A Sad Day For Scottish Rugby - Super Rugby Goes

SO – SUPER RUGBY in Scotland is no more; another victory for the forces of Aye Beenism. The clubs have won, but, unless serious changes as to how we run the game up here are made, it is Scottish Rugby that will be the long term loser.

The Offside Line broke the story yesterday at lunch time; then had to take it down; apparently it was embargoed, as some people who had to be told hadn't yet – rumour has it these not immediately told included some of the clubs. But, hey, it's the SRU Communications Department, the body which makes the Conservative and SNP governments appear competent that TOL was dealing with. The story finally went up for keeps after a three-hour delay.

The Six franchises: Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir Bears, Heriot's, Southern Knights, Stirling County and Watsonians released the following joint statement yesterday afternoon:

“We, the current Super Series Clubs, are obviously disappointed that the Scottish Rugby Union Club Rugby Board and Performance department did not recommend to the Scottish Rugby Limited Board that Super Series continues. We do, however, accept the decision and look forward to competing in the upcoming Sprint Series.

“We were informed of the decision on Wednesday 14th February. We were surprised at the lack of consultation through the process and the detail in what comes next, however, we have confidence in Keith Wallace and Stevie Gemmell delivering a transition plan that sees Super Series clubs supported through what will be a very challenging period.

We have received assurances that there will not be a detrimental impact on the six clubs as they return their business and rugby models fully back to club rugby.”

We know Super Rugby is ending, but, and how typical this is of the Murrayfield Junta, as yet we don't know when. Will the Sprint Series be the last hurrah, or will we have the final full-fat version in the Autumn?

More questions, what will replace it? Do the six clubs, who had to forfeit Premiership status to take-up the franchises, see their First XVs remain in whatever division they currently play, or will all six be restored to the top flight? If that happens, it will not go down well in some quarters.

The timing is strange too – with TCD, whose baby this was believed to be, about to depart, along with Jim Mallinder. Might their replacements have something to say on the subject of a “bridging” tier between club and rofessional rugby.

In this, I may well be a lone voice, crying in the wilderness, but, I feel, unless we come up with that replacement “bridging tier” of the game - Scottish Rugby will go the way of Scottish Football, and instead of playing at the top table of the world game, we will be down among the also-rans: outside looking in on the big occasions such as World Cups.

It will not be an immediate fall from grace, I sense the badly-managed decline which has characterised so-much of Scottish life over my near eight decades on this earth will emerge in Scottish Rugby.

Super Rugby was a good idea, badly-executed. It was doomed almost from the start, because TCD, being TCD, did his Captain Picard impression, saying: ”Make it so” and then not bothering to explain the nuances to the clubs.

The bidding process was flawed, some Edinburgh clubs spat the dummy and insisted on being in it. Rugby in Greater Glasgow was ignored and the fact that the franchise set-up was nothing more than a botched cost-saving exercise by Murrayfield was a case of: “Haud yer wheesht!”

There should have been an emphasis on young Scottish talent, but, the six clubs were allowed to import NSQ players almost at will, while the relationship between the six franchises and the two professional clubs was never formalised, or entirely happy. Thus, what could have been two of its strengths – giving fringe professionals additional game time, and allowing young Scottish talent to test themselves against professionals seldom happened. How many and how often professionals were released seemed to depend on which side of bed the two club coaches got out of that particular morning.

But that is in the past. The important question, following the announcement of the winding-up of Super rugby is - what happens next?

The strangeness of the timing of the decision increases when you consider events in Wales this week.

The Welsh Rugby Union announced their version of Super Rugby – The Elite Domestic Competition.

This will involve ten teams: Aberavon, Bridgend Ravens, Carmarthen Quins, Ebbw Vale, Llandovery, Newport, Pontypool, Swansea and RGC 14 have been confirmed as participating, with the tenth team still to be named, and Cardiff favourites to take this position.

Pontypridd and Merthyr declined the chance to apply, as initially did Cardiff, who had the backing of their Regional URC team Cardiff Blues. Apparently, arms have been twisted since and the expectation is that there will be a team at the Arms Park.

As with Super rugby, the ten clubs will come under the control of the Professionals inside the WRU, rather than their club board, and, again in a nod to Super Rugby, the Union will provide additional funding and support to the ten clubs. Indeed, Super Rugby in Scotland was one of the competitions quoted in the rational for the new competition.

Making the announcement, WRU Performance Director Huw Bevan said: “We need 10 teams in this league if it is to perform at its optimum level.

“Our clubs must also meet the criteria for a licence, to ensure that we are producing the sustainable and successful elite competition we need in Wales.

“This is why we are going back out to our clubs to search for a tenth team ready to join this exciting new competition

“This new league represents the missing link in our senior men's pathway, but it will also be the shop window for the traditional club game in Wales and all the history and heritage that brings.

“This is a hugely exciting development for Welsh rugby and we need to ensure we have the right building blocks in place to achieve our ambitious aims for this competition.

“The door is now open for another club to come to the table and we hope a number of further applications will be received to ensure a further thorough and competitive process.

“This league will integrate our long-standing, ambitious and committed semi-professional clubs in Wales with the professional game.

“It will support the development of high potential young professional players but also drive the quality of the domestic semi-professional game.

“The nine successful clubs can now forge ahead with the final stages of their business plans and lock in their playing and coaching teams for next season.

“We look forward to now establishing and activating the competition in what will be a new dawn for domestic men's rugby in Wales.”

Each of the ten clubs will be allocated to one of the Welsh Regions, to establish a pathway to that level of the game.

Hopefully, whoever gets the new Director of Performance Rugby role at Murrayfield will be able to cure the failings of Super rugby and give us a product able to compete with these ten Welsh clubs in meaningful cross-border games and improve Scottish Rugby in the process.

And we think we had problems with Super Rugby.

Mind you, to go back to the beginning of this post and the closure 0f Super rugby. Might this lead to the Premiership being rebranded as the Scottish Elite Domestic Competition?

It makes sense – all it would take would be a further four teams to take-up franchises, perhaps with less-stringent conditions than first time round. There would then be ten Scottish and ten Welsh teams able to compete in cross-border competition, and, as luck might have it, League 1A of the Energia All-Ireland League also contains ten clubs.

Add 10 of the 11 clubs in England's Championship, and you have the basis of a rejigged British and Irish Cup. Interesting times right enough.

Back when Super Six was first mooted, one of the real selling points was Cross-Border competition. This was going to involve the Six playing end of season games against the top teams in the Welsh Premiership.

Supporters of the Super Rugby concept were adamant, their enthusiasm bolstered by experience of the old British and Irish Cup, in their belief that it would be the cross-border element of the concept which would really lift standards and produce more players ready to step-up to full-time professional contracts with Edinburgh and Glasgow.

But, along came Covid and the cross-border competition never happened, instead, we got the Super Series Sprint.

Super Rugby definitely raised the bar when it came to the quality of semi-professional rugby in Scotland – and don't give me the pish about they were the only six clubs paying players to shoot down that claim. It showed what was possible below full-time professionalism, now, it appears that step forward could be replaced by two steps back.

This is a sad day for Scottish Rugby.