Links Between Amateur And Professional Rugby Must Be Preserved - But One Size Does Not Fit All

AFTER graduating from Glasgow University back in 1964, my late elder brother immediately got onto what Dr Johnson dubbed: “The noblest prospect facing a Scotchman,” and took the high road to London – never to return for anything other than family weddings etc and the occasional holiday.

On arriving in North London, he joined Saracens, where he played away in one of the lower teams until “The Black Bitch” - my Linlithgow-born sister-in-law – put a stop to his rugby. Saracens back then were but a shadow of what they are today, but, they were a friendly club and their clubhouse, in Bramley Road, Southgate, gave a warm welcome to incomers from awe the airts.

“Why there and not London Scottish?” I didn't realise just how far from North London Richmond Athletic Ground was. In any case, another Cumnock Academical he knew was playing regularly in the Saracens first team at the time, so, there was a connection.

The Saracens Amateurs 1st XV picture, lifted from their website

Any way, fast-forward 55 years; Saracens are one of the biggest clubs in Europe, the leading side in London, with a squad full of internationalists and a swish new ground – Allianz Park. But, rugby is still being played at Bramley Road, by Saracens Amateurs RFC.

Saracens Amateurs 1^st XV play in Herts and Middlesex Division One – and they also run a further three adult teams, including a Veterans XV, while the Infidels, for which my brother played is still going. They also run ten youth teams. Six min-rugby squads and two adult and three youth ladies teams.

They play wearing the same badge as Sean Maitland and the other professional Saracens and there is definitely still a link between the two clubs.

It is the same with another club in that Herts and Middlesex First Division – Wasps FC. They sport the same badge as Wasps RFC – the professional side, but, while the Dai Young-coached Wasps RFC have decamped to Coventry, Wasps FC still play at the old Acton ground, where, like Saracens Amateurs, they run plenty of teams for all age groups.

Harlequins too have an affiliated amateur section, their first XV playing in Division III of the Middlesex Leagues, while oor ain London Scottish also has amateur sides playing in the highly-competitive leagues in London and the Home Counties.

Like the play for fun guys at Sarrries and Wasps, the amateur Harlequins and the amateur London Scots wear the same strips as their paid cousins further up rugby's food chain. So, if it works in England, why not in Scotland?

I don't have a problem with the very top Scottish players being, in effect, centrally controlled by the Union. But, at the next level down, Super-6, I think we need to preserve, in some form, the link between the paid and play-for-fun grades of rugby.

Why should we think because six clubs have taken-on SRU franchises to run semi-professional teams, amateur rugby at their existing core clubs will suddenly wither.

And why too, should we automatically assume, these six clubs will be raiding all their neighbouring clubs for additional players to prevent this withering?

Is it something in the Scottish psyche, that we always have to go into Private Fraser mood, and assume we are all doomed, whenever something new is proposed. Is Aye Beenism so-ingrained in our attitude to rugby, that we immediately fear the worst?

It seems there are problems in one or two of the S6 organisations – when it comes to player retention. Why can Ayr, who when the official leagues began in 1973, were fielding a minimum of five XVs: 1^{st, 2nd,} A1, A2 and 3rd XV back then, today be unable to muster better than two adult XVs today?

Back then, both Ayr and Belmont Academies ran flourishing schools rugby programmes, producing Scottish Schools “caps” who went on to play for Ayr. But, I would argue, with the Ayr RFC youth section and the hard-work of the likes of Stuart Fenwick and Frazier Climo in the Ayr Rugby Academy, they have more teenagers playing rugby today than back in 1973.

However, they do not appear to want to keep playing once they discover drink and women; seemingly preferring to become supporters of Ayr's first team. Well we never allowed these handicaps to hold us back. What is it with today's young men?

The same might be said of Heriot's. Their team numbers have dropped, to the extent, they have had to form Ferry Road Wanderers, in conjunction with Stewart's-Melville, to provide rugby for what Iain Milne lovingly calls: “The bad players.”

Maybe it is time to have a national conversation within Scottish Rugby. For the SRU guys to come down out of their ivory towers, get round the clubs and ask the simple questions:

• Where do you see your club being in ten years' time?
  
  
• More importantly, how are you planning on getting there?
  
  
• What can we do to help you get there?

The original Agenda-3 template envisaged three levels of clubs: Gold, Silver and Bronze. I looked at these proposals, worthy though they were, and immediately thought: “Not every club will want to go down that route, or be able to.”

I think the SRU realised that when they came up with Agenda-3. Looking at the criteria for Gold, Silver and Bronze clubs, it certainly seemed they were indeed looking for “fewer but stronger” clubs. But, did they really envisage the clubs who could not even meet the Bronze level simply fading away? That thinking goes against the core purpose of the SRU:

Log onto the SRU website, and, on the very top line, the first thing you read is headed: “About Us.” Log onto that and when the new window opens, the first thing you read says:

“Scottish Rugby is the governing body for rugby union in Scotland. Our role is to do whatever it takes in order to grow the game and help it flourish in a manner that fits our values.”

Towards that laudable end, maybe TCD, the minions and the Board and Council members should set-aside time at their next week-end away to really decide how they are going to do this.

And, in particular, how they are going to regain the trust they have lost among the ordinary grass-roots and how they can make things better for them. We need to have a system whereby the grass-roots guys feel they are part of the Union, and the Union works for them.

In Scottish football, there are a lot of one-team clubs, doing well and being supported by the SFA through the various affiliated associations – the Highland and Lowland FAs, the Junior, Amateur, Youth and Women's FAs.

Maybe it is time for the SRU to decentralise and allow the lower orders to do more of their own thing, give them the opportunity to organise things to best suit themselves. You never know, it might halt the decline and see us fighting back.