* build sustainable clubs
* increase playing numbers, volunteers, referees

“All through telling the clubs how it will happen and how fantastic the future is going to be.

“On top of that what change leadership do the people tasked with delivering this project have?

“Without getting too melodramatic it feels like they are fighting on multiple fronts with stakeholders that have very different needs, requirements and goals.

“Effective change leaders would be pointing this out and have plans in place to manage these undoubted dependencies and conflicts. Not just bashing on with great hope and promise.

“What can possibly go wrong?”

As I have said before, the plans appear half-arsed, and Dodson doing his Jean-Luc Picard impression and telling the troops to: “make it so”, isn't going to work in the real world.

Is this who Mr Dodson sees in his shaving mirror as he ponder Super 6?

There is even arguments as to whether or not he can pull it off , as another reader asked – back to comments:

“The governance issue around (a bye-law to act) is intriguing. I'm sure the Executive has the power to form a new entity such as a semi,part time, non professional well a wee bit professional or whatever they try to describe it as league but they do not have the power to force the reserve teams into the league's below.

“On to the legal aspects and Clubs better have the best lawyers prepared to read the small print as they could fine themselves with rather frightening levels of debt around their necks and those of their members.

“Synthetic pitches? Unless I had a watertight legal agreement from SRU I don't believe they will be built. Lots more to add but hopefully more people will come on board with their comments and views.”

Another reader immediately jumped in with this:

“Sadly they do have the power. Bye-law 15.1 and 15.1.2 specifically gives the Board the power to do so

“15.1 The Union may perform the following matters acting directly or through Scottish Rugby Union plc, namely:-

“15.1.1. The achievement of the objects of the Union.

“15.1.2 The management of the whole affairs of the Union and/or of the game of rugby football.

“15.1.3 The exercise of any power granted to the Union in terms of the Bye-Laws.

So, it would appear from this, the Executive pretty much have carte blanche to do as they will, except, another readers came-up with this:

“The fact is that the precedents have been set. In recent years any changes to the league structure whether proposed by the Board or the Clubs has been by formal motions proposed for approval at the AGM I think any lawyer would find that difficult to argue with. Oh the joys of the vaguerisms of the law. !!!”

I thought I'd pitch this into the argument

 

One of the points which has exercised many minds around Scotland is the smallish issue of the six clubs being willing/able to lay down synthetic pitches by the end of the initial five-year franchise period. Another reader of the blog posted this interesting view:

Just a wee reminder of a comment in The Scotsman from Jan 2018:

Rudy Dentler - 2 months ago

“Having done some work with SportScotland I can promise you that they will not be able to provide significant funding towards these pitches, their budgets have been cut drastically and projects of this ilk are no longer a priority.

“My interpretation of what was said by Dodson was that they would help get funding partners on board but that was a very loose and non-committal promise.

“There's no way that clubs will get the pitches fully funded, you're talking half a million each not including peripherals such as fencing and floodlighting etc.”

Finally, there is the intriguing question of: which clubs will go for this? Apparently, at Monday night's meeting, it was revealed the SRU had had 13 serious declarations of interest. Of course, it goes without saying, these may not progress to 13 returned franchise documents or bids, but, the $64,000 question is – which clubs?

As far as we can discover: Ayr, Melrose, a combined Borders bid (Gala, Hawick, Jed-forest, Kelso and Selkirk), Dundee HSFP, Highland, Stirling County, a combined Glasgow Hawks/West of Scotland bid, and, apparently one from a University are interested – that's eight. Nothing known from Edinburgh, home lest we forget of four of the current ten BT Premiership clubs, and, unless the mystery University is Aberdeen, nothing from the Granite City, long seen as an SRU target for the mythical third pro team. Where are these other bidders?

Still, only two and a half weeks until the bidding process closes, and the fun starts.