MY LAST post was concerned with Glasgow Warriors' recruitment policies and their use of players. So, it is only fair that I do the same for Edinburgh Rugby, more-so given their announcement of new signing Wes Goosen, from the Hurricanes in New Zealand.
Given he is 26, a former New Zealand Under-20 player, who hasn't trained-on to become a full All Black, in my mind, that makes the South African-born back three player another second rate, Non-Scottish Qualified import. I feel, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, we now have too-many of these. Still, I suppose his signing reinforces the allegations of someone very high-up inside Murrayfield having rather a close relationship with rugby's biggest player agency.
Much of my last post concerned the season now ending. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have at least one more game to play, but, as things stand at the DAM Health Stadium: in season 2021-22, 52 players pulled on an Edinburgh strip over the 25 games (the pre-season friendly with Newcastle Falcons and the 24 competitive games in the United Rugby Championship and in Europe).
In those 24 competitive games, 48 players played between 7 minutes (Kwagga van Niekerk) and 1325 minutes (Emiliano Boffelli). The Argentinian back played the most minutes, over 17 games, but scrum-half Ben Vellacott stripped most often, either starting or being on the bench in 21 games. Boffelli's minutes per game played figure by the way is an impressive 78 minutes per game.
Over the season so far, Edinburgh's first team (the guys used most often) is (in 1-23 order):
Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Leroy Atalifo, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Hodgson, Magnus Bradbury, Connor Boyle, Ben Muncaster; Ben Vellacott, Jaco van der Watt; Emialano Boffelli, James Lang, Mark Bennett, Romino Moyano; Henry Immelman. Replacements: Adam McBurney, Boan Venter, Wilem Nel, Marshall Sykes, Hamish Watson, Henry Pyrgos, Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham.
Glasgow's 'First Team' from yesterday comprised 13 Scots and only two non-Scots. Today's Edinburgh squad has 11 Scots and four non-Scots in the starting XV and seven Scots and one non-Scot on the bench.
Seven NSQ players spent most of the season warming the bench, or holding tackle bags at Scotstoun, at Murrayfield, At Murrayfield only four NAQs were lightly-worked across at Edinburgh. Pierce Phillips featured in 12 games, accruing 504 minutes of action; Mesuliame Kunavula played in 10 games, for 435 minutes of action; prop Luan de Bruin featured in 8 games and 264 minutes of action. Finally, in a season ruined by injury Viliame Vata managed a mere 6 games and 384 minutes of action.
Whatever the arguments for and against having NSQ players, I reckon, Edinburgh make better use of theirs than Glasgow. The Median figure for games played in a season is the same for Edinburgh as for Glasgow – 11 games, while Edinburgh's minutes played per season, at 592 is slightly less than Glasgow's 604 median figure. Five of Edinburgh's NSQ's are above the median games played figure, with four of the NSQ's surpassing the 592 minutes of total game time.
I have frequently written on here – I have nothing against the recruitment of “X-Factor NSQs” - guys who are a wee bit special. Three or four of the Edinburgh guys, I feel, come into that category, so, hopefully, the Edinburgh Academy guys will benefit from training and occasionally playing with them.
Rudi Brown (1 game – 17 minutes) and Jamie Campbell (1 game – 11 mnutes) were the only Edinburgh Academy players to get game time, but, the belief is, Edinburgh are now more-willing than Glasgow to release fringe and Academy players to play in Super6, which will hopefully aid their development.
A COUPLE of stories in other outlets have caught my eye over the past two days. Firstly, in an exclusive TOL interview, David Barnes reveals that Robbie McCallum, the stand-out inside centre in the ongoing FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series, is leaving Boroughmuir Bears for an office job in London.
McCallum grandson of the great Struan McCallum, is quitting after three years as an SRU Academy player attached to Glasgow Warriors – for whom he has never set foot on the pitch in a game.
McCalum therefore joins the lengthy list of young Scots who have been failed by the SRU system.
The thing is, the Gallagher Premiership in England is downsizing. Their salary cap is being reduced, the RFU is insisting on more emphasis on English players, so, the big teams down there are concentrating more on bringing through, England-qualified Academy prospects.
At the same time, the next level down, the RFU Championship is also suffering from a funding cut. Non-English players are being let go there too. This means, guys such as McCallum, should they wish to take the High Road South, could enjoy a good standard of rugby, at least the equivalent of Super6, on a part-time basis down south.
The other piece I noticed was in the Guardian, where I learned, the RFU is trying to cement a deal with the top English clubs, whereby, to help England's World Cup preparations, England squad members may be, thanks to Autumn Internationals and Six Nations calls, only available to their clubs for half of the season. |This could mean extra work-load for English-based Scotland caps such as Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray at Exeter Chiefs, Cameron Redpath and Josh Bayliss at Bath, Ewan Ashman at Sale and Chris Harris and Adam Hastings at Gloucester.
I honestly feel, we must start looking seriously at a third, full-time pro side in the URC and central contracts for our key players, to prevent burn-out. Do this, and start really giving our young talent a cohesive development plan, and the future of Scottish Rugby will be bright.
Carry-on, stumbling from crisis to crisis and, ten years down the line, we could be as bad as Scottish Football. With the lack of intelligence, planning acumen and drive evident within the SRU's Performance Department: Forward tho' Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.
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