The 21-22 Party Is Over

WHEN a football club, even a small or middling one, changes its manager, the sign writer whose job it is to indicate who uses which office is in for a busy time, since more often than not, the new man coming in brings his own back room staff with him – his own trusted assistant, perhaps his preferred goalkeeping coach, and maybe his mate as Head of Youth Development.

Now, it might have been that, in the previous management team, the top man was a numpty, whose failings trumped the good work of his underlings – or vice versa. Perhaps the previous regime's defensive coach had kept the top man in the job for longer than that guy's particular talents merited – it doesn't matter, the chances are, if the top man goes, he goes too.

In football, we virtually never see, as has just happened at Glasgow Warriors, an assistant coach being promoted/recruited to a club without a Head Coach. It may well be, the SRU has already recruited Danny Wilson's replacement, and the as yet unnamed new boy is happy to have Pete Horne installed as Skills Coach. After all, the Murrayfield High Heid Yins' ability to shock and stun the world has been, for me a constant for at least the last 60 years. You can never say: “They'll never do that” when covering events around EH12.

So, while we await confirmation of who will be wee Pete's new boss, let's just congratulate him on his new appointment. I've heard of fast-tracking people, but, in going from squad player to the coaching staff, via the Bulls pen, the wee man has shown Usain Bolt levels of acceleration.

I've already sent Pete a congratulatory text, I think he will be a good appointment, but, his rapid promotion leaves big Glen Tippett with a huge hole to fill in the Millbrae technical area. He not only has to replace Pete, assistant coach Rob Harley is off to France.

Names in the frame for the Alloway job – well, I will throw-in a new panel of Stuart Fenwick, Frasier Climo and Robbie Fergusson for starters. I trust the High Heid Yins at Ayr got some notice of Pete's new post, announcing it to the world on the morning of the Ayr Annual General Meeting was otherwise not the best timing.

And still we wonder – who's getting the Glasgow job?

Mind you, Mark Palmer, whose ear is always close to the ground, reckons Todd Blackadder is the favourite. The former Edinburgh player and one-time All Blacks captain has seen his coaching star wane somewhat in recent years, perhaps a victim of the Curse of Bath, but, he could well be the experienced hand to get the Glasgow ship sailing in the right direction.

It also helps that Blackadder is a forward. Given the make-up of the Warriors' coaching staff, they really need a forward expert in situ.

CONFINED as I am to my gulag in the East Ayrshire foothills, I no longer get the SRU's weekly press briefing, so I missed my chance to hear Jim Mallinder's chat with Barney and the boys last Monday, and had to settle for the TOL take on things for information.

I remain convinced, an awful lot of people within the Scottish Rugby family are either too-thick to get it, or, probably worse, unwilling to accept, just how much the game has changed as the top levels become more and more professional. The Performance Department is now arguably THE most-important department inside Murrayfield, but, I don't think too-many people out there in clubland have grasped that yet.

Take last week's announcement about the added support for Women's rugby and the decision to create two semi-pro sides, which, we understand will hopefully play in England's Premier 15s competition. If/when this happens, these two teams will come under the aegis of the Performance Department.

Just remember – Scottish Rugby's management model is:

• We aim for a winning Scotland team, filling Murrayfield by playing entertaining rugby – which the fans want to see.

• The profits we make from the above state of affairs keeps the game alive and flourishing.

BUT – Because the global game, at elite international level is now fully-professionalised, we have to have professional players playing at a lower level for their clubs. Professional CLUB rugby has been shown to be a loss-making enterprise. Therefore, in the absence of Scottish clubs and club owners willing to take-on the risks of what has been proved to be a loss-making enterprise, we, the SRU, have to manage/subsidise the performance end of the club game.

So – to make things work in the best interests of the game in Scotland, things have to change. How we manage this change is the next big challenge.

The new Governance set-up will, barring an as yet unseen left-field intervention, be passed at the Union's AGM in August, just in time for the SRU's 150^th season. Good timing I would say.

That 150^th season will be interesting and, I suspect, by its close, rugby in Scotland will be a lot different. It's going to be a roller-coaster ride too.

I have my own view of where we should be heading, but, I don't think that view would be popular – particularly among the still quite large “It's Aye Been” fraternity within the game up here.

FINALLY – given that timing is everything, I feel this is a good moment to announce, I am taking a short break from blogging. This decision has been made for two reasons – one: well, apart from summer international tours, which don't bother me that much, we are now in the close season, so, with very little happening, I am not motivated to try to find stuff to blog about.

Two: after that wonderful display by the Barbarians at Twickenham yesterday, capped by that outrageous back-heeled conversion from George Kruis, could it get any better.

But, worry ye not; Inch Allah, I will be back for the new season.