DODSON MUST GO - PLUS SEVERAL OTHERS

  Taxi for Dodson

 

THIS blog has, for some time now, been very-supportive of another rugby blog – the excellent: THE OFFSIDE LINE, set-up and run by big David Barnes.

Today, big Barney has excelled himself, with his four-part expose of the machinations on the part of Ayatollah Dodson and his Gang, in the crude dismissal of former head of Domestic Rugby Keith Russell; and the revelation that Dodson's dodgy dismissal will cost the SRU a six-figure settlement sum, after Russell, father of course of the mercurial Finn, won his Unfair Dismissal case against the Union.

There can be only one outcome to this:

DODSON MUST GO – and quickly

and, I think he should take one or two others of the Stab in the Back Gang with him.

I do not intend here to quote at length from David's excellent journalistic work, work which once again exposes the failings of the mainstream media in Scotland, who ought to have been all over the case, and the failings of the Union which it has exposed, like a rash.

Do log into The Offside Line and read the four articles – I urge you

This is a seminal moment for the SRU, on the field we are doing well. Overnight, in Edmonton, a youthful and inexperienced Scotland team produced some hugely-entertaining and encouraging rugby in beating a game but limited Canada. Internationally, we are in a good place.

At professional level, with new coaches still bedding-in and trying to assemble “their” teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow had good seasons, indeed, with one or two better breaks, they might have had great seasons.

But, this was assembled on the foundations of a domestic club game in turmoil, with clan wars breaking out all over the place and under the overall control of paid executives, a Board and a Council who, apparently don't give a fuck about the game's main stakeholders – The Clubs.

I know, it's an old Scottish failing – when we don't have the English to fight, we just fight among ourselves. But, stop, think for a moment:

What might Scottish Rugby do if we were all singing off the same hymn sheet?

The forth-coming SRU AGM, in August, already promised to be a tetchy, bad-tempered affair, with the Russell Affair now out in the open, it just got a lot worse. Realistically, Dodson and several of his henchmen, such as the LSJ, really have no alternative but to consider their positions and, I would suggest, start drafting resignation letters.

And, our supine Councillors really have to take a really hard look at themselves in the mirror, because their failings in not holding Dodson & Co to account, got us to this current awful state.

Keith Russell (pic courtesy of Craig Watson)

Take this quote from Keith Russell, recounting a meeting with Dodson, three months before he (Russell) had even started working for the SRU:

“The main thing he [Dodson] talked about for an hour was wanting to keep the [SRU] Council quiet. He had a problem with the Council getting involved in things. This wasn’t all that long after the AGM where they’d knocked back the Super Eight proposals, and he said the Council: 'was just getting in the way'.”

If recent experience is anything to go by, Dodson has, indeed, “kept the Council quiet,” and stopped them: “getting in the way.” But, at what cost to Scottish club rugby?

The judgement of an employment tribunal, revealed during the week just past was: that - “Russell’s dismissal was, indeed, ‘procedurally and substantively unfair’.”

Keith Russell said himself, more in sorrow than anger:

 

“It is so disappointing to realise that the guys at the top are not good guys and do not represent the values and culture of rugby.”

So, here is a question for everyone with the good of Scottish Rugby at heart: Do we continue to let the bad guys run things – or do we stand up for the game and get rid? I think the answer to that is obvious – so, what are the clubs, the bodies being disadvantaged and used by these bad guys, do about it.

Do we leave them to continue to do their worst, or do we fight back and cut out the poison? Again, I think the answer is obvious.

And, they are still doing it – in spite of the damning verdict of the Industrial Tribunal.

I received word from a very-senior gentleman in Scottish Rugby, to the effect that, although would-be vice president Jim Littlefair (the Chinese restaurant – Jim Who?) is in Canada as part of the official SRU touring party – at last week's National League 2 and 3 hustings, in clear breach of SRU rules on elections – the President, Lance-Corporal Jones himself, was actively lobbying on behalf of the missing candidate.

Lance-Corporal Jones - breaking his Union's own rules to lobby for The Chinese Restaurant we hear

If a vice-presidential candidate, dependant for support and for getting the job, on securing the votes of the clubs, can take himself off on an all-expenses-paid jolly to the Americas, during the run-up to an election, in which he is a candidate – does that speak volumes in contempt for his electorate?

Then, to have the President himself lobbying for that missing candidate – that's 'Trumpton' in action for me.

Any way, with a final reminder that a fish rots from the head down, and, yet another plug for the best blog in Rugby Union – I close by urging you to read all about it in The Offside Line. Now, I am off for a shower.