Crew To Action Stations - Prepare For Incoming Fire

YESTERDAY'S story about the furloughing of the lower-paid employees, and the salary cuts to the higher-earners within the SRU was, on reflection, the right thing to do – albeit probably a couple of weeks too late in the execution.

The SRU's Head of Pr and Head of External Affairs

discuss their embarrassing stories rebuttal  strategy

However, how typical of BT Murrayfield, that it should have been handled so-badly. This is just the latest in a long line of BTM PR disasters. Some of us in the media have been saying for years, the PR department is simply not fit for purpose. I know at least one of the guys in there knows where the bodies are buried, I fear his secret list might have been leaked to his boss, the risible Head of PR, I can think of no other reason for that useless so-and-so to still be in place.

Then, of course, there is our much-vaunted and highly-paid Head of External Affairs, a failed politician, recruited from a failed political party. Just what he has brought to the rugby party is still a mystery.

I fear, when all this blows over, I will not be the only rugby writer who has been cast into outer darkness and declared a non-person.

When the SRU's annual report, which of course includes the financial statement, came out in August, the pr department went into overdrive in trying to sell these as a good news story. We had the risible “SRU debt free” headline which cost one established hack what little street cred he had left, when that claim was promptly debunked.

A more-forensic look at the figures indicated, while TCD and LL-B were due some praise for running a tight ship in difficult times, the figures did not look as bright, and going forward, perhaps a period of trimming might be called for.

This season's figures will clearly be disastrous, and all I can say about the future is: “furrit tho' Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.”

For a start, in the 2018/19 annual report, we were told the SRU had 401 employees, this was a rise of 12% from the numbers the previous season. In the story of the salary cuts, we learned that these would affect the Union's 450 employees. This means their staff numbers had again risen by 12% in a year. The staff costs had risen by 13% between seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19 – I can only wonder at how much these would have risen between 2018/19 and 2019/20, had the pandemic not happened.

So, staff costs rising; staff numbers rising; income dropping – not a good look going forward.

I think the guys inside BTM should be closing-up at action stations and expecting some pretty heavy incoming fire.

AS I admitted in the first part of this post, I am a “non-person” as far as the SRU PR Department is concerned.

I do not get media accreditation for games, I do not receive their weekly press schedule or any media releases which they send out. To their glorious leader, Buddy the Elf, in spite of my 50-years at the coal face, I am not “a real journalist.” Oh! The sleepless nights I don't have over this treatment.

So, after my last post, about the clubs' letter to President Dee Bradbury, I knew not to waste time and effort contacting BTM for a response. After all, if they do not respond to the Edinburgh-based The Scotsman, which has virtually been the SRU's house journal since 1973, they are hardly going to respond to a non-person in the wilds of Hole-In-The-Wall, East Ayrshire.

I wonder, is Dee too-busy, or toeing the party line and

ignoring me when I try to make contact?

So, I contacted Dee direct, and asked for if she had any response to the clubs' letter. Sadly, to date, Madame President has not replied. If, or when she does, I will let you know what she is saying.

SPEAKING of presidents, I note Augustin Pichot is challenging Sir Bill Beaumont for the presidency of World Rugby. This could be interesting.

Bill is seemingly standing to retain his position on a “dream ticket” of European solidarity with France's Bernard Laporte as his running mate, for vice president.

I cannot help recalling how, back in 1974, when Sir Stanley Rous was retiring as President of FIFA, the European nations tried to control the election of his successor, only to find out, too late, that the wily Brazilian Joao Havalange had been busy signing-up the “lesser” countries around the world to such an extent, he got the job, and proceeded to hold it for almost a quarter of a century.

Now, I am not in any way suggesting Senor Pichot is as corrupt as our Brazilian friend all those years ago turned out to be, but, just maybe, we could see the top job in rugby going outside the traditional big nine countries (the six nations, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and finally being embraced by the smaller nations. It could happen.