FOSROC Or FUBAR - which is the correct acronym?

FUBAR is a situation familiar to all ex-Servicemen; it is an acronym, allegedly first dreamed-up by a United States Army General, which has since passed into general military use. It means: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.

I am not saying the FORSOC SUPER6 is a classic case of FUBAR, but, I maintain my long-held conviction, it's going to take major surgery to sort out the faults. But, FUBAR also refers to the SRU's handling of the “performance” arm of the game, certainly when it comes to young player development. Here we have real problems.

I have spent the past couple of days looking at our Under-20 squad which faced and lost to Italy on Friday night. Our 23-man squad splits as follows:

• Full-time professionals with one of the SRU clubs – Jed Gelderbloom

• Full-time Stage III SRU Academy players – Michael Jones, Max Williamson, Rhys Tait, Ross McKnight, Christian Townsend, Rudi Brown

• SRU Regional Academy players – Gregor Scougall, Duncan Munn, Andy Stirrat, Callum Norris, Thomas Glendinning, Kieran Clark

• Not supported but playing in Super6 rugby – Ben Evans

• Not supported but playing in the Premiership – Gregor Hiddleston, Tim Brown, Ali Rodger

• Playing outside Scotland – Ross McClintock, Murray Redpath, Josh Taylor, Matt Deehan, Duncan Hood, Innes Hill.

So, only 13 of the 23 players are SRU-funded. What do we expect from this support? The Stage III Academy players are all attached to S6 clubs, this is supposed to be the tier which bridges the gap between the Premiership (which Murrayfield insists, when it comes to player development, is not fit for purpose) and the full-time professional sides.

Well here are the playing times for the Stage III players, in Super6 in 2021. Remember, the 2021 S6 season began on 30 July, and finished on 10 October, each player could play in a possible 11 games.

Michael Jones (Heriot's): 2 starts (53min, 55 min); 1 subs appearance (10 min); 1 sub appearance on-loan to Boroughmuir (24 min) - total playing time: 142 minutes

Max Williamson (Stirling County): 3 starts (60 min, 65 min, 80 min); 1 sub appearance (25 min) – total playing time: 230 minutes

Rhys Tait (Boroughmuir Bears): 7 starts (59 min, 55 min, 80 min, 55 min, 80 min, 80 min, 80 min); 2 sub appearances off bench (26 min, 17 min) – total playing time: 532 minutes

Ross McKnight (Stirling County): no starts; 2 sub appearances off the bench (27 min, 20 min) – total playing time: 47 minutes

Christian Townsend (Ayrshire Bulls): 3 starts (80 min, 60 min, 46 min); 3 sub appearances off the bench (18 min, 27 min, 40 min) – total playing time: 271 minutes

Rudi Brown (Watsonians) 0 starts; 0 subs appearances off the bench – total playing time 0 minutes

The Super6 season comprised 11 games, within that period 30 July – 10 October – a total possible playing time of 880 minutes. Only one of the six players, Rhys Tait, managed to play more than half the match playing time. Only Tait and Christian Townsend even got on the park in more than half the games.

If you divided the playing time out equally between the six players, you find each played under three full games in the 11-game season.

Another two players, Boroughmuir Bears' Duncan Munn and Southern Knights' Kieran Clark are on Regional Academy deals with the SRU. I don't know what this level of player support entails, but, they are tied to S6 clubs so the SRU must have some degree of say in how they train and play.

Munn, the breakthrough player of the year, managed six starts for the Bears; accruing 478 minutes of playing time. Clark, who had a terrible time with injuries, managed one start for the Knights, playing 50 minutes, and three subs appearances off the bench, for 6, 26 and 10 minutes respectively – a total playing time of 92 minutes.

Jed Gelderbloom, who is a full-timer with Edinburgh, made five appearances as an off the bench sub for Heriot's in S6, totting-up 104 minutes' playing time.

OK, these Academy and supported players, along with the other three non-supported players from Premiership clubs, were supposed to get game time in the Premiership between the end of the S6 season and the start of the Under-20 Six Nations.

We were never told which players would be involved, which clubs they would be drafted to, or if they were to be guaranteed game time in the Premiership. The whole thing was a bit hit and miss, just like the entire young player development programme. If the Premiership is not fit for purpose when it comes to player development, what was the reasoning behind offering young players game time there?

One thing is certain, the players were badly under-cooked for international rugby.

IF Super Rugby is to be a development tier, then the SRU really needs to tighten-up on the rules around it. Too many players, both full-time Academy players and “fringe” full-time professionals are not getting enough game time. Also, some S6 clubs – who we should never forget are doing the SRU a favour by taking some of the financial risk in employing semi-professional players – seem to be recruiting more-experienced players, in order to win the thing, at the expense of their player development role.

IF they are to be expected to develop Academy players, then these players surely need to be guaranteed game time. Each of the six franchises has supposedly had five Academy players drafted to them. Why not insist, if they are fit, they start and, unless injured they get at least half a game each. The two professional outfits should also identify a certain number of “fringe” players, perhaps Under-23, who should also be guaranteed game time for an S6 outfit, to keep them match-sharp.

FOSROC 

Nothing develops players faster than game time – our supposed top young talent does not appear to be getting enough time on the grass – this failing must be sorted, otherwise, we are going to continue to go backwards at a rate of knots.