BACK IN the early 1960s, I remember seeing a newspaper cartoon. There was this free-for-all going on in a pub, and a guy, standing at the door and identified as Irish, is asking another bystander: “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?”
I can sympathise with that Irishman when I survey the current travails of Melrose Rugby, and in particular their FOSROC Super6 franchise – Southern Knights. I long to comment on this issue, but reckon, it might be none of my business.
Except – S6 is, to my mind, a key part of future Scotland success. Regardless of how much so-many people in the club game want it to be -S6 isn't part of CLUB RUGBY – it is part of PERFORMANCE RUGBY: and there is a huge difference in the two types of game.
When Covid forced the early termination of the inaugural season of S6, the Knights, having finished in fourth place in the regular season, were poised to play Watsonians in the semi-final; at that stage, you would not have written them off as potential title-winners.
When S6 returned for its first full season, the Knights made it all the way to the final, at the DAM Health Stadium, where they lost 16-26 to Ayrshire Bulls.
In the Super6 Sprint Series, at the end of season 2021-22, the Knights slumped to the bottom of the table, winning just one game. This season, with eight of the ten regular season games played, they lie in second-bottom spot, only ahead of Stirling Wolves on points difference, after just one win all season.
So, in less than one calendar year, the franchise has slid from being title contenders to basement battlers – why?
You could start with a dramatic turnover in players. Just four of the 23 men who stripped for last season's final were in the Knights team which lost to Watsonians at the weekend. The survivors were Grant Shiells, Fraser Renwick, Russell Anderson and Alan Ferrie. Significantly, eight of the other members of last season's final squad have departed – to other S6 franchises. Euan McLaren, Murdo McAndrew, Sam Pecquer, Nyle Godsmark, Jacob Henry and Calum Cruickshank are now with Heriot's; Jason Baggot is now plying his trade at Watsonians while Cammy Jones has joined Ayrshire Bulls.
Ayrshire Bulls – who beat the Knights in that final, have retained the bulk of their title-winning side. Nine of that squad were in the Bulls' squad which won at Goldenacre at the weekend, while a further three were injured. Of the 11 who have moved-on, six have won professional contracts and one, Welsh hooker Rhurdri Tanner has joined Stirling Wolves.
The players Bulls lost mostly went upwards; those Knights lost either moved sideways or downwards.
You have to wonder how the Knights managed to lose so-many players to S6 rivals. You wonder too, how come a player as closely identified with rugby at The Greenyards as Neil Irvine-Hess, came to be seen facing them in Watsonians' colours at the weekend.
Longer-term readers of this blog will be aware, when S6 was first mooted, I was very-much against the notion. That view changed after the rationale behind it was explained to me by someone involved at the sharp end of S6. Such a pity nobody at BT Murrayfield got the proper story out and allowed all the half-truths and misconceptions about what S6 is all about to mushroom.
It would have helped even-more if Baldrick and The Junta hadn't made such a 'Horlicks' (to use one of our Royal patron's favourite sayings) of organising it.
On the basis of facts being chiels wha wanna ding – let's remind ourselves:
Super6 is a “bridging” tier of the game, designed to allow the two full-time teams to have a consistent lower level of the game, at which younger players can demonstrate their potential readiness for full-time rugby and fringe full-timers can get game time.
For this to work properly, there has to be consistency of presence in this tier for the teams – hence franchises to avoid the lottery of a bad season and relegation.
YES, OF COURSE, Baldrick fucked things up when he allowed the third Edinburgh franchise, the original concept of no more than two franchises in any Region ought to have been stuck to.
He probably fucked it up even further when he didn't grant a franchise in Glasgow.
The alternative – District or Regional sides might have been better, except, there was no guarantee spectators would abandon their club loyalties to follow the District/Regional franchise.
But, going down the District/Regional route would have been more-expensive for the SRU.
By aligning the franchises to existing clubs, Baldrick and The Junta probably thought they would save money – and quickly establish a following for the new tier, by seeking to buy into existing club loyalties.
But, they forgot how things work in the Borders. An S6 franchise down there MIGHT have worked if they had called it The South, dressed it in red and white hoops and taken the matches round the grounds.
EXCEPT, as someone who knows the Borders a lot better than me pointed-out: “Say they'd decided to work together and to go down the South route – the cars would not have been out of the car park after the meeting, before Hawick were plotting to bugger-up the whole thing.” That guy is a Robbie Dye by the way.
Also, Melrose have, over the past couple of decades, so pissed-off everyone else in the Borders, a Melrose-based franchise had no friends locally.
And apparently, few friends in Melrose, where, apparently, people are prepared to play for and support Melrose, but have no time for the Knights, a point emphasised by the swathes of empty stand seats evident in every televised game from The Greenyards.
The Border Reivers failed and were shut down, because the people in the Borders wouldn't support the club. Those same people are not prepared to support the Knights.
Maybe the SRU should cut their losses and, at the end of Super6's initial five year run – shut down the Borders franchise and allow them to do their own thing – playing Border League games and Sevens until their wee hearts burst with local pride.
However, that's just my take, from the outside looking-in. As anyone who reads the btl comments on The Offrside Line will be aware, there are as many opinions on this as there are sheep in the Borders.
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