This Is Maybe Lateral Thinking - But, I Am Thinking About The Effects Of Super 6

YESTERDAY, on his Tax Research UK website, Professor Richard Murphy posted a very interesting piece on Brexit. It had originally been posted, by David Kelly, an oil and construction industry SME (subject matter expert), but, Professor Murphy thought it worthy of a wider audience. The entire post can be accessed at:

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/03/05/project-brexit/

I had a look at it and decided, if I took Mr Kelly's Brexit analysis as a template, but, substituted Super 6 for Brexit, it sort of made sense. You might not agree with my conclusions or arguments; you might not think comparing Brexit with Super 6 a good idea, if so, feel free to argue with me, but, I would suggest, like Brexit, Super 6 is a leap of faith, into the unknown, and, many of Mr Kelly's conclusions are a constant, in analysing any project.

The words in bold italics are Mr Kelly's, anything else, in red ink, is my wording:

“The important distinguishing feature of a project is that it stops. This is not manufacturing or running a shop. We make something, deliver it, and the job is over. Super 6 is a project. But if we examine it that way without any consideration as to whether it is “right” or “wrong” to do, it is doomed to failure.

In order for a project to be successful, there are some important ingredients. Super 6 lacks all of them, except a “Project Must Finish By” date, the only information that we have. On 1 May, 2018 the project finishes, when the successful Super 6 clubs are named.

Let me painfully go through just some of the missing ingredients:

A scope of work. Famously, there isn’t one. It is as if a shipbuilding company had accepted a contract to deliver a ship in March 2019, but nobody knows what sort of ship. All we know is the launch date.

Budget. There isn’t one. Mr Dodson has said: “This project will go ahead whatever.” He has not firmed up the costs.

Contract Management. The SRU has started this job without knowing what the terms and conditions are. Any of them. I cannot think of an analogy that expresses my horror at this strongly enough, other than to repeat it. We have started this job without knowing what the terms and conditions are. We are going to negotiate the T&Cs as we go along. How many times has that worked?

Benefit analysis. If you believe £350m a week for the NHS, you will believe anything I suppose, but in fairness there was a benefit analysis available this June from the proponents of the project. I do not think I am being too partisan if I suggest it has not stood up to scrutiny. In essence – there isn’t one. There was not one for Super 6.

Deliverables. All projects of this size have a list of deliverables, rather than a single event. The channel tunnel for example had operational parameters of availability, running costs, number of passengers, there will have been more I am sure. There are no quantified deliverables for Super 6. We have had: “The Premiership is not fit for purpose,” as a reason for initiating Super 6. Murrayfield has never told us what it expects Super 6 to deliver. This inflates dramatically the impact of my next heading:

Expectations. When we spend this much money on a project, there are expectations which have to be met. If, for example, our shipyard successfully builds two new ferries, but the service to users on the routes they are deployed on does not improve, then it is likely that the expectations of the users of the project will not be met and the project may not be deemed a success.

What do people expect from this project? Everyone has been allowed to invent their own expectations. Madness must ensue. With Brexit: for some it is control of immigration, for some it is leaving the single market, for some “taking back control” whatever that means. What are our expectations of Super 6?

One could argue that with no scope of work, no budget, no benefit study and no deliverables, expectation management is impossible. I do argue that. And that means we have no way to measure:

Success. There is no way to measure this. The project must then fail.”

Mr Kelly concluded his Brexit piece with the following paragraphs:

“I could carry on for a few thousand words more about what is wrong/missing with this project. Can I see the risk register? I thought not.

I am often called in to project control environments to help improve them. I certainly have plenty experience of projects that could have gone better. The simple truth I have observed is that success or failure is determined at or before the start, not the end of a project. Project success is a function of how ready we are to start the project. In more that forty years I have never seen a project less ready to start.

At the risk of tautology, this is technically the worst project I have ever experienced, and I’ve been parachuted into some lulus. It is hardly started and we are at the Supreme Court already.

All of the above just spells failure. Indeed I suspect Brexit cannot be done at all.

All I can think of to make it better, is comfort eating.

---

Bring on the doughnuts, I say.”

OK, a wee bit extreme, comparing the future governance of the Unitd Kingdom with a change in the format of the club game in Scottish Rugby. But, Super 6, as presently presented by the SRU, is a danger to the well-being of the club game in Scotland. The ramifications will be extreme. It deserves far-greater scrutiny, far-more explanation about what it is all about from Murrayfield. Far better that Murrayfield takes the whole of Scottish rugby with them.

 

At the moment, Mr Dodson and the SRU seem to be like Theresa May and the Brexiteers – saying, we will have things done our way, there is no alternative.

That is, quite simply, not going to work.

I May Be Boring, But, I Don't Think I Am Wrong

YESTERDAY'S blog post brought forth, on Facebook, a mild rebuke from a Stirling County man. “Aristotle, you are becoming boring,” I was cautioned.

Thanks for that, my critic, and actually, you might be correct. It is difficult to keep a subject going, when the perpetrators of the thing you are protesting against refuse to interact. The Ayatollah Dodson has spoken: “Super 6 will happen, come what may,” and he aint listening to alternative views.

Supreme Ayatollah Dodson: "Super 6 will happen"

The lesser Ayatollahs – those elected SRU Council members who sit on their hands, or lose their voices when Dodson and the Scotia Nostra of professional administrators suggest something, even something which, deep down, the elected members feel might harm their club – because they enjoy being on the gravy train with their snouts in the corporate trough; they aint listening.

So, I have to keep banging away on my drum. Those newspapers with a considerable rugby constituency, they ainspeaking-out: somebody has to, the future of Scottish Rugby could be at stake.

And, a final wee word to my friend from Stirling County. OK, maybe I am boring, but, not half as boring as life will be, if, sometime in the next six or seven years, a Super 6 franchise, run by your club, goes tits-up, and they plan to build houses on Bridgehaugh to offset the financial disaster which could befall your club.

How I felt when I first read about Super 6 and Agenda 3

I went down the road of being agin Super 6, because, I read the original plan, and realised immediately – this is shite. But, having identified shite there, began to smell it elsewhere in Scottish Rugby.

My conclusion is, for all the feel-good atmosphere around the Calcutta Cup, Glasgow and Edinburgh and having the likes of Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Huw Jones to watch – Scottish Rugby's outward healthy glow is masking a cancer at the heart of the game.

That cancer is Super 6, and even more-so Agenda 3. Trouble is brewing unless these twin threats are stopped.

HERE ARE a couple of responses I received, to my last blog post:

“I wonder when the Members of this Union will seek greater clarity on what resources are actually being poured into the various aspects that make up the pro game - be that Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stade Nice, whoever it is in South Africa that a partnership agreement was going to be signed with, the High Performance Department, the Academies, the Super6, and whatever other scheme are being being run that we probably don't know about.

“And when the Members compare this largesse with funding for Schools of Rugby shrinking and the Modern Apprentice programme being phased out, will they come to the conclusion that the current split of investment between pro and community rugby is out of kilter.”

x-x-x-x-x

“Thanks for reminding me about the MA programme.

This was released in an SRU message to clubs.
'Scottish Rugby will be winding down its Modern Apprentice programme in July this year following a reduction in central funding for MA roles in the sporting and leisure sectors'

“To Aristotle’s point - what are the costs of the MA programme and how does it support club rugby?

“Personally I think it’s a good programme and worth funding outside of support from the govt.”

These are from guys, involved in clubs, who know what they are writing about. We could do with answers from Murrayfield. But, will we get them?

Jock "Stiffy" McClure

Back when I got into rugby, we had Jock “Stiffy” McClure, a former Scotland cap as our Head of PE at our school – Cumnock Academy. He boosted rugby, to the detriment of football and persuaded the Rector that the only boys in the Fourth to Sixth Years who could play football were those who had come to our Senior Secondary in the Fourth Year from other local Junior Secondaries.

He ran the rugby programme, assisted by players from Ayr and Kilmarnock who were teachers at the school. We had fixtures against: Ayr Academy, Marr College, Kilmarnock Academy, Irvine Royal Academy, Ardrossan Academy, Dalry High School and Spiers School in Ayrshire.

We ventured into Glasgow, to play Shawlands Academy, Queen's Park Secondary, Bellahouston Academy, Albert Drive, Hyndland School and Jordanhill College School

We played Hamilton Academy and Dalziel High School in Lanarkshire and Dumfries Academy and St Jospeh's College in Dumfries, while, in my final year at school, we got a fixture against Keil School.

With home and away meetings, that's a bloody good fixture list – and I warrant we played more games than some club youth sides and a lot of school sides play today.

“The Teachers' Strike” decimated school sport, not just rugby, but, that was 30-years ago, and I submit, in spite of the growth in youth rugby at club level since then, we have never made-up for what we lost back then.

One of the means tried to fill-in the numbers gap, was the Modern Apprentices scheme. It was an MA, working and playing for Cumnock Rugby Club, who got my grandson into rugby. OK, he has since dropped-out, but, he enjoyed a good five or six years of playing and is still a fan.

Modern Apprentices cannot fill the role of a dedicated PE teacher such as Stiffy at Cumnock, or his contemporaries such as TB Watson at Ayr Academy, or the great Campbell Bone in several Ayrshire schools, but, nowadays, these enthusiasts, by and large, are not there so MAs and club schools liaison officers and development officers are necessary and such positions ought to be better funded, rather than down-graded and phased-out.

Putting all your money into the elite level and ignoring the grass-roots is no way to preserve the long-term integrity of the game, without strong roots, the plant will not flourish. When is Murrayfield going to realise this and turn around?

And, do not get me started at the ongoing class distinctions in Scottish Rugby, whereby, if you go to the “right” school, you are far-more likely to have a chance of a Scotland cap further down the road, than if you went to a local authority one. I reckon we have missed out on a lot of potential Scotland caps from this bias.

Is The SRU High Performance Department Fit For Purpose?

ONE of the things I have learned, since I first encountered Super 6 and Agenda 3 last year is, when a club official from one of the “lesser” clubs warned me – the row around Agenda 3 will eclipse in its ferocity, that around Super 6 - he was maybe under-estimating the possible extent of the problem.

I think most of us outside the Murrayfield bubble now accept: Super 6 is a flawed concept, the figures, as far as they have thus far been in the public domain, do not add-up. Unless the SRU Ayatollahs come to their senses and think again – this time consulting more-widely and in greater depth – pain and anguish lies somewhere in the future.

But, that pain and anguish will only affect a few clubs, who should be able to recover, given time.

The SRU has been guilty over at least the last decade, maybe longer (I have not been back covering rugby for a decade so feel somewhat under-qualified to comment further). But, from what I have seen since switching from football to rugby press boxes, the SRU has concentrated on the top end of the game, to the detriment of the lower tiers.

As I have said before, I want the Union's High Performance Department to succeed. I want Scotland challenging for the 6Nations crown and competing in the knock-out rounds of the World Cup. I want Edinburgh and Glasgow doing likewise in the PRO14 and in Europe.

But, that's Murrayfield's job. The job of the clubs is to provide rugby for those who wish to play it, to as high a level as they are able. There has, obviously, got to be a cross-over point, at which potential professionals are taken out of the play for fun stream into the this is your job stream. But, potential does not follow a strict pattern, not every player develops at the same rate.

The SRU has the player development pathway. At Under-15 level, they start to sift through the emerging talent, and, if a boy is lucky – he will move seamlessly through the system; Under-16 to Under-18, to Under-19, then Under-20; into the Academy, then onto professional contracts with the two PRO14 clubs, and, hopefully, onto the Scotland team. But, even with this system, progress is not uniform.

The 28-man Scotland squad which performed so well in the Under-20 World Cup in May and June last year was:

Forwards: Hamish Bain (Currie)*, Fergus Bradbury (Stirling County)*, Alex Craig (Gloucester)***, Luke Crosbie (Currie)**, Tom Dodd (Worcester)***, Ross Dunbar (Boroughmuir)*, Archie Erskine (Newcastle Falcons)***, Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Hawks)**,
Bruce Flockhart (Glasgow Hawks)**, Thomas Gordon (Currie)**, Callum Hunter-Hill (Stirling County)**, Adam Nicol (Stirling County), Fraser Renwick (Hawick)*, Robbie Smith (Ayr)*, George Thornton (Bishop Burton College)***, Daniel Winning (Boroughmuir)**.

Backs: Patrick Anderson (Melrose), Ruaridh Dawson (Newcastle Falcons)***, Connor Eastgate (Wasps)***, Darcy Graham (Hawick)**, Josh Henderson (Glasgow Hawks)*, Robert Kay (Heriot’s), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby), Stafford McDowall (Ayr), Ross McCann (Melrose)**, Robbie Nairn (Harlequins)***, Charlie Shiel (Currie)**, Andrew Simmers (Heriot’s).

*BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy Stage 2 Player, **BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy Stage 3 Player, *** Scottish Exile.

Of those 28 players: 1, Blair Kinghorn, was already a full-time professional with Edinburgh. A further 9 – Luke Crosbie, Matt Fargerson, Bruce Flockhart, Thomas Gordon, Callum Hunter-Hill, Daniel Winning, Darcy Graham, Ross McCann and Charlie Shiel were Stage 3 Academy players. A further 6 players – Hamish Bain, Fergus Bradbury, Ross Dunbar, Fraser Renwick, Robbie Smith and Josh Henderson were Stage 2 Academy players. There were 7 players from the Scottish Exiles (as it was then) programme – Alex Craig, Tom Dodd, Archie Erskine, George Thornton, Ruaridh Dawson, Connor Eastgate and Robbie Nairn.

The final 5 players – Adam Nicol, Patrick Anderson, Robert Kay, Stafford McDowall and Andrew Simmers got in on performances for their clubs, all 5 players strutting their stuff in the BT Premiership, you know, that competition which isn't fit for purpose.

Let's look at how these players have fared this season. Kinghorn was the most-advanced of the team, and he continues to set the pace, having made his full Scotland debut off the bench in last Saturday's Calcutta Cup victory.

Another player, Darcy Graham, an Academy Stage 3 player at the U-20 World Cup, is also in the full Scotland squad, and is currently playing for the Scotland Sevens squad.

Of the other Stage 3 Academy players in the squad, Crosbie, Fagerson and Hunter-Hill are now full-time with one or other of the two PRO14 teams, while Sheil, after an outstanding season with Currie and a Scotland Club XV cap, has also signed a full-time Edinburgh contract, while the SRU has sent Flockhart, along with Josh Henderson – back then a Stage 2 Academy player, to France through their controversial tie-in with Nice.

Of the 6 Stage 2 Academy players, Bain, Dunbar, Renwick and Smith have moved-up to Stage 3, full-time player status, while Henderson has gone to Nice, leaving just prop Fergus Bradbury not having moved-on.

Of the quintet of then unsupported players – i.e. not in the Academy system, Adam Nicol and Stafford McDowall went straight to Stage 3 status, and both have since played for Glasgow Warriors.

Exiles players Erskine and Nairn have returned to Scotland as Stage 3 players – playing respectively for Boroughmuir and Ayr in the Premiership; while the other five are still with their English clubs.

Craig is only just returning from injury, playing in the Gloucester Academy side, and for Hartpury in the English Championship. Dodd is still with the Worcester Academy, playing club rugby for Luctonians, while Thornton has left Bishop Burton College to link-up with Eastgate at Wasps. He plays club rugby for Coventry, but, like Eastgate, has featured for Wasps in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, in which Dawson has played for Newcastle Falcons.

So, of the 28 players in the squad, McDowall and Smith are the only ones still in the 2017-18 Under-20 squad, while at best only 10 of the other 26 have progressed their careers significantly – the jury is out on the move to France of Flockhart and Henderson.

With just 10 of 26 players progressing their careers in one season – I ask again, is the SRU High Performance Department fit for purpose.

In an ideal world, the SRU would have found a means to keep them playing together, perhaps in an English-style Academy team, or teams; or perhaps with a third PRO14 team which is definitely identified as a “Development Team”. But, since they are unwilling or unable to do this, player development will, it seems, be an ongoing aspect of the top-level of the club game.

And, if that has to happen – well six clubs is a case of too-few.

I Wanna Direct You To A Story, And, It's A Cracker

I AM indebted to the Director of Rugby with one of our National League sides, who sent me a link to a very interesting piece in the New Statesman, from 2017.

Huw Jones - what a story

The piece, written by former Middlesex and England cricketer Ed Smith is a good read, and it stems from a conversation he had with one of his local school headmasters, a chap named Bill Jones, whose son Huw, you may have heard of. It is the story of how Huw went from overlooked youth talent to one of the “hottest” players in world rugby and can be found at:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/sport/2017/03/praise-late-developer

My contact sent me the link, following yesterday's blog on the collapse of youth and schools rugby in recent years. As he said, and remember, this guy is heavily involved at the sharp end of the club game:

“Dodson said at the West meeting re Super Six. I can't remember his exact words but it was along the lines of "Super Six will improve because the High Performance Department will be running it."

There is also a relevant and significant quote from the Huw Jones article: "Shoehorning all young players into rigid, quasi-professional systems long before they are ready comes with risks.

“First, we seldom hear from the child prodigies who faded away (often damaged psychologically). Many players who are pushed too hard miss their natural learning arc; the narrative of their ambition, or the ambition imposed on them by parents, is often out of step with their physical and psychological growth.

“Second, systems have a habit of overestimating their contribution: they become blind to outsiders."

My DoR contact also said:

“As regards the Youth game in Scotland. I have been at loggerheads with the SRU over the introduction of the conferencing system and their draconian approach.

“The two games in a weekend nonsense is killing clubs and they know it, because they has been told by numerous clubs, but are too stubborn/stupid to accept it. I played youth rugby through the 90s and even since then, the decline in youth club rugby is staggering yet this has coincided with an astronomical growth in the number of Development Officers. Go figure?

“Centralised control is killing the youth game and it is going the same way with the senior game and the preposterous Super Six. I don't know the answer in terms of how the SRU should best distribute money in order to support the grass roots but I do know that when more responsibility lay with club people and club volunteers and Murrayfield exerted far less direct control, the picture was far, far rosier in all respects.

“Not to get political, but history tells us that the approach they are employing is doomed to fail, and it is failing.”

Then there is the following comment, posted on the blog yesterday after I highlighted the problems of unplayed games. Posted by a “Club Fan”, the comment is:

“It’s a numbers game!

I’ve had this discussion with the SRU community rugby guys - if we have over 10k players then why all the postponements and cancellations? And at that they clam up.

The SRU are tied into the Sportscotland system so they can get funding. Nothing wrong with that.

But sportscotland are participation based - it’s about how many take part not how many stay to play the game later on.

If we also extend the issue to club volunteers we begin to see the depth of the problem. Not enough players exacerbated by dwindled youth at U-15 upwards with an ageing volunteer base.

And the answer to this is Agenda 3?”

It seems clear from this, wins such as those by the Under-20s last Friday night, and the big team in the Calcutta Cup, not to mention how high Glasgow and Edinburgh are currently flying, these successes are papering over serious cracks.

Now the Murrayfield Ayatollahs may well see relative on-field successes as proof their systems are working, but, they are failing to carry the congregation along with them. Badly presented and apparently ill-thought-out initiatives such as Super 6 and Agenda 3 are not galvanising the troops.

 Stevie Gemmell - a Murrayfield insider - appointed rather than having to go through an application process to become Technical Director

Decisions such as that to appoint Stevie Gemmell as Technical Director, without advertising the post openly give the impression of the Murrayfield “civil service” doing what they like; with the assistance of elected officials who seem, to those who elected them, to NOT be doing the jobs to which they were elected: adding to that impression. Disclaimer – I have no axe to grind against Stevie, I like the guy.

Struggling clubs feel they are not getting the support they should from Murrayfield, Scottish Rugby is far from healthy, and buying Worcester, or a stake in Newcastle, or the insanity of Super 6 will not help. Saying openly: “We feel the future is via fewer, but stronger clubs” is not going to get support from those clubs Murrayfield sees as: “weak”, but the members see as viable.

Huw Jones bobbled along under the radar for two or three years, before he was spotted by the Scottish Qualified initiative – one Murrayfield plan which does appear to be paying dividends. Back home, however, I can think of – back in the amateur era - two or three very good players picked-up by local clubs, who took a year or two to learn the game, but went on to great things. In my own club we recruited a couple of hulking second rows to our Sunday League football team; we sent both on to Ayr, where both did well, with one of them going on to play for Glasgow.

But, if a local club is not there, because Murrayfield reckons it is not strong enough, is there any guarantee similar rough diamonds will be discovered and polished-up to become good players? I don't think so.

The Future's Grimm And It's No Fairy Tale

NO SOONER had I put up yesterday's blog post, than one of that small band of regular commenters on the blog posted the following:

“As has been suggested by others, we need to be strengthen the base of the pyramid, the foundations upon which the upper tiers are built - unfortunately, "fewer, but stronger" narrows the gene pool.

The schools rugby initiative was right in some respects and is working in some, but unfortunately it was done at the expense of Club rugby where "fewer, but stronger" appears to be the path that was set out right from the start.

It looks as though the schools rugby plan was to id talented youngsters in a school setting and send them to favoured Clubs. However, the issue is that the school leagues (T3 where stats can be compiled), show the unfulfilled game rate is huge. As a result, kids in a school environment are given limited opportunity for competitive game time.

A review of the Barbarian Conference shows a fulfilment rate of 84% for under 13 & 14 games, which is pretty decent. But move on to the traditionally more difficult age groups of Under 15, 16 & 18, and the combined fulfilment rate drops to 54% - just over half the games are played (at Under 15 it's only 38%). Remember, this is during the September to November period when fewer games are lost to the weather. The stats for West conference may be a bit worrying, but a quick look at the East conferences and West schools look like the star performers.

Right from the start, the Schools rugby v Club Youth sections debate showed a massive risk of player loss. Neither Murrayfield wage earners, nor Council reps could answer the question: what happens to those kids who leave school education at the age of 16.
Obvious answer: they are lost to the game if they are not involved in a Club.

However, if they're playing for a school, they're probably not involved in a Club as SRU policy (and no other Union in the rugby world) states that kids cannot play two games in a weekend.

The direct knock-on effect of the schools policy and the Unions player welfare policy is that the number of Clubs with u16 and u18 teams is now tiny.

However, this season shows that even prior to the U16 level, kids are choosing not to play rugby for their school.

Yes we need schools rugby, but if we are to get kids playing competitively & regularly, then we also need a healthy Club youth scene - this needs local Clubs operating in their local communities.

Outwith of the traditional rugby playing schools settings, schools should be used to introduce kids to the game, and those who have an interest should be directed to their local Club - but if that local Club doesn't exist because some top down central strategy tells us that "fewer, but stronger" is the way to go, then what.”

We Should Be Worried 

This is a worrying trend. I only occasionally touch on the schools and youth conferences, and I must admit, while I had noticed some instances of unplayed fixtures, I had not looked too hard at this aspect of the competition, and certainly not as far as my contact.

We need to get more kids playing – then do the hard part, keep them playing. Maybe I was lucky, but, when I left school at 15, sorry I will rephrase that, was told by the Headmaster I was leaving at 15, I had a local club to join, and an elder brother who already played there. Five of my school team mates also left that year, and four of us joined the club and continued to play and socialise together for years – and are still in touch today, over 50-years later.

The older cub members looked after us, on and off the field. We got to drink before we were 18 and this taught us to have a healthy respect for the demon alcohol. We were not side-tracked into Under-16 or Under-18 teams, we started in the 2^nd XV, because the club only had two teams, and, two of my school/team-mates were in the 1^st XV at 17.

When I got married half a century ago, I joined Ayr, because, I worked Saturday mornings, lived just outside Ayr and it was easier to play there. Ayr was newly into the unofficial Championship then, and was still developing Millbrae. But, they fielded five teams every Saturday, 1^st and 2^nd XVs for the serious adult players, the A1 XV, which was a combination of old hands and good young players, the A2 XV, which was a social club and almost a club within a club, and the 3^rd XV, for the guys who weren't very good, but enjoyed a game of rugby. They also had players left over.

Today, Ayr has a 1^st XV, and a 2^nd XV, a terrific youth section and Millbrae, which is a cross between the old A2 and 3^rd XVs.

Ayr and Belmont Academies ran full schools rugby programmes back then; today the private Wellington School is the only Ayr school running a comparable schools programme to back then – and, even allowing for the success of the Ayr-Wellington integrated youth programme, I reckon there were more young players playing in Ayr back in the day.

Ayr are also, I should acknowledge, attempting to broaden their base, by running the South Ayrshire Schools Conference, which provides some rugby for the local schools and feeds interested and promising youngsters into the club.

 Mark Bennett - did not attend a rugby-playing school

My own original club, Cumnock, has also worked hard at attracting youngsters. Mark Bennett for instance, attended St Joseph's Academy in Kilmarnock, which does not offer rugby, while Gavin Lowe and Paddy Dewhurst both went to Auchinleck Academy. Harry Reilly, Cumnock's youth development officer, does a fantastic job, with not a lot of back-up, while one or two long-serving former players work bloody hard along side him, running a youth programme which puts some more-illustrious clubs to shame.

Catching the kids, and bridging the fall-off gap to keep them involved can be done, but, it's bloody difficult and expensive work.

Maybe, just maybe, if some of the SRU funds which have been going to sending players to France, to working on hare-brained schemes such as Super 6 and Agenda 3 was to be diverted to the clubs, to organise and run local initiatives such as the South Ayrshire Schools Conference, we would see a rise in the numbers of young players – this would broaden the base of the pyramid - and, we might unearth a few diamonds along the way.

Dave Rennie Isn't The Only Galloway Irishman Making Waves In Scottish Rugby

GLASGOW Warriors' Head Coach Dave Rennie may be the latest “Kilted Kiwi” off the aircraft, but, the Rennie roots go back to Stranraer, which makes Oor Davie a “Galloway Irishman” - a sub-sect which doesn't make a lot of noise, but has a good pedigree in Scottish Rugby.

 Dave Rennie - his Galloway-Irishmen cousins are showing initiative

Mungo Bryson's memorial is the fact, having spent a few seasons travelling from Castle Douglas to Bearsden to play for West of Scotland, he then started Stewartry RFC. In the process he blazed a trail since followed by Fergus McDowall and Geordie Nicholson, who both played for Ayr and Glasgow, while Fergus's son Stafford, who has already made his Warriors' debut, is a current member of the SRU Academy, playing regularly for Ayr in the BT Premiership and vice-captain of the Scotland Under-20 team, captained by his Academy, Ayr and former Stewartry team mate Robbie Smith. Another Stewartry product, Alex Craig, was in last season's Scotland Under-20 squad with McDowall and Smith, and is now with the Gloucester Academy in the Aviva Premiership.

 Stafford McDowall, Robbie Smith and Alex Craig - from Stewartry to Scotland

At the Western end of the A75, Wigtownshire sent Hughie Parker up the A77 to Kilmarnock, Glasgow and Scotland B, while SRU Technical Director Stevie Gemmell is another former 'Shire man.

At the Eastern end of the A75, Annan has produced Warriors and Scotland centre Alex Dunbar, while other clubs from than neck of the woods – Dumfries Saints and Newton Stewart for instance, have also sent some of their better prospects on to more-illustrious clubs.

Yesterday, the SRU sent out a press release which confirmed how hard the clubs in that often by-passed part of Scotland work to be self-sustaining. The press puff rightly praised an initiative by five of the Dumfries and Galloway clubs – Annan, Dumfries, Moffat, Newton Stewart and Stewartry, aimed at easing the transition from Under-18 to adult rugby, a point where too-many players drop out of the game, and keeping the youngsters involved.

Getting it together

The cubs arranged joint sessions, in which 33 young players took part, and, at the end of a short, sharp period: three training sessions, two games and a final team-bonding exercise, 32 of the 33 young players involved are now playing across the region, an influx of new blood which has lowered the age profile of the clubs.

This is a serious issue for the clubs in the wild South-West. There is a long history of promising schools and youth players going away to university and being lost to the game. Against this, you have the likes of the McDowalls coming back from schools, in their case Merchiston, to work on the family farms, but, the South-West clubs really do have to work to keep up their numbers.

John Muir, Development Officer at Stewartry, said: “We know that these players enjoy playing rugby so it’s about breaking down any potential barriers and providing the smoothest path to playing senior rugby.

“The series of training, games and activities introduced young players to the senior set-up at their club and allowed them to get to know some of the faces they’ll be playing and training with.

“Combining clubs ensured a good turn out and the results this season have been absolutely fantastic."

The lessons learned have now been collated into ‘Tackling Transition’, a document which outlines simple proven steps clubs can take to bring young players into their senior squads inspired, in part, by the Dumfries and Galloway clubs' initiative.

Nick Rennie, Scottish Rugby’s Head of Club Services, said: “It’s great to see clubs, like those in Dumfries and Galloway, rising to the challenge of player transition and making a great success of it.

“Offering tailored sessions and activities can make the difference in assisting players with the sometimes-daunting step to adult rugby and will have longer term benefits for club sustainability.”

A best practice guide based on the Dumfries and Galloway project to help clubs transition players from youth to adult club rugby and some potential financial support are available from Scottish Rugby.

Interested clubs should contact Darren Burns at darren.burns@sru.org.uk.

Now, I would never denigrate the hard work the SRU's Development Officers do around the country; and I certainly welcome Nick Rennie's support for the initiative and desire to see the lessons learned spread across Scotland. I also welcome that wee line about some potential financial support”, being available – although that word “potential” worries me.

A Nice mid-winter trip to the Suth of France for El Duce Dodson

Maybe, just maybe, if El Duce Dodson wasn't jetting off to Nice, allegedly to discuss throwing a wee bit more of our cash at the French lower league side, or thwarting the careers of two potentially good Scottish players, by taking them out of the BT Premiership to play in tier four in France, or squandering cash on looking at buying Worcester Warriors, or 20% of Newcastle Falcons, then that “potential” support could become guaranteed support.

And maybe too, if El Duce and the Lesser-Spotted Johnson spent less time looking after the elite level of the game, and a bit more time on the body of the kirk, the overall game would be in better shape.

It wasn't the SRU that came up with this excellent plan in Dumfries and Galloway, it was the clubs themselves. Of course, Dodson, the LSJ and the other Ayatollahs don't know the little people who do the work, and care even less about them. If they did, they would ditch stupid ideas such as Super Six and Agenda Three.

One of the notions around Agenda Three is, apparently, that there should be, fewer, but stronger clubs. Aye Right.

Does this mean, in the face of the evidence of what works from this initiative, that we turn the clock back 50-years and, instead of having seven clubs in Dumfries and Galloway: Annan, Dumfries, Langholm, Moffat, Newton Stewart, Stewartry and Wigtownshire – we revert to the position half a century ago, and have Langholm, Dumfries and Wigtownshire?

Is this your grand plan, Mr Dodson?