Good Luck Sean Lineen - You Will Need It

AS PATRIOTISM is the last refuge of a scoundrel – then National Treasures are apparently the last refuge of the under-fire SRU suits. That's my take on this morning's announcement that Sean Lineen will be in overall charge of what I shall continue to call STUPID-6.

Sean Lineen - has been handed the S6 poisoned chalice

To be fair, putting Scotland's favourite Kilted Kiwi in-charge at least gives this badly-thought-out plook on the face of Scottish Rugby a chance of maybe working. But, as I think Sean will find – getting this one to work may be his toughest job since he first came to Scotland. I wish him all the luck in the world, he will need it.

[Mind you, I would have gone further, and given Sean oversight of the entire performance department. Who would you rather see as Director of Rugby: Sean Lineen or the Lesser-Spotted Johnson? That's a no-brainer for me.]

But, while I am certain the excellent Mr Lineen will move mountains to make it work, a couple of points. Just as getting Toony, Fin Calder and the Bear to speak at the recent agm was a blatant ploy to try to divert a meeting, already running away from them, back onto the course being plotted by The Fat Controller and the minions; well I see getting Sean to pick-up the poisoned chalice is maybe their way of trying to stop this runaway cart-load of shite that is Stupid-6 from crashing and polluting the game for a long, long time.

Any way, the Lineen appointment is a wee bit of good news for TFC and the gang, but, it's a diversion from the general swamp draining which needs to be continued at The Circus. Which, in case you've forgotten, is what some of the elves call Murrayfield – because the clowns are running things.

The top priority is to get Lesley Thomson's wide-ranging review completed and published, then reviewed by the clubs, with the appropriate heads rolling where necessary. Then, we can move on to priority two – sorting-out the S6 clusterfuck. This leads on to Agenda-3, and you thought Brexit was complicated.

Leaving aside the basic premise – we do need a bridge between amateur club rugby and the professional game – S6 has been a series of disasters. The clubs, including the six clubs who have been awarded franchises have not perhaps been lied to by TFC and the Minions, but, they have, to my mind, been seduced by an accomplished snake oil salesman and have bought a product which, as envisaged, cannot work.

And that is continuing. I am still struggling to find anyone in Wales who can see the proposed cross-border competition happening. My intelligence from the Valleys – if that's not an oxymoron, is: “It is far from the “done deal,” TFC so gleefully announced on 4 August.

I am not saying it will not happen, but, let's just say, if they had had even a hint of a cross-border competition with English clubs, the Taffia would already be arranging it. A Taffia v Scotia Nostra gig is nothing like as-enticing.

The big sticking points around S6 are these:

• S6 was originally conceived by the Performance Department
  
  
• It will now be overseen by someone from the Performance Department
  
  
• BUT – TFC says it is part of Domestic Rugby
  
  
• To use an everyday Glasgow expression: “HOW?”
  
  
• If it comes under Domestic Rugby, the clubs have the right to where the associate “amateur” clubs of the S6 play
  
  
• The S6 want these clubs to be playing in the National Leagues
  
  
• The other clubs will say: “No, the Glasgow Hawks protocol applies – the amateur teams have to start from the lowest regional league”
  
  
• The S6 will say: “Without our amateur clubs in the National Leagues, S6 cannot work”
  
  
• The other clubs will say: “Tough luck, you cannot have your cake and eat it”
  
  
• If S6 is part of Domestic Rugby, how come it has a Murrayfield-appointed overseer and not, as with the other National and Regional Leagues, a Council representative, elected by his peers to act on behalf of the clubs in that particular league or regional leagues

I said way back in August, 2017, when TFC pulled-out S6, like a rabbit from a hat, towards the end of the agm, it looked like a District set-up, without the D-word attached. Two teams in each of the Regions, acting as beacons of excellence in that region – that made sense. That was sellable to the other clubs.

What we have ended up with, three franchises in Edinburgh, none in Glasgow; the area further north than the first couple of hundred metres of the north bank of the Forth reduced to: “Here be dragons” on the SRU map – that's a nonsense.

Already, Glasgow Hawks' future is looking grim, which is irony itself. Hawks, as originally conceived by Brian Simmers and his team, was something akin to a franchise, as it seemed a year ago. Now, insiders admit, this club is facing possible closure.

Brian Simmers, a visionary who has had to fight vested interests all the way

Simmers' brave vision of 21-years ago was scuppered by the forces of the self-interested “Bufties”. Throughout the club's history, it has had to fight its enemy within, the backwoodsmen on either side of the Anniesland fence.

Then, when Hawks produced a franchise document which actually more-closely matched the template everyone ought to have been working to, they were never going to have an associated amateur team - than some which succeeded: it was booted into the long grass.

I can only think, this was SRU control-freakery gone nuclear. Did they really fear a same city rival to Warriors that much? I can see no other reason for Hawks not getting a franchise.

IF Hawks closes, it will not be the last club to go. And if the S6 clubs have their associate amateur clubs placed in a National League – and the six all appear to want that to be National League 1, then, for all their protestations of innocence, we will see “warehousing” of players and Hawks will not be the only club liable to go under.

Sean, did you really think this through before saying Yes to TFC?