Super-6, Murrayfield's Magnificent Moger

IT IS difficult to write or blog on club rugby, indeed any rugby, at a time when so little is happening. So, for the foreseeable future, this blog may well be silent as-often as it speaks out.

The intention behind Aristotle has always been to comment on issues concerning rugby when they arise, particularly matters concer5ning club rugby, the great backbone of the game which, Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman apart, is all but ignored by the mainstream media.

This failure to adequately cover club rugby has been one of the causes of the growing success of websites such as The Offside Line, Weegie R Ugby and Aristotle Armstrong, sites which value and boost the club game, filling the gap caused by the mainstream's concentration on the two PRO14 sides.

Of course, I was, initially, against Super-6. My position on this thorny issue changed somewhat once I was sat down and had it explained to me by someone very-much involved at the sharp end in making it happen. After that chat I was more of a fan, however for the avoidance of doubt, can I again make these points clear.

• Any doubts I have about Super-6 concern my mistrust of some of the paid officials at the top inside Murrayfield. If they maintain a hands-off, distant watching brief, and leave it to the clubs to make it work, it has a chance.
  
  
• BUT, TCD, MH33 and Chief Elf Buddy are all come across as control freaks, while nobody around Scottish Rugby trusts J Cheever Loophole as far as they could throw him. If they are not controlled, it will fail.
  
  
• A return to a Districts set up would have won if not universal approval, then certainly a big majority of clubs, clubmen and supporters and players in favour. But, this didn't happen.
  
  
• I don't see Districts being re-established any time soon, so, for at least the initial five-year term of Super-6, and perhaps beyond then, Super-6 is the only show in town.
• Therefore, we all need to shut up about it and do our best to make it work.

This the SRU tried to do this week, by publishing a player movement update, covering player movement up and down between Super-6 and the domestic club game ( remembering that Super-6 is now recognised as a Performance grade, rather than a Rugby Development grade, like the Premiership, National or Regional Leagues.

This spoke of the six Super-6 clubs each having five Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy players attached to them – BUT, these 30 players, when not required by the Super-6 clubs, could not simply drop down and play for the Six's “amateur” clubs.

Instead, they would require to be dual-registered to a Premiership club.

Let's look at this for a moment.

• The rationale for starting Super-6 was because: “The Premiership is not fit for purpose,” - assuming that purpose was to prepare players for a professional career with Edinburgh and Glasgow.
  
  
• Suddenly, after 18 months of arguing and turmoil over the fitness of the Premiership to prepare future professionals – future professionals are to be encouraged to play there.

Then there is the thorny question of – who are the young players likely to be involved. Apparently they are the 30 Stage III students in the Academy. I checked-out the Academy student list from the SRU website, and found the following Stage III students listed (with the clubs to which they are attached at the moment:

BORDERS AND EAST LOTHIAN ACADEMY: Rory Darge (Melrose), Roan Frostwick (Currie Chieftains), Fraser Renwick (Watsonians), Finlay Scott (Jed-forest).

EDINBURGH ACADEMY: Callum Atkinson (Boroughmuir), Hamish Blain (Stade Nice), Jack Blain (Heriot's), Connor Boyle (Watsonians), Ross Dunbar (Boroughmuir), Duncan Ferguson (Watsonians), Shaun Gunn (Edinburgh Academicals), Rufus McLean (Watsonians), Dan Winning (Boroughmuir).

GLASGOW AND WEST ACADEMY: Kaleem Barreto (Marr), Hamilton Burr (Stirling County), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Hawks), Stafford McDowall, Euan McLaren, Robbie Nairn (all Ayr), Adam Nicol (Stirling County), Robbie Smith (Ayr), Grant Stewart (Glasgow Hawks), George Stokes (Ayr), Sam Yawayawa, Dan York (both Glasgow Hawks).

CALEDONIA ACADEMY: No Stage III players.

These are the players currently listed, however, a closer look shows, of the 12 Glasgow and West players listed – Barreto spent last season with Hawks, since Marr were in NL1. Fagerson is now a full-time Glasgow player, and indeed a full Scotland internationalist. McDowall, Nairn, Nicol and Stewart are now on full-time Glasgow contracts, while Smith will be going to Bedford Blues next season, while Stokes and Yawayawa spent the season now ending playing in England, with Darlington Mowden Park and Cambridge (town rather than gown).

So, the official SRU website lists 25 Stage III players, of whom 8 have to be discounted, which takes us down to 17 current Stage III players. To these we can probably add: Alfie North, Marshall Sykes and Ollie Smith, the three young players from the Scots Qualified scheme who have come north to play for Ayr.

A look at the players listed as Stage II players who have consistently played in the Premiership this season gives us a further ten players, who we might assume are now Stage III players: Paul Cairncross (Glasgow Hawks), Paddy Dewhirst (Ayr), `Murray Godsman, (Glasgow Hawks), Jamie Hodgson (Watsonians), Grant Hughes (Stirling County), Andrew Jardine (Melrose), Charlie Jupp (Heriot's), Rory McMichael (Heriot's), Bruce Sorbie (Stirling County), Ross Thompson (Glasgow Hawks).

Add these names to those above, and we have a list of 31 potential Stage III players, who we might assume will become the players attached to the Super-6 clubs.

Of these, Callum Atkinson and Jamie Hodgson have already made their debut for Edinburgh, while young Jamie Dobie has made the leap straight from Stage II player and schoolboy to a full contract with Glasgow.

Ayr and Watsonians each already has five of these Stage II and III players aligned to them, while each of the other four clubs has three aligned players. So, unless further players join Dobie in going straight to full professional contracts, the remaining players will have to switch clubs for the new season.

As more than I have said over Super-6, it's a bit of a moger, which shows little sign of being sorted-out before it starts.

And, the fact the SRU's website cannot even be up to date on who is a Stage III player, who isn't, and even which team they play for, merely reinforces my argument, there are people inside Murrayfield incapable of doing their job properly.

Yes Buddy the Elf, I am referring to you.