Football And Rugby Do Development Differently

WHEN I was growing-up in East Ayrshire, in the simpler days of the 1950s and early 1960s – we were not bombarded daily by media hype of English football, sure, we knew who Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Billy Wright were. We knew of Manchester United before Munich, February, 1958 altered the world's view of that club; of Arsenal and Tottenham and Newcastle United.

Closer to home, we were aware, somewhere in Scotland there were teams called Rangers and Celtic, that Hearts and Hibs were Edinburgh rivals, and about Dundee and Aberdeen. Bertie Black, whose papers I delivered on a Sunday was a star with Kilmarnock, as was Andy Kerr, while Eric Caldow from nearby Cumnock was captain of Rangers and Scotland.

Jimmy Collins: Lugar Boswell Thistle, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion - a childhood hero

However, our football focus was on our local junior club. In my case Lugar Boswell Thistle. Our glorious run to the Scottish Junior Cup Final in 1956 remains a sporting highlight of my life, and if asked to name my best-ever team, I reply: Fraser; Love and Cathie; McEwan, Baird and Donnelly; Bingham, Collins, Sharp, Neil and Wilkie – that Lugar XI. Just last week, I penned Jimmy Collins' obituary, a reminder of how time moves on.

Any way, the “Jaggy Bunnets, now, as then, were a stand-along team. There were the XI on the park, plus maybe another nine reserves, who got an occasional game. They recruited new players from the local juvenile (under-21 football) and youth (under-18) teams. Youth football then was mainly schools-based, although, the very best local youth players were increasingly being enticed away to the likes of Ayr Boswell, or the Kilmarnock youth sides such as Saxone, Bellfield, or Kilmarnock Amateurs.

I never even knew there was a game called rugby, until big brother started playing it at Cumnock Academy. He was 11, I was 7 when I discovered the game and new heroes such as Ken Scotland and Tony O'Reilly soon emerged.

Ken Scotland - my first rugby hero

Local rugby worked on the same principle as local football. You played for your school: First Year, Second Year, Third Year teams; then, at Cumnock Academy anyway, Second then First XV. You then left, if you went to University, you generally played there, if you went to work, prior to Cumnock being formed in 1961, you joined Ayr or Kilmarnock and worked up through the XVs.

Then, some years down the line, it changed. The Teachers' Strike of the early 1980s was the death blow for much of schools rugby, and, from being a bit of a closely-guarded secret, mini-rugby, driven by the clubs, suddenly took wings and flew.

Today, there is very little organised schools rugby, outside the public schools sector. Gone or the days, which I enjoyed, when Cumnock Academy faced: Ayr Academy, Marr College, Irvine Royal Academy, Ardrossan Academy, Dalry High School, Spiers School, Kilmarnock Academy – the other Ayrshire senior secondaries; then travelled to Glasgow to face Shawlands Academy, Bellahouston Academy, Queen's Park Secondary, and on to Dumbarton to play Keil School. We also played Dalziel High School in Motherwell and Dumfries Academy and St Joseph's College.

Indeed, by the time we got into the clubs, personal and club rivalries were already well-established. That's just in Ayrshire, the same scenario was being played-out across Scotland.

Today, it is possible for the likes of Scotland Club XV captain Peter McCallum to have grown-up playing through from Primary 4 initiate to an international player with the same club, Ayr. That cannot so-easily happen in football. With the round ball, at every stage, from Under-8 age group upwards, bigger clubs are watching and assessing, cherry-picking the talented youngster they think might make it.

Pete McCallum - has been around Millbrae since he was in nappies

Let's compare Ayr RFC's youth development set-up, with that at Ayr United FC. United, under Ian McCall, went full-time last season, having previously been a part-time club. Both clubs take youth development seriously and have large development sections.

United take-in kids almost as soon as they can walk, to their 'Mini-Kickers' sessions on a Saturday morning, and gradually they move through the age groups, until the being playing seriously at Under-11 age group.

However, under the SFA's 'Project Brave' – once the young wannabee is aged 11, only he very best are kept on at United, or any of the other 18 club Academies which have met the SFA's Academy criteria. The rest, if they want to continue playing, have to find another youth team in which to play, and only a very small number of those cast-out at that young age will ever battle back to play football at senior level.

Ayr Rugby Club's youth section takes in players, boys and girls, at Primary 1 level and takes them through to adult level. Scotland internationalists Pat McArthur Gordy Reid, Scotland 7s squad members Robbie Fergusson and Gavin Lowe, Under-20 cap Paddy Dewhirst and the afore-mentioned Pete McCallum are just some of the graduates to come through the Millbrae ranks.

The Ayr Rugby Academy, run by Head Coach and former Scotland Under-21 cap Stewart Fenwick and wih Kiwi Frazier Climo and other Ayr first team squad members Danny McCluskey – a strength and conditioning specialist, and McCallum and Dewhirst as assistant coaches, does, like the Ayr United one, focus on the most-promising talent, with structured development throughout the crucial teenage years.

But, unlike across town at Somerset Park, at Millbrae, if a young player does not make the cut, he can still continue with the club, since, at the moment, only the top 45 or so teenaged boys and some 15 teenaged girls are actual Academy students. The rest, still get to play in the the pink and black hoops, and, who knows, perhaps a late developer or two will come through as well. For the rest, there will still be the joys of “Coarse Rugby” with Millbrae, the Ayr social XV.

Ayr's youth development also takes in an element of work in local schools, through the South Ayrshire Schools Conference. This involves offering rugby coaching and inter-school games between Ayr, Belmont, Kyle and Queen Margaret Academies – the four secondary schools in Ayr, along with Prestwick Academy – Pat McArthur's old school and Girvan Academy; with girls rugby also on offer at Carrick and Auchinleck Academies.

 Scotland Sevens star Robbie Fergusson - another to come through the ranks a Millbare

Ayr also has a strong tie-in with the local public school, Wellington School, alma mater of broadcaster Kirsty Wark and Robbie Fergusson, so, the Millbrae club is certainly doing its bit to nurture the game. There certainly seems to be a more holistic approach to development at Millbrae than at Somerset Park.

One of my fears with regard to Stupid-6 is – Ayr RFC might well, if the franchises somehow survive, become like Ayr United, and only be interested in developing the very best local youngsters. The “Coarse Rugby” player, happy to play down the club, will vanish, and with him will go one of the great joys of the game – playing for fun.

By the way: still no word from Billy McHarg, that he will take-up my offer to meet and explain to me why S6 is going to be everything wonderful and the future of Scottish Rugby. Although, another of the Millbrae zealots, was meeting another of Scotish Rugby's “Last Of The Summer Wine” cast this morning to try to convince him of S6's merits.