Some Readers' Feedback On What 2019 Might Hold

YESTERDAY'S first blog of 2019 saw me looking forward to what we might see in this new year. It brought some interesting comments, from regular readers of and contributors to Aristotle.

Pegj, often a voice of sanity and thought-provoking comment on matters West Region, had this to say in his btl (below the line) comment:

Sean LIneen, the SRU's Man For All Seasons is favourite to succeed the Lesser-Spotted Johnson

“Re Scott Johnson replacement:

A cost conscious option would be someone like Sean Lineen. An ambitious option would be going out and headhunting someone with hands-on experience of another system that consistently works.

Re Cumnock (in-fact all West Regional Clubs) - it's sounding like Clubs need some clarity on what promotion and relegation is going to look like this season.

Obviously, the Super 6 Club XV balls-up is a great unknown, but what we do know is that West Clubs voted for leagues of 10 next season, so we should definitely have three down from West 1 this season (assuming one up from West 2), but it could be more depending on any West Clubs coming down from National 1 (and the 3rd relegation spot there looks like it will be close).

It's a tough ask for Cumnock to stay up (currently 13 points behind 9th spot), but a couple of wins in January will make things interesting, whilst three wins from four this month would really put the cat amongst the pigeons.”

As usual, pegj was on the button with his comments. 'Kilted Kiwi 1,' Sean Lineen, is normally the SRU's go-to guy when they have an internal problem on the playing side to fix. Appointing him Director of Performance Rugby would make sense, since he is already responsible for player development via the age group teams and the Forsoc Rugby Academy.

I will not be surprised if Sean does indeed get the Johnson gig when he departs. This would leave him looking after the performance game, with Sheila Begbie looking after the grass-roots side of things.

To be honest, since we know it will take an unprecedented volte face for S6 not to happen, the focus will now in this calendar year, shift to sorting-out the regular club game.

But, right now, Gavin MacColl QC is the main player

Here, at the moment, we are in QI territory – nobody knows what will happen. What we need is for Gavin McColl QC and his governance group to report soon, so the suggestions can be made, properly discussed and implemented, either by an SGM, of, at the latest, at the AGM.

I can definitely see a reduction in the number of National Leagues. At the moment, we have something like 160 clubs participating in regular league play – over 40 of these, more than a quarter, play in National Leagues – this, for me, is too-high a figure and is making unreasonable travel demands on some clubs. As I said in a btl reply to pegj:

“I think we will see a reduction in the number of National Leagues, and, assuming at least National 3 goes, that will mean possibly all five West clubs in that league being demoted to Regional status. What happens after that is open to conjecture.

Personally, I would not be against more-localised regional leagues, if you see what I mean. But, as you say, so-much is up in the air, and, we really need some guidance and clarity on several issues, well before the AGM.”

Pegj then came back with this interesting and intelligent take on the whole affair:

“How many Clubs playing at National level is an interesting discussion, and I'm hoping that's where Gavin MacColl's review comes in. I also hope this review will be far more encompassing that a few paper based exercises asking what people want, and then asking similar questions again when you don't get the answer you were expecting.

We need a proper debate about what the Club game needs to look like in 10 years time - not what we have seen recently of the Premiership being unable to come to a consensus so a structure which nobody wants is imposed on everyone.

Me personally, I'd go for two National leagues of either 10 or 12 (the Super 6 Club sides would initially be excluded from this), and then regional below this. The first regional league would be of 10, and then below that there would be flexibility on numbers, how promotion & relegation works, and how reserve teams are included in the competitions.

Would there be minimum criteria for entry to the National leagues? Well there's another debate.”

'Clubfan', another regular reader, then joined in with this contribution:

“I agree pegj. The MacColl stuff is going to have to compelling and built on sound rationale. Given the questionnaires I’m not convinced but still hold out hope.
A strong vision of the future and a description of how we get there would be a good first start.”

Looking beyond S6, to the suggested S8 and maybe S10 – it is then that my point about criteria for top National League status comes in. Let's assume, S6 works and begins to feed exciting, talented young players through to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SRU Board would then have to decide: do we expand our professional arm, with a view to getting back to three or even four full-time professional sides, playing in the Celtic League? Or is our focus in ramping-up the number of Scottish-reared players capable of playing at that level, so we don't need to import Southern Hemisphere players?

That's the question which I think will require answering, hopefully within the initial five-year term of S6. Then, if they go for a third, or a third and fourth professional teams – they will definitely need to expand S6 to S8 or S10.

In which case, Clubfan's final paragraph above: “A strong vision of the future and a description of how we get there would be a good first start,” is probably the key question we need to have answered.

Aye, I think 2019 is going to be a very interesting year.