Scottish Rugby Needs To Become The Media

“AYE BEENISM” is one of the traits of Scottish conservatism (small c to indicate it is not about politics), particularly virulent in Scottish Rugby. Unfortunately for the believers in Aye Beenism, in Scottish Rugby today, it is quite clear the follow-up line: “an aye will be,” no longer applies.

If we adhered to Aye Beenism – we would still have an Inter-District Championship, Scotland Trials, and whether or not your club was a “top” one or not would be in the gift of the Rugby Correspondents of The Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman, the Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Record.

The game would be run by committees, stuffed with “blazers” and Murrayfield would still be a vast open bowl with the only seats being in the stands and the schoolboys enclosures.

And, before some of my readers get all misty-eyed and think those were the days – Scotland would probably be being pumped more than we are just now. As the song says, these days are past, and, in the past they must remain.

Bill McLaren and Jock Wemyss

But, back then, Scottish Rugby had a media profile. Giants walked among us: Jock Wemyss, Norman Mair, John Downie, Reg Prophit, Brian Meek and Bill McMurtrie – who is currently quite unwell – get well soon please Bill; not forgetting: “The Voice of Rugby.” Bill McLaren.

Today, with sports desk staffs cut to the bone, and the leading desk jockeys by and large youngsters who confuse “sport” with “football”, rugby has to work three times as hard to get a mention in the national media.

Graham Bean and his team do a sterling job at the much-reduced Scotsman; the Herald, however, is something of a lost cause; but, elsewhere, the likes of Mark Palmer and Alasdair Reid, Louis Stuart and big David Barnes, not forgetting the excellent Weegie R Ugby website, are doing sterling work – while there are a couple of old bar stewards down in God's County of Ayrshire: Ron Evans toiling manfully to provide a first-class results service, and another ancient seer trying his darndest to stimulate debate.

I have often seen it said: “When the media will not cover your particular field – become the media,” sadly, this is an area where the SRU is, I believe, letting itself down badly.

Take last weekend or instance. Edinburgh and Glasgow had crucial Heineken Cup matches, which, to be fair, were very well covered by the media; but, what of the bulk of Scottish Rugby – the main course, the club game?

The Premiership card was an absolute cracker; four of the top five clubs were going head-to-head in games which had an effect on the final regular season table and who goes where in the Premiership play-offs.

Melrose were entertaining Heriot's, while Currie travelled to Watsonians. At the foot of the table, Edinburgh Academicals, having just broken their season-long duck, travelled to Glasgow Hawks in a real basement battle. Just above them, Hawick were hoping the aura of Mansfield Park would undo an Ayr team which, while they were leading the table, has shown some fragility on the road. That's four cracking fixtures.

So, which game did the SRU media department decide to concentrate on? Why, the one fixture on the day which could be described as: “a meaningless mid-table clash,” cauld kale on a day when there were more-appetising dishes available close by – Boroughmuir v Stirling County.

Whoever inside the media department decided the stramash over sixth and seventh places, between two sides – albeit franchise holders – who are 12 points off the pace for participation in the play-off struggle, and a comfortable 16 points above the relegation battle - was the Game of the Day – well that person needs taking out and used for rucking practise.

The best Editor I ever worked for could barely do joined-up writing. He was a screaming, ranting psycho at the best of times. But, working for him was fun, and, he knew exactly the value of every story, and where best to place it in his paper for best value.

The next-best Editor I worked with, again was not a great word-smith, but, as a page layout man, he could polish ordinary copy and make it zing, with headlines that grabbed the reader and pictures which worked.

The second-worst Editor I worked for was a total Diva – a sterling example of the newspaper sub-species: “the Wednesday Witch.” I dubbed her: “The Teflon Magnolia,” because when things went wrong, it was always the fault of her Chief sub: “Boogie,” as in - “blame it on the...” She was a nightmare, but, as a columnist and copy taster: placing stories for best effect, she was first-class.

She and I fought like cat and dog, but, I still treasure the tale, passed-on by another Editor in the local newspaper group for whom we worked of how, subbing a special eight-page motoring feature which I had written single-handedly, she remarked: “He's the most-annoying bastard here, but, he can bloody-well write.”

If the papers will not cover club rugby below the PRO14, then the SRU should be taking-up the challenge. Do what I did at one of the local papers I worked or – devise a simple template for clubs to follow. Writing match reports or the local press is not rocket science – score, scorers, highlight particularly-good displays, and how it affects league position, plus a wee plug for the next game, particularly if it is a home one.

That's all you need, but, put them in regularly and your local paper will use them. Do not, as my local club does, say nothing when you are on a losing run, then write War and Peace when you finally win. Newspapers today do not have the staff, and all too often sadly, the expertise to do what I did to a particularly verbose would-be journalist one week.

At 9pm on the Tuesday night – we published on Wednesday morning, I was told we had had to drop pages, so it was a slash and burn job on the sports section, which forced me to take the 1500 words of the rugby report and cut it down to 150, without missing-out anything crucial – a job I accomplished to my, and Boogie's satisfaction, but, which had the writer with steam coming out of his ears when the paper was published.

Side-lined by football overkill, Scottish Rugby has to: “become the media” and the SRU media department needs to get its act together and do this, because, without the oxygen of publicity, the game might die at grass-roots level.