We're Not Selling Rugby Union Properly

DECADES AGO, I had a conversation with a former Scotland cap in which a business trip he had been on came up. Apparently he had been sharing a hotel with some Disney Studios executives, whose motto was: “Anything for the Mouse”. This was perhaps the first time I had encountered brand awareness and protection.

I have been ruminating on brand awareness this week, after the shit show of that tawdry Lions' team announcement. In sport, boxing and wrestling have long been outliers – clear cases of: “never mind the dignity – feel the hype” as ever more tawdry stunts were pulled in an effort to put bums on seats. Perhaps boxing has moved on somewhat from the low point of Don King, but the jury is still out on that.

I fear the Lions naming debacle was yet another example of a recent phenomenon – the rise in influence of professional sports administrators, who appear to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Selling tickets for the announcement, to me, rather devalued rather than enhanced the Lions' brand.

Another Rugby Union brand which has become somewhat devalued of late is The Barbarians, a team which has perhaps been overtaken in its status by outside events. Back in the day, amateur clubs were only too happy to release their star names for Barbarians duty. It is a lot less-easy to get professional clubs, some such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, wholly-owned subsidiaries of national Unions, to release their players to an invitation club. And that's before we consider the ancillary costs, such as insurance.

That great Scottish international Herbert Waddell was, for decades, a pillar of the club, so it was fitting that the club should, last Saturday, play Glasgow Academicals, Waddell's home club, in a match to celebrate the centenary of Scotland's first Grand Slam, which was, of course clinched by Waddell's contribution to the win over England in the Murrayfield opening match.

There has been a tartan strain running through the Barbarians' history, since even before Herbert Waddell. Great Scottish stars have worn the black and white hoops with pride and honour, so, I was somewhat surprised at the absence of Scottish players from the Barbarians side against Accies.

This match was the second in two weeks for the Barbarians, but while that weel-kent tight-head Steven Longwell and former Scotland Under-20 flanker Jack Hill were in their team against Durham University on 3 May, there were no Scots in their team at New Anniesland.

That team contained players mainly playing below Championship level in England. Surely the Barbarians could have found space for a couple of players from our own Arnold Clark Premiership. I would suggest, players such as Ayr's Blair Macpherson, Kelso's Bruce McNeill or Currie's Graeme Carson would have relished a career-capping Barbarians appearance.

Or, why shouldn't younger talents such as Hawick's Andrew Mitchell, Ayr's Jamie Shedden or Currie's DJ Innes have had the chance to strut their stuff in that iconic jersey?

Sadly the match did not receive much media coverage, which I think was a shame. The Offside Line does a great job in covering Scottish Rugby, but, they cannot be everywhere and in this case, with both professional teams in action on the same day – they body-swerved the game in Glasgow.

Scottish Rugby News as is their want, stuck to their pattern of refusing to recognise any Rugby Union being played in Scotland below the URC.

I cannot help reflecting on the coverage that game would have received, back in the days when the Glasgow Herald, as it then was, took the game seriously and even the lowliest club midweek club game, at this time of the season, could be embellished by the presence on the touchline of WM McMurtrie, John Downie or Glen Stirling.

Hell, I can remember going up to Hughenden one chilly winter night, to watch and report-on that weel-kent Cumnock Legend Billy Herbertson making his debut for the Glasgow District Union XV against Edinburgh District Union, to find myself sitting between The Scotsman's Chris Rea and Bill McMurtrie – you don't get District Union games now (although kudos to the Borderers for trying to bring them back) far less Rugby-writing royalty covering the games.

Which comes back to my oft-stated point, the game of Rug by Union Football in Scotland is not selling itself as well as it could – and should.