A Titanic Post

BEING CLOSER to 80 than 70, and given turning around large objects such as The Scottish Rugby Union is a lengthy and tortuous process, I suspect I may not be around when the great: “When did the wheels begin to fall off the wagon, and who forgot to tighten them up in the first place?” debate begins. Of course, collapses such as that which is coming to the SRU rarely follow the 'Big Bang Theory' – more-often they begin with the first of a succession of small errors and omissions, before the whole things goes tits-up.

However, in the wake of the “We'll scrap Super rugby and start again with the Premiership” decision, I suspect we are setting-out down the route to Tier Two status in World rugby.

I also suspect, when the big debate, as prefaced in my opening paragraph, gets under way, any of the present Junta who are still around will have their excuse ready: “A Fat Mancunian did it and waddled away”.

I don't think whoever is manning the Crow's Nest on the RMS Murrayfield has as yet spotted the iceberg, but, it's out there, we are heading for it at full ahead and I just wonder who among the crew will emerge as Captain Smith, who will be Second Officer Lightoller and wonder what shape our Carpathia will take. TCD has already been cast as Charles Ismay by the way.

I had a chat this week with a weel-kent man about the club scene, who was wondering what was going on. He had some salient points to make, based on his more than half a century at the sharp end of the club game.

He said, when he joined his club back in the 1960s – there was a clear pathway.

1. Join the club and get picked for a team – there were always more players than required for each team – and more than one team per club

2. Get into the Club's First XV and be good enough and consistent enough to be selected regularly

3. Get picked for the County team – that showed you had potential

4. Get picked for the District team

5. Get a Trial or two and play well enough to take the final step

6. GET CAPPED

My friend made it through Steps 1 – 5, but, Step 6 was one too-far from himl although I will say, I reckon worse players than he have been luckier.

Today, the Player Pathway is not as straight, and getting the nod from today's arbiters of player quality and readiness for advancement appears to be far-tougher than in the amateur era. Back then we didn't have as-many age group squads and sides; the best young players were not cossetted in their own mini-worlds, they had to go out and earn their stripes in the real world.

And, back then, they got to play. If the High Heid Yins thought you needed to bulk-up, or speed-up, or work on some aspect of your game, they expected you to do this in your own time – you didn't get blocks when all you did was lift weights or whatever. If you were told to put in extra work, you did it beyond the two nights per week of club training.

 

Speaking of this, I still chuckle at the late Gordon Strachan's (picttured) response to, on getting into the Scotland squad, being handed an additional training schedule by Advisor to the Captain Bill Dickinson. Strachan, the following Saturday, suggested to Dickinson, who was of course also his Club Coach, that: “Maybe 200 push-ups is a few too-many.” Strachan had mis-read the instructions, thought it was 200 push-ups per session, rather than 200 over a week.

But, the story does show the lengths amateur era players would go to for the cause.

The amateur era guys had to scrap to be noticed; they didn't get the support or the back-up today's elite young players get. Indeed, it wasn't until 1976, 103 years on from the formation of the SRU, that the first Scottish Age Group squad, an Under-21 one was formed.

I suspect I will go to my grave, still insisting that Super Rugby was a good idea – badly implemented and just as badly run. Had there been protocols put in place, which made it a development league for the best of our young talent – by insisting each squad had a majority of Under-23 Scotland-qualified players, it could have worked.

My old mate would have done things differently, He suggests instead of getting just six clubs to participate, the money and resources ought to have been spread over the entire Premiership. Maybe this will happen now the Premiership is to return to being the peak of the club pyramid.

He did, however, accept my counter-argument – that there has to be an agreed minimum standard as regards club structure and infrastructure for a club to play in the Premiership. As I have said before, The Scottish Football Association requires clubs to jump through hoops and have certain facilities in place before they can be classed as “Senior Clubs” licences have to be obtained, and they are subject to the club meeting specific criteria. If Rugby Union in Scotland wants to be accepted as a major sport in this country, then the SRU needs to do likewise.

The announcement of the new look to the top league in the new season – 2024-2025 has started a fire in the BTL section of The Offside Line. To be honest, when the Club Rugby Board sat down to make their decision this week, they probably knew whatever they decided would lead to dummies being spat and toys hurled out of the pram somewhere. To be honest again, I think they probably came up with the solution which was the least offensive to the most clubs; and that was maybe the best they could have hoped for.

Although, I feel for Boroughmuir and Stirling County. They bought into the Super Rugby concept at a cost to their Club XV and have suffered for it, They have every right to feel wronged at the decisions made.

I sense the real squealing will kick-off in around a year's time, when we find out which three clubs will be relegated, as the one-season 12-club deal ends and we revert to a ten-club Premiership.

Some of the clubs are already getting there excuses ready, with suggestions even now, some six months out from the new campaign kicking-off, that, as I suspect will actually happen, some current Super Rugby players will morph into Premiership players without moving their kit from one locker to another.

I can say categorically now – there will be players in the Premiership next season being paid to play – just as some players in that division this season have been paid. That genie left the bottle a few years ago.

The SRU can shout al lthey like about the Premiership being “an amateur competition” - that will not alter the fact – Rugby Union is an OPEN sport, and if clubs wish to pay players they can – and certainly will.

The first Union to attempt to penalise a club for paying players will lose, and lose heavily, in court, under restraint of trade legislation. I might add, the legend of how one Super Rugby club tried to recruit a player from another Premiership club, but, couldn't afford to match what that club was paying him is more than apocryphal – it's true.

The SRU has already said, the portion of the budget which was allocated to Super Rugby will now be spent on the new Glasgow and Edinburgh A teams, the Under-20s and the Academy. So, on the basis that “money talks” the richer and better-run clubs will naturally be at the sharp end and in contention when the prizes are being handed out.

I fancy we will be looking at “a Fab Four” in the new season: Hawick will be one, and I fancy their main challengers will be Ayr, Heriot's and Watsonians, all of whom will surely retain a core group from their Super rugby squads to augment their Club XVs.

The Premiership will flourish, more-so probably in Season 2025-26 and thereafter. I do worry, however, about the proposals for the two A teams and the continuing problem of getting enough game time for the younger players.

I also worry about which players will be retained or released by the two professional teams at the end of the season. For instance, Rory Sutherland will arrive in Glasgow, who already have three capped loose-heads: Jamie Bhatti, Allan Dell and Oli Kebble, plus the uncapped Nathan McBeth.

Edinburgh has a similar overload in the propping department – player recruitment and retention across the professional sides makes no sense to me.

To return to my original point regarding how things were done in the amateur era – could we not bring-in a 21^st century, more-professional version of this.

Instead of having the best youngsters training full-time with either of the professional sides, but getting very-little game time: should we not have them training part-time with the two pro sides and part-time with the club for whom they will play on a Saturday?

Extend the Inter-Regional games to home and home fixtures and insist this is mainly an Under-23 competition. Insist the squads should mainly meet this age requirement, but, have some more-experienced players in there as well.

Instead of appointing Club Coaches to prepare the Regional squads, get the Super rugby Coaches doing this – if nothing else, it would prevent accusations of favouritism when it comes to who gets selected for these squads.

The SRU should also, I believe, consider introducing a CBA or Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Premiership – into addition to the football-style licencing rules I have already advocated. Such a move would level the playing field somewhat, ensuring each club knew the rules and agreed to abide by them. Each club would have (in time) the same standard of facilities and would be singing off the same hymn book.

Finally, when, in the next few months, with a new CEO and a new Performance Director in place, the SRU gets around to publishing their next five-year development plan, I hope they take a lead from our cousins in Dublin, and delegate more decisions to the four regions. We should be aiming to, like the Irish, have four fully-professional Regional teams playing in the BKT United Rugby Championship. Each of these regions ought to have its own Regional Academy looking to bring through the best local kids into the professional team, the national age group teams and on, eventually, to the full Scotland side.

I am a great believer in: “If you build it, they will come.” I would like to think, the will is somewhere within Murrayfield and the wider game for this to happen.

We need radical change – not yet another shuffle of the deckchairs, because, that iceberg is still out there.