Are these figures acceptable?

YESTERDAY, I looked at the percentage of players who were actually playing, basing these percentages on the data released by the SRU through their new SCRUMS registration service.

Today, I am going to concentrate on the percentage of matches played in both adult and youth male rugby. I have looked at games played since the new season kicked-off with the first youth games on the weekend of 24/25 August.

The figures were:

	Week ending	Games scheduled	Games played	% played
Adult male	24/08/19	0	0	0
Youth male	24/08/19	84	62	74
Adult male	31/08/19	55	45	82
Youth male	31/08/19	131	100	76
Adult male	07/09/19	106	86	81
Youth male	07/09/19	227	166	73
Adult male	14/09/19	116	93	80
Youth male	14/09/21	189	165	87
Adult male	21/09/19	112	92	82
Youth male	21/09/19	147	101	69
Adult male	overall	389	316	81
Youth male	overall	778	594	76
School games	overall	301	211	70
Youth games	overall	477	383	80

So, overall, over the opening weeks of the season – the time when you might expect enthusiasm and fitness to be at its peak, we find that one-fifth of the scheduled adult male games remained unplayed, while around three-quarters of the scheduled youth male games were also unplayed.

In the case of 84% of the unplayed adult games, the reason for the postponement was a shortage of players by one or both teams.

When it comes to a shortage of players causing postponement of youth games, the percentage was 67% - lack of players the reason for 135 of the 203 cancellations thus far.

The percentages when it comes to schools games versus club games are: a lack of players caused 60% of the schools postponements, at club level, this rose to 72%.

It should also be noted, in the various conferences, there are some clubs or schools who are struggling at one or two age groups – or are suffering a shortage of front-row forwards. These tend to somewhat skew the figures.

The question is: Is seeing between 20% and 30% of scheduled games postponed each month acceptable, or not?

I appreciate the default position of many people out there in clubman is to blame the SRU for everything that goes wrong – including unplayed games. My position is, if I think the SRU are messing-up, I will say so, but, I don't think they can be blamed for the unplayed games.

The Union arranges leagues and youth conferences, and the divisions within these according to information they receive from the clubs. It is not their fault if a club, having committed to entering a certain league, then discovers it does not have the players to live up to their pre-season expectations. It is up to the club to either, bite the bullet and withdraw, or, work harder to address the player shortage and hang-in there.

It is noticeable that, in the schools field, there are various instances of “Development games' being played when there are not enough players to get a full match done and dusted. It would be no bad thing if the clubs began to play more such games when faced with a player shortage – better to have a game of some sort rather than a blank weekend.

I can recall, from my own playing days, way back last century, down at “Coarse Rugby” level, you could safely trot off to an away game, maybe up to five players short, and be able to either pick-up spare players from your hosts, or play a short-handed game.

I doubt that today's players are less-keen than we were and am certain, if they had the opportunity to play a fun, short-sided game, they would take it.

Of course, today's obsession with playing in leagues, or competitive games may have something to do with this. We played for fun and some of the most-enjoyable games were played short-sided.

AUSTRALIAN scrum-half Nic Groom has been named as Edinburgh's captain – on his debut – for tomorrow night's Guinness PRO14 opener, against Zebre, at BT Murrayfield tomorrow night.

Richard Cockerill has named the following squad, as always here in 1-23 order, for the game:

Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Pietro Ceccarelli, Fraser McKenzie, Murray Douglas, Lewis Carmichael, Luke Crosbie, Nick Haining; Nic Groom (captain), Jaco van der Walt, Duhan van der Merwe, Matt Scott, Mark Bennett, Jamie Farndale, Damien Hoyland. Replacements: Mike Willemse, Jamie Bhatti, Murray McCallum, Mesu Kunavula, Ally Miller, Charlie Shiel, Simon Hickey, George Taylor.

Groom is joined in making his Edinburgh debut by Number Eight Nick Haining, while Mike Willemse, Jamie Bhatti and Mesu Kunavula are all poised to make their PRO14 debut for the club off the bench.

SPEAKING of the PRO14, I am more than a tad upset at the lack of commentary on BBC Radio Shortbread on tonight's Warriors' game in South Africa. Certainly, the match is not being advertised as being covered. Indeed, there is absolutely no mention of either the Glasgow or Edinburgh league openers on the BBC Scotland Sport website. Not good enough BBC.