Play Up And Play The Game

BACK IN my Salad Days, more than half a century ago, we took our Rugby every bit as seriously as today's club players do, but, I think we had a more nuanced and balanced approach.

We knew the boundaries of our season. XV-a-side Rugby Union began on 1 September, and ended on 30 April. VII-a-side play was allowed outwith these dates. Prior to 1973, apart from The Border League, what league play there was was organised in a more haphazard manner. The Unofficial, Newspaper Championship was contested by clubs which had the backing of the Sports Editors of The Glasgow Herald and The Scotsman.

Entry to the Championship was, according to one Murrayfield Alickadoo: “on the whims of the two Sports Editors” but, seemingly, once you had a certain number of fixtures against sides already in – so was your club. From memory, I think it required 16 Championship Clubs' fixtures to be admitted.

The club which won that Championship won it on having the best percentage of games won. For instance, the last Unofficial League table I could find in the Glasgow Herald Google News Archive, from their 2 April, 1973 edition, listed 32 teams, in the following descending order:

• Boroughmuir: p 23 : w 21 : d 1 : l 1 – 93% wins

• Gala: p 25 : w 22 : d 0 : l 3 – 88% wins

• Hawick: p 23 : w 19 : d 2 : l 2 – 86% wins

• Langholm: p 21 : w 17 : d 2 : l 2 – 85% wins

• Jordanhill College: p 20 : w 16 : d 1 : l 3 – 82% wins

• Edinburgh Wanderers: p 22 : w 16 : d 0 : l 6 – 72% wins

• Watsonians: p 22 : w 16 : d 0 : l 6 – 72% wins

• West of Scotland: p 19 : w 12 : d 1 : l 6 – 65% wins

• Dunfermline: p 22 : w 14 : d 0 : l 8 – 63% wins

• Gordonians : p 13 : w 8 : d 0 : l 5 – 61% wins

• Melrose: p 26 : w 16 : d 0 : l 10 – 61% wins

• Leith Academicals: p 23 : w 13 : d 2 : l 8 – 60% wins

• Glasgow High School FP: p 25 : w 15 : d 1 : l9 – 60% wins

• Ayr: p 20 : w 12 : d 0 : l 8 – 60% wins

• Glasgow Academicals: p 22 : w 11 : d 0 : l 11 – 50% wins

• Hillhead High School FP: p 22 : w 10 : d 2 : l10 – 50% wins

• Selkirk: p 24 : w 10 : d 2 : l 12 – 45% wins

• Kelso: p 27 : w 12 : d 0 : l 15 – 44% wins

• Edinburgh Academicals: p 26 : w 10 : d 1 : l 15 – 40% wins

• Trinity Academicals: p 25 : w 10 : d 0 : l 15 – 40% wins

• Hutcheson's Grammar School FP: p 19 : w 7 : d 0 : l 12 – 36% wins

• Jedforest: p 22 : w 8 : d 0 : l 14 – 36% wins

• Broughton FP: p 15 : w 5 : d 0 : l 10 – 33% wins

• Heriot's FP: p 24 : w 7 : d 1 : l 16 – 31% wins

• Musselburgh: p 24 : w 6 : d 2 : l 16 – 29% wins

• Perthshire: p 12 : w 3 : d 0 : l 9 – 25% wins

• Aberdeen Grammar School FP: p 17 : w 4 : d 0 : l 13 – 23% wins

• Royal High School FP: p 26 : w 6 : d 0 : l 20 – 23% wins

• Kelvinside Academicals: p 19 : w 3 : d 0 : l 16 – 15% wins

• Edinburgh University: p 18 : w 2 : d 1 : l 15 – 14% wins

• Stewart's College FP: p 24 : w 3 : d 0 : l 21 – 12% wins

• Glasgow University: p 20 : w 1 : d 1 : l 18 – 5% wins

Those 32 clubs were distributed across Scotland thus:

• Edinburgh – 12 clubs

• Glasgow and the West – 9 clubs

• North and Midlands – 4 clubs

• South – 7 clubs

The busiest club was Kelso, who played 27 fixtures, the quietest club was Perthshire, who only played 12 Unofficial Championship games. The average number of league games across the 32 clubs was 21 games.

This season, the top 32 clubs in the National Leagues, are distributed as follows:

• Edinburgh – 8 clubs

• Glasgow and West – 10

• North and Midlands – 7 clubs

• South – 7 clubs

Each club will play 18 league matches this season.

Back then we also had auxiliary competitions: The Glasgow Knock-Out Cup, several County Cups, in April we had – as well as the Borders Sports – still going via the Kings of the Sevens circuit, well-supported local sevens circuits at different levels across each of the Districts.

We had, in September, October, March and April, lots of midweek games; that's when the likes of the Glasgow Knock-Out and the County Cups were played. Back then, Rugby Union was a players' game, organised so that young men could burn-off excess energy playing – what has happened to this worthy idea?

Here's an idea for the SRU's Club Rugby Board: why don't you sort out the so-called professionals inside the Murrayfield Bubble to enable the clubs to provide Rugby Union for players? Get the people who matter – the players – back doing what they ought to: and play the game.