Sadly, I Am Again Forced To Say - It's Shite Being Scottish

“About Scottish Rugby

Scottish Rugby is the governing body for rugby union in Scotland. We work hard to grow the game and inspire Scotland through rugby.

We are proud to represent the nation and the sport on the global stage, sharing and upholding our values of respect, leadership, achievement, engagement and enjoyment.

I have cut and pasted the above heading and four paragraphs directly from the official SRU website. Those 52 words are, if you like, the SRU's “mission statement.” They open with a bald statement of fact, and an even bolder claim – which some within the game in Scotland might dispute. Do we really all believe some of the ruling junta are working hard to grow the fame and inspire Scotland through rugby?

Because, I wasn't very inspired when I sat down to watch Exeter v Glasgow Warriors, on BT TV yesterday. In fact, I was so uninspired, I baled-out immediately Stuart Hogg scored for Exeter at the start of the second half; deciding I would rather switch channels and watch Finn Russell strutting his stuff for Racing 92 against Connacht.

Thanks to the Irish province's brave second half fightback, I did not regret my choice – and, by the way, if you didn't watch the game, without reaching the heights of which he is capable, the gallus one played his way back in nicely for Racing and provided he stays fit, he should be fully on-song come the Six Nations.

Look at the two matches. The two leading sides in Europe last season, each with home advantage, facing respectively one of Scotland's two clubs (of near-equal standing) and Ireland's fourth-ranked province. The Scottish side were routed by six tries to nil, the Irish side lost by a mere four points and had their exalted hosts hanging-on grimly as the clock ran down. From a Scottish perspective, that result in Paris merely under-lined something that has been obvious for some time. The Irish RFU are running their game far better than the SRU are running theirs.

There is no escaping the conclusion, at the moment, Scottish rugby is on a downer. Glasgow were simply out-played by Exeter, while, on Saturday night, at BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh never looked like beating La Rochelle.

Even during that spell of heavy Edinburgh pressure towards the death, a series of attacks which ended with a Hamish Watson knock-on, watching on TV, I was waiting for Edinburgh to fuck-up. Long experience has taught me, our Scottish teams too often lack the mental composure to turn pressure into points. This has been our teams' Achilles heel throughout the open era. The only surprise at the knock-on was that it was “Mish” who made the mistake.

Given the truncated calendar in European club rugby this season, I am already prepared to write-off both teams hopes of advancing to the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup, and Ah hae ma doots about either team securing the consolation prize of a last-16 place in the Challenge Cup.

I fear, Scottish Rugby, like Scottish Football, is on the downward slope as far as international status is concerned.

This has to be a worry for the SRU. Their management model is that they make the bulk of their money from filling BT Murrayfield with fans willing to pay top dollar to watch the Scotland international team play attractive, winning rugby.

The profits from this endeavour are then split between the costs of running the two full-time professional teams – whose reason d'etre should be to prepare Scottish players for the international arena and under-writing the club game, where these players should start off their climb to the top – their cap and wearing the thistle on their chests.

It is a sad fact of life, where Scottish Rugby is concerned, that at professional level, a lot of the cash which accrues to the SRU each year has to be spent on the professional game. Unlike in England, the SRU cannot find club owners with deep pockets to fund the lifestyle of our top home-based players – they have to under-write the cost of the professional game themselves, by directly employing the full-timers, and subsidising the six clubs willing to take-up franchises to assist with younger player development.

Whether this management model is the right one is, of course, open to debate. Perhaps we will find out when the ongoing governance review finally reports some time next year. Even then, this being Scotland, arguments one way and the other will surely continue.

I appreciate, Scotland is the weakest of the major rugby-playing nations. Fewer clubs, fewer players, we really need to mine the Scottish Diaspora if we are to compete on the world stage.

I had a look at the official SRU website, when penning this post. This lists a 45-man Scotland squad, which breeaks down thus:

• 17 players (38%) “Home Scots” who came through domestic rugby.

• 22 players (49%) “Scotland-Qualified” who learned the game in England or overseas.

• 6 players (13%) who learned the game in Scotland then moved away.

Of the 22 “Scotland-Qualified” players, the break-down is:

• 12 players (54%) qualify through “Grandparents' rights” - having a parent or grandparent who was born in Scotland

• 8 players (36%) qualify through residence.

• 2 players (10%) - actually Adam Hastings and Scott Steele, while 100% Scottish, came through English club academies – Bath and Leicester Tiogers respectively.

In all, the SRU employs 106 full-time professional players, between the two PRO14 sides and the Scotland Sevens squad. The break down of these players is:

• 58 players (55%) are “Home Scots” who learned their rugby within the Scottish game.

• 30 players (28%) are “Scotland-Qualified” having learned the game outside Scotland.

• 18 players (17%) are “Non-Scotland-Qualified.

[I think we can presume had Adam Hastings remained at George Watson's College, rather than decamping to Millfield, then the Bath Academy, he would still have broken through – probably to Edinburgh rather than Glasgow. But, had Scott Steele remained at Dumfries Saints and taken his chance in Scottish Rugby, perhaps moving-on to join Ayr, or one of the Borders clubs, rather than heading south to Leicester Tigers Academy, would he still have trained-on to be capped?]

• Are we getting value for money from the SRU's investment in the domestic game?

• Are we happy with a 55%-45% split between home-grown and externally-recruited player?

• Is 17% of the professional players employed by the Union being foreign mercenaries, unable to immediately play for Scotland, acceptable? Again, does this offer value for money?

• Are we doing Open Rugby properly? Have we ever?

For my part, I have no problem with the SRU bringing in an “X-Factor Player” like Leone Nakarawa or Niko Matawalu. However, I struggle to see what benefit Scottish Rugby gets from young already-capped home-grown players having to sit in the stand, while journeymen imports who cannot play for Scotland either start or are on the bench.

Players want to play, but, it seems to me, if you are a young Scottish player, unless you are deemed to be “exceptional” your lot is to train and barely play, while a non-Scot gets to wear the match-day jersey.

There have been increased calls for a return to the old amateur era set-up, of players playing for their clubs, then for their Districts, then for Scotland. The reality is, we didn't do any better then than we do now. In fact, if you consider: what was in effect a Glasgow District XV lost 19-90 to a fully-professional Leicester Tigers back in 1997, and at the weekend a fully-professional Warriors lost 0-42 to Exeter Chiefs, I think we have to acknowledge, going back to the old District set-up would be a retrograde step.

We need to have full-time professional players in Scotland if we are to compete in the PRO14 and in Europe. I think our problem is – we are not doing enough to keep our players playing; the fringe players are not being challenged enough so they are ready to step up. Certainly in comparison to how the Irish bring on their fringer players – the SRU is way off the pace.

I am also coming round to the view, the quality of coach working in Scotland is not good enough – at every level, and our coach education needs to improve markedly.

But, the necessary improvements will not happen overnight, indeed, I fear they may be some time in coming. We need to get the Governance Review out of the way; then we need to look at the coaching and player development – sort these out and things might improve, but, there is no quick fix for where we are now.