Money Not So Much Talking As Whispering

I HAVE noticed, since I began to blog on the thorny subject of Super-6 and Agenda-3, the forces of what Allan Massie called “Aye Beenism” remain resolute and strong in Scottish Rugby.

Forty-five years ago, when the then SRU decided to instigate the world's first officially-recognised competitive leagues, the reactionaries were screaming, this was the end of civilisation as they knew it. There had to be a place reserved for Glasgow Academicals v Heriot's, or Hawick v Gala, or Glasgow High School FP (as they then were) v Watsonians, regardless of the clubs perhaps being in different divisions.

Indeed, the early seasons of the leagues were organised in such a way that “traditional” fixtures could still be fitted-in; although, in time, reality bit, and I don't think we will be seeing Scotrail running special trains from Edinburgh to Glasgow for a Glasgow Academicals v Heriot's match (as was famously the case in the 1920s), any time soon.

Today, money talks – in the upper levels of the club game, getting people to pay to come through the gates and watch the game is more-important than persuading reasonably-fit young men to play. With money involved in the Open Game of the 21^st century, rugby is no longer a players' game.

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It will take a wee while for things to settle down once S6 kicks-off, but, settle it will, although, I dare say, even once it sorts-out its inevitable teething problems and we are looking at S6 becoming S8 or even S10, there will still be members of the Aye Been club calling it the end of civilisation as we know it and forecasting doom and destruction for all who touch it.

And that's just in Scotland. The atmosphere in Wales is even more volatile. Just this week Wales Online – the digital version of the venerable Western Mail, came up with a cracker – apparently, the WRU is considering amalgamating the four regions, Cardif Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets into just two super-regions, on cost grounds.

Now, I am quite willing to bet, this move, should it happen, will be greeted with as much pleasure as wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why we might even see celebratory beacons lit right up the dragon's back of the Cambrian Mountains, all the way from the Gower Peninsula to llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, and on to Holyhead.

It seems to me, persuading/coercing the Scottish Rugby community into supporting S6 will ultimately prove easier than getting the Welsh to love their regions.

Welsh rugby fans might be happy to turn out to see Ospreys v Cardiff, or Scarlets v Dragons – because, to them, these games are still, to a degree, Swansea v Cardiff, of Llanelli v Newport, and, if the WRU ever ran a survey of spectator attitudes at these games, I reckon they would still find a majority wishing it was the old, traditional clubs they were watching.

Clearly, Welsh Rugby, like Scottish Rugby is suffering from the elephant in the room next door – the influence on the media of the all-powerful English Football Premiership. Although, to be fair, up here it is the media overkill on a couple of middling European football teams whose core supporter base has heehaw to do with football, that is our biggest hurdle.

We keep hearing how only the Irish appear to have themselves sorted-out to handle professional rugby. Well, while there are still plenty of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Celtic and Rangers fans on the isle of Ireland as a whole – theirs is an independent media, not London-based and London-centric; theirs is an independent government, which we understand is sympathetic to the taxation needs of professional sportsmen whose high-earning career will be relatively short. And, most-importantly of all, there are only five full-time, professional sports teams in the whole of Ireland: Belfast Giants ice hockey team, and Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster, the four PRO14 rugby teams.

Given the accumulated debt each Gallacher Premiership club is carrying, and the fact, that in the last season for which figures are available, only Exeter Chiefs broke even, we should also question if full-time, professional rugby is viable even in England.

It clearly is not in Scotland, where the SRU is having to underwrite the two full-time teams, and has had to persuade six clubs to take-on the bulk of the financing and management of the development teams. And now it appears that Wales is also struggling to finance full-time professional rugby.

This then beggars the question – is full-time, professional rugby viable in the British Isles?

Getting a positive answer to that question might be difficult.

I can honestly see an Independent Scotland, having control of our own massive riches from oil, renewables, food and drink, and still part of the EU, as having a chance of sustaining professional rugby. But, if Scotland goes, and a hard Brexit happens, I fear for the future of Welsh and English rugby.

I suppose we could thole beating England and Wales regularly – for a wee while. But, I suspect even the prospect of stuffing the English every year would become boring – maybe after 20 or 30 years or so.

Ach! I'll suffer that for a wee while.

I AM still chuckling at something I witnessed from afar, at Millbrae on Saturday; but didn't get the full details of until later.

Peter Wright - Pulled-up for swearing on Saturday - by a ball boy!!

At one point during the Ayr v Boroughmuir match, Peter Wright was having a lengthy conversation with one of the Ayr ball boys – I thought it was simply Peter being nice to the kid, but not so.

Mr Wright was giving one of his forthright verdicts on one of referee Michael Todd's decisions; the sort of Wright verdict which demonstrates his fluency in early Anglo-Saxon invective. However, this did not sit well with the ball-boy, 11-year-old Fraser Steward, a pupil at Wellington School, Ayr – who immediately told-off the Boroughmuir coach for his bad language.

To be fair to Peter, he did moderate his language thereafter, but, for me, it seems young Fraser, should he choose to, could well be set to follow in the footsteps of one of Wellington's most-famous former pupils – broadcaster Kirsty Wark.