Time To End The Schools v Club Argument - Or Is It?

A LONG LONG TIME AGO I can still remember how: a high heid yin with the Scottish Schools Football Association, after the best of our Under-15 boys had been well and truly gubbed by their English contemporaries, pointed out: “We in the SSFA are here to provide football for boys, not boys for football.”

That pedagogue was pontificating half a century or more ago, back at a time when our Under-15 team, the team which begat the likes of Jack Harkness, George Young and Billy Steel (albeit at Under-14 level then), Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Billy McNeill, Craig Brown, Jim McCalliog, Kenny Dalglish, George Burley and several hundred more was still under the control of the teachers.

Another teaching friend of mine, a gentleman who would achieve high office in the Schools equivalent of UEFA, always insisted: “Scotland always has and always will produce kids as-talented as kids from any other country. Up until Under-14, we can hold our own with the best. Our Under-16s even beat Brazil. But, at about Under-14, many of our best boys are taken into club academies and ruined.”

Sadly, his warning went unheeded, control of our elite kids was handed over to our clubs and – well, Darren Fletcher apart, we have been experiencing crop failure for the last 25-years.

That's Scottish Football, what about Scottish Rugby?

I sense in our game, there remains an element of “Providing boys for rugby,” when you look at the make-up of the four squads in the recent FOSROC Inter-Regional Under-17 and Under-18 Tournament.

At Under-18 level the squads lined-up thus:

• Edinburgh – 8 schools and 2 clubs provided the squad

• Glasgow – 4 schools and 9 clubs

• Borders & East Lothian – 3 schools and 9 clubs

• Caledonia – 7 schools and 1 club

At Under-17 level the splits were:

• Edinburgh – 6 schools and 2 clubs

• Glasgow – 5 schools and 7 clubs

• Borders & East Lothian – 1 school and 9 clubs

• Caledonia – 7 schools and 8 clubs

It could be said, in Caledonia Region, and in the Capital, you've got more chance of having your talent noticed if you go to the right school, while the clubs appear to have a bit more influence on young player development in the Borders and Glasgow.

Indeed, some of the Edinburgh schools have, with a degree of certainty about it, been accused of agressively using rugby as a marketing tool, to the extent of offering scholarships to talented young players from state schools. The Edinburgh schools are also in the vanguard of “persuading” the SRU to bring in rules which prevent boys from playing for their swchool and their club over the same weekend.

I recently did an interview, for the excellent Ayr RFC newsletter, Pink and Black with Ayrshire Bulls' Coach Pete Horne, in which he admitted, he feels being able to play for both Bell Baxter High School and Howe of Fife, helped his early career development. That cannot happen today.

Which brings me back to that old footballing teacher and:

• Football for boys v Boys for football

The way I see it, football (and Rugby Union is a form of football) for boys trumps boys for football. Use the schools to introduce boys (and girls) to the game, but, have closer ties between the schools and the clubs to enable the really-keen conscripts via the schools to get into the club scene, with the clubs handling game education.

The oft-punted notion of bringing the school and club games together at youth level really needs to be addressed. I suspect, given the current weighting, initially the Establishment schools would be on top, but, I am certain, if they got their act together, the bigger – and some smaller – clubs, could soon be competitive and winning regularly.

We would also have a more-level playing field.

WE ARE no closer to finding-out, if, far-less when, London Scottish will perhaps depart the RFU Championship for an expanded Super6.

The RFU Council announced on Friday afternoon they were embarking on further consultation as to the future format of England's second tier. This is expected to take a few months to work through.

The latest suggestion is for a 12-club league competition, augmented by a Cup competition, which would pit the Championship teams against the A teams of the 12 Premiership clubs.

This format is at odds with one leaked to The Daily Telegraph, which proposed a hybrid league of independent clubs and Premiership reserve sides.

With funding to the Championship clubs being halved from the 2020 levels, although the decrease is being phased in, Scottish is one of the clubs to have opted for semi-professional, rather than full-time professional status.

A decision was due by December, 2021, but was then delayed, and today's announcement sees the issue being kicked even further down the road.

This does not make life easy for the decision-makers at Richmond Athletic Ground, but, it does look as if Super8 has been pushed back – unless, of course, the SRU decides to follow the RFU and put Edinburgh and Glasgow squads of young players into S8.

Now, that might be interesting.

FINALLY, I have never been an UGO MOYNE fan. As both a player and a pundit, he has left me cold – I have never thought he had a selling point, far less a Unique one, as in USP.

But, fair play to the big chap, in his Friday Guardian column, he came up with a cracker, describing Manu Tuilagi as “Manu-Dona” in an homage to the wee fat Argentinian genius.

Aye Right! Diego could win a game off his own back, Manu?? They did have one thing in common, both looked brilliant facing English defenders.

As I have been saying for years: If Manu Tuilagi is the answer for England, Eddie Jones is asking the wrong question.