Developing An Argument

THE ARISTOTLE THINK TANK has been greatly-excited over this past week or so by the ramifications of Scottish Cup player qualification – and whether or not club players who are being scouted by the Super team franchises should still be able to participate in the Cup with their home club; or whether they have disqualified themselves by dipping a toe in the Performance Rugby duck pond.

Of course, that it should come to this is yet another example of The Murrayfield Junta: #Fuck-Ups Are Us - being unable to run a gird (or for our younger readers a bath). As has been evident from the start with S6, if the High Heid Yins at HQ can muck something up – they will.

A side issue on this debate is the continuing problems facing our Under-20 squad and how best we give these kids the best-possible chance of progressing, getting back to the top tier of Under-20 rugby and perhaps having a meaningful career as professional players.

Back in the 1980s I was involved, on the fringes, with what was then the best basketball coaching system in Scotland – at my old school, Cumnock Academy. Over a ten year period, the combination of the school and Cumnock Basketball Club produced a conveyor belt of good players who won Scottish Schools Cups, Scottish Schools Caps and produced a stream of full Scotland internationalists, plus a clutch of coaches who went on to coach national sides. Indeed, so good was the Cumnock system, three boys made their full adult Scotland debut while still at school.

Along the way, Cumnock supplied the entire starting five, plus the second player off the bench, the first time Scotland ever beat England in a schools international and one at least one memorable occasion, the full starting five for Scotland in a Home International was made-up of Cumnock boys. Indeed, one street in my home village boasts seven international basketball players.

That success wasn't down to chance, Bill Baillie, the Head of PE introduced boys to basketball in the First Year, and he coached that base line team. He then handed each year's team onto one of the other coaches – who stayed with that squad all the way through to Senior Level in Sixth Year.

Sadly, Bill retired and all of the coaches got promoted and moved to other schools, while Bill's successor wasn't a basketball fan. Then there was the Teachers' Strike - the whole edifice collapsed.

But, I have always felt, with the right people in place, that Cumnock Basketball system could work for a rugby club. It's not rocket science, just best practice put in-place and properly managed.

One of the pillars of the system was, the club always had a couple of Americans who were more than players – they were Basketball Development Officers, who went round the local primaries selling the benefits of basketball, but, more-importantly, were in the gym every lunch-time playing in 3 v 3 games with the senior team, or coaching the younger players. The kids loved the chance to test themselves in these scrimmage games.

I know, the likes of Marr RFC have first team players employed as Rugby Development Officers, embedded at Marr College, and their work is one of the reasons for the rude good health of the game in Troon – and Marr's success across more than the big team. Would that more clubs would be as pro-active in boosting rugby.

But, I have, as usual, gone stravaiging of route map, time to get back to the basics. One of the subjects the think tank has been debating is how best to get our Under-20 players the game time they need in S6.

Since Super Rugby is run by the Performance Department at Murrayfield, I think they should be more-involved in ensuring the right players are playing in Super Rugby. So, they ought, I feel, to be setting parameters for who can play.

For instance – we are told S6 is a bridging tier, between the club game and full-time rugby, so:

• Why don't we have a strict age group rule – perhaps that 70% of each match-day squad should be Under-23

• Similarly, we could insist that a set number of these players – say three or five, should be Under-20

• I have no qualms about fringe Edinburgh and Glasgow players playing down in S6, but, again, let's have a set limit on this – again say three on the field at any time.

• Demand the coaches and the clubs select within pre-set guidelines and we would be giving our young players a chance to show what they could do.

• I would also insist, any players brought-in from outside Scotland, be Scotland-Qualified.

Tighten-up on player eligibility, be pro-active in encouraging young players and S6 could be the success we want it to be. Well, those of us who are fair-minded, there will always be a constituency within the club game, for whom S6 is the Devil's spawn.

Just this week, the excellent THE OFFSIDE LINE published a very-interesting interview with Nigel Carolan, the Glasgow Warriors' Attack Coach – a man who had hands-on experience of how things are done in Ireland, from his time with Connacht.

Carolan made the point that the main thrust of the development work should be done at Under-15 level, rather than at Under-20. He also said:

“The systems they [Ireland] have, especially at age grade, is a little bit ahead of Scotland at the moment.”

“When Scotland catches up, they’ll get there through local, indigenous players again, so they just need that foundation.

“Ireland are maybe 10 years down that road having invested in players as 14 or 15-year-olds, and the under-20s over the last three or four years have been successful off the back of that; but that’s just a by-product of the system – it’s not like they invested in the under-20s.”

OK, let's be fair – there's a lot going on at the moment, but, surely somebody inside The Murrayfield Junta should have the gumption to say: “Wait a minute, this guy has been inside the Irish system, so he knows how it works – maybe we should get him in here and pick his brains.”

But, since Mr Carolan is an Irishman, working for a Scottish governing body, perhaps the Englishmen who have so much power within that governing body don't want to ask anything of a “Tick Mick” or maybe, in other areas, a “Stroppy Scot.”

A final statistic; since we went to Under-20 internationals, in 2007 – 435 players have won a Scotland cap at this level. Of these, 67 or 15% have gone on to become full caps, while a further 75 (17%) have gone on to make at least one appearance for either Edinburgh or Glasgow. I don't know how that compares with other nations, but at least we know what our base line is; whether or not we can improve that figure – that's the big question.

But, what I do know is our 32% conversion rate of U-20 caps to professional rugby compares very well to the rate in other sports. It's better than the rate in football and way ahead of the conversion rate of college athletes to professionals in the big North American leagues: MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL.

We don't have the numbers, we don't have the finances, but, while we can always aim to do better, I feel, for all its failings, our system works fairly well and at the end of the day, I don't think too-many of the 293 who didn't make it can sit in the corner of their rugby club bar and claim: “I could have been a contender.”