For Dobie And Hopefully Others The Long-Term Rugby Career Doors Are Opening

GLASGOW WARRIORS' signing of Jamie Dobie, the Merchiston Castle School and Scotland Under-18 scrum-half, on a full professional contract this week, just might be the harbinger of a new direction for performance rugby in Scotland; one whereby we have young players, as has been common for years in football, going straight from school into the professional game.

 Welsh snapper Peter Williams' excellent picture shows Jamie Dobie making

a try-saving tackle during the recent Wales v Scotland Under-18 game

Of course, as those of us who have been around professional sport for any length of time can testify – the drop-out rate for such wide-eyed wannabees is very high. Indeed, I recall reading once that, if Arsenal, who had a highly-regarded academy system, got one first team player out of each year's intake of 16-year-olds, they were happy.

Master Dobie is not, however, the first youngster to go straight from school into a full contract with one or other of our two full-time professional sides, did not Jamie Ritchie go straight from Strathallan School to Edinburgh, making his debut, off the bench, a little more than two months past his 18^th birthday?

Even before that, John Barclay went straight from Dollar Academy to Glasgow Warriors, although he had to bide his time a wee bit before he got his subsequently stellar career going. So, Dobie is not the first to go straight from school to the big league.

Whether he follows Barclay and Ritchie into the Scotland team is a matter of application, and luck, but, we wish him well.

The Barclays, Ritchies and Dobies of this world will always be rarities, but, looking ahead, and, I admit, guessing to some extent, I can see Scottish Rugby becoming ever more compartmentalised.

To some degree this change was signalled when the SRU came up with the original Agenda-3, with its talk of Gold, Silver and Bronze clubs. This time last year we were all talking about this, but, over the 12 months since, it has all gone quiet over there.

But, I can see wee tweaks being made until we perhaps see an altered rugby landscape whereby we have:

• Gold Standard Clubs – the Super-6, in time to become a Super-8 and, perhaps if all goes well, a Super-10.
   
• Silver Standard Clubs – these will be the clubs playing in a smaller National Leagues set-up, perhaps of just two divisions.
  
  
• Bronze Standard Clubs – these clubs will be playing in Regional or even in smaller more-localised District Leagues.

The Gold clubs will be semi-professional, their players will be the best under the full-time tier, recruited as promising boys and nurtured so that the best are passed upstairs to the full-time ranks. These clubs will have good grounds, and be mainly catering to spectators who want to see good rugby. They will also have strong youth development sections, seeking to bring through the best of the next generation.

The Silver clubs will be rugby's equivalent of Junior football. They will have a strong local identity, and their players will be the guys who cannot commit to semi-professional or professional rugby, but, have more than average ability. Some might be “late developers”, overlooked at youth level, but, going on to demonstrate their talent later. These clubs will not have the infrastructure facilities of the Gold clubs, but, will have strong memberships and good youth development sections.

The Bronze clubs will be something of a hotch-potch. Some might well, in the right circumstances rise to Silver status, but, perhaps they are from a small, perhaps rural area, where numbers are poor. These clubs will be largely member-driven. The loose-head prop might be the club president, the secretary is at inside centre. They may not have a club-house, but operate out of a local pub, perhaps with just one or two teams.

They will struggle at times to raise a full XV, indeed, they might occasionally only play 12-a-side. But, their motivation is to just get out there, play on a Saturday, then sink a few pints with their mates.

We must cherish and never lose these clubs – they are as important to the health of Scottish Rugby as the Ayrs, Melroses and Hawicks.

Another innovation I can see developing from Super-6 and Gold standard clubs will be that rugby will become a long-term career option for the better players. I was chatting to someone involved in Super-6 last week, and he made a very salient point: we need to develop and implement a better coach education system, because, if the game is to flourish and grow – we need more coaches.

And these coaches need to be qualified to pass-on their knowledge. My contact would never denigrate the input of the volunteer coach, the guy who perhaps, because he played a bit a few years ago, has taken his son or daughter along to the local club, got involved and started helping-out with the coaching.

“We need these people to keep coming and helping,” he said. “But, if we are to take the game forward we need to improve our coach education, develop better coaches, and, given the commitment, we are going to have to start looking at paying more coaches.”

How they do this is going to be a challenge for the clubs, and it is good to see Sheila Begbie's revamped rugby Development department paying attention to the commercial needs of clubs, and helping clubs attract more finance.

But, when we start paying coaches, we offer career opportunities for players dropping-out of professional playing contracts, and we enable them to perhaps better pass on their accrued knowledge to the next generation.

Ross Ford hung-up his boots after the 1872 Cup game on Saturday. We don't know what his next more will be, but, there have been suggestions he will be going into strength & conditioning coaching. Well when you consider the magnificent physique he built for himself, he ought to be good at that.

Also this week, Sevens star Mark Robertson has gone off to France, as an S&C coach, so, things are happening.

Truly, rugby is changing and evolving, at a very-fast rate.