Good Things Are Happening - Albeit Slowly - But They Are Not Being Adequately Explained To Us

I HAD an interesting chat this week with a couple of real rugby men, who know their way around Murrayfield's corridors of power. They are, over some things, every bit as disappointed as the ordinary guys out there in club-land at how things are going.

But, their message was: “Be patient, things are happening, albeit slowly and probably more-slowly than most of us would wish, but, things are happening and better days are coming.”

I asked them about the notion, the “suits” are more concerned about the professional and performance side of the game, to the detriment of grass-roots club rugby, but, not unreasonably they pointed-out – the SRU's game plan is based on a successful Scotland side generating the cash to run the game, so, obviously, the first thing is to get the side of the game that generates the money right, so there is money to filter down to the clubs.

There is genuine excitement inside Murrayfield at Sheila Begbie's planning on what is now the Rugby Development Department, covering the notionally amateur club game. Some of the new business managers appointed have arrived with an impressive CV, and are already showing the required quality of expertise.

Assistance is there for club development, provided the clubs seek to benefit from this available help. But, there is an acceptance that in some areas, such as promoting the game, the SRU and Scottish Rugby in general is not performing as well as it might.

With this in-view, I will hopefully be blogging shortly on one or two “good news” stories which have not yet been as widely-circulated as they should be. Good things are happening, albeit slowly.

Gavin MacColl QC - publication of his report is imminent

I HEAR, when Gavin MacColl QC's governance group report shortly – hopefully before the end of this month, the recommendation will be for three National Leagues – a reduction of one from the current position.

This, rightly, takes Super-6 out of the league set-up. This is an invitation tournament, it is not a normal league, subject to promotion and relegation. So, we will have, at the top of the SRU “pyramid”:

SCOTLAND

Edinburgh - Glasgow

S6 : Ayr – Boroughmuir – Heriot's – Melrose – Stirling County – Watsonians

30 Clubs : Premiership/Championship – National League 1 – National League 2

120-plus Clubs : Caledonia – East – West Regional Leagues

There may also be changes to the make-up of Regional Leagues. There may well be a ten-club limit on divisional numbers, while cognisance is being taken of cutting-down the distances teams are being asked to travel to play Regional League games.

The notion of the likes of Annan having to travel to play Lochaber in the West Regional Leagues is being looked at. Indeed, I have heard talk of a sort of football Champions League format being introduced.

This would see something like the South-West League or Greater Glasgow League being played in the first part of the season, while in the second part the top teams in each of these leagues would play-off for say: The West Region League Cup.

The next bloc of teams would then play-off for the West Region League Bowl with the remainder playing for the West Region League Plate. With the same set-up working in the other regions.

There also appears to be a wide-spread feeling, shutting down for the Autumn Internationals is a bad move, and a lot of thought is going into how this can be overcome. As things stand, clubs kick-off their season, play nine or ten games, then, at a time when the pitches are still good and enthusiasm is still high, everything shuts down for three or four weeks, and by the time they get going again, Christmas is looming – so some guys opt-out until after New Year.

But, they are barely back in-harness again, when the 6Nations rears its ugly head, and we see more games unplayed – leading to a back-log which sees amateur guys still playing rugby in mid-to-late May; which is a nonsense.

The guys at Murrayfield, in particular those Council members whose constituencies are in the Regional Leagues, are well aware of the problems, and are seeking to solve them – in spite of the fact, getting agreement on anything from Scotland's rugby clubs is a wee bit like trying to herd cats.

I have, in the past, been a bit hard on the suits. I still have a wee bit of concern over the activities of one or two of the hired hands, but, I now am prepared to cut the volunteers, who put a heck of a lot of time into making Scottish Rugby work a lot more slack.

NO QUESTION what is the big event of today. It has to be the Edinburgh v Montpellier Heineken Cup clash at BT Murrayfield.

Of course, all of us, even the most-myopic member of the Warrior Nation, wants to see Edinburgh win. On home turf, they are certainly more than able to do this, but, the thing which is out of the hands of Richard Cockerill and his squad is this – just which Montpellier team will turn up.

Will Stern Vern be laughing at around 9.30pm tonight? 

Their European dream is still alive, and, can anyone honestly see Stern Vern Cotter not sending out a squad determined to win. At their best, Edinburgh can win and, in the process give a boost to Glasgow's qualification hopes, but, it will not be easy, even if they can, somehow, take the Cotter/Hines factor out of the equation.

Cockerill has name a full-strength squad, which, as-ever in 1-23 order is:

Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally (CAPTAIN), WP Nel, Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Bill Mata; Henry Pyrgos, Jaco van der Walt; Duhan van der Merwe, Chris Dean, James Johnstone, Darcy Graham; Blair Kinghorn. Replacements: David Cherry, Allan Dell, Simon Berghan, Fraser McKenzie, Luke Crosbie, Nathan Fowles, Simon Hickey, Juan Pablo Socino.
Unavailable due to injury: Pietro Ceccarelli, Rory Sutherland, Lewis Carmichael, John Barclay, Magnus Bradbury, Senitiki Nayalo, Luke Hamilton, Matt Scott, Mark Bennett, Damien Hoyland.

Good luck to the squad and the Edinburgh fans.