Club Rugby Is (Sort Of) Back

THE FIRST league games of 2024 will be played today, as Scottish rugby gets going again after the festive break. It's not a full programme by any means, but, the re-scheduled games which will be played this afternoon still offer us one or two enticing clashes.

Principal among these will be the meeting, at Malleny Park, of Currie Chieftains and Hawick – third in the table entertaining the leaders; you cannot ask for much more than this and hopefully this potential cracker attracts a big crtowd.

There is but one other Premiership clash, with Glasgow Hawks hosting Kelso at Balgray. The visitors have a lot to play for here, a bonus point win, or even winning by 12 points or better, would lift them into the play-off zone; while Hawks really do need to climb away from second bottom place. There first aim has to be to win, and close on Selkirk, the team immediately above them.

IN THE First Division, Ayr ended 2023 by clinching promotion to the Premiership. They have had thre weeks in which to celebrate and now they get back into action, looking to keep their unbeaten run going when they entertain third-placed Highland at Millbrae.

There are two other re-scheduled games in this division, with Biggar hosting Gala and Glasgow Academicals venturing into the badlands south of the River Clyde to face GHA.

THERE IS one game in Division Three, with Allan Glen's looking to leap frog Orkney into second spot in the table, if they can make home advantage count against fourth place Howe of Fife, should be a cracker.

THERE ARE just two other fixtures on the card today. The first is the Border League meeting of Selkirk and Peebles, at Philiphaugh, the second, a Caledonia Regional League Division One clash beween Caithness and Ellon.

THE TWO new Women's representative sides – Edinburgh and Glasgow are in Celtic Challenge action this weekend. Edinburgh take on the Irish Wolfhounds at The Hive, while Glasgow are in Cardiff, where they face Gwwalia Lightning, at The Arms Park, tomorrow.

AS THE NEW YEAR came in, we learned that Bill Mata was leaving Edinburgh for Bristol. Yesterday, French sources were reporting that Owen Farrell will leave Saracens for Racing 92 at the end of the season.

Racing, however, were very quick to denounce these reports, putting out the following communique:

“Racing 92 is regularly under the aegis of numerous speculations concerning movements within its workforce. We welcome the attractiveness of our Racing 92 club. However, we deny any agreement regarding the English player Owen Farrell.”

Regardless of this pretty-emphatic put down from the Parisiennes, which, while denying there is agreement between themselves and Farrell, does not deny that they have been in contact; so, perhaps, they are talking. I think we will see more such deals in the years to come – at least up until that day when financial sanity reacher the Gallagher Premiership. The French club system is somewhat different from that in England, so, even if all the top English clubs suddenly decide to live within their means, I feel there will always be the “marquee player” exception, but, the mega-rich French clubs will still be able to cherry-pick the top talent.

I feel we will also see more British Isles players, perhaps once they have reached 100 caps, opting out of international rugby and signing a retirement pot enhancing deal in France.

It's an enticing prospect, a couple of years in the sunshine in France, eating good food, drinking fine wine and playing against some class acts. Haud me back.

WATCHING Sale Sharks v Bristol Bears on Friday night, I was struck by how often referee Karl Dickson censured players for pinning opponents into the breakdown. Now my belief that Dickson is not a great referee is well-known, however, in this instance, I would not criticise him unduly for this – because EVERY referee at elite level does this.

Mind you, being Karl Dickson, there was at least one breakdown in the second half in which he penalised a Bristol player for not rolling, when he was clearly being pinned in by two Sale Sharks.

I reckon pinning opponents on the ground is one of the many minor infringements which match officials are under orders to ignore, along with:

1. Squint feeds at scrums

2. Hookers standing infield to throw into lines out

3. Stealing metres when kicking penalties to touch

4. Scrum halves taking longer than the mandatory five seconds to box kick, after being told to: “use it”

5. Taking longer than 30 seconds to set a scrum

6. Lengthy committee meetings before a line out

Readers might wish to add further annoying bending of the Laws.

I can accept, if referees did penalise every minor infringement, games would last three hours and their concerto for whistle matches would pretty quickly annoy the fans, but, really, we do need to tighten up on some of these wee tricks of professional sport.

 

Hail And Farewell Big Bill - But, Good Move Or Bad Move? Has To Be The Question

THE BIG Scottish Rugby News at New Year was the departure, at the end of the season, of Edinburgh's favourite Fijian Viliame “Big Bill” Mata, who will be plying his trade with Bristol Bears next year.

I wish Bill well at Ashton Gate. I do not know, nor am I interested in knowing, the details of the deal he has got from his new club. What I suspect is, since he is now 32, this will be the last big-money deal of his career and, hopefully, it will be of sufficient level to ensure he has a long, happy and well-funded retirement, should be choose to return to Fiji.

But, it is further proof of the rank stupidity of so-many of the people making the big decisions among the Gallagher Premiership clubs.

Bristol Bears are owned by the Lansdown family, headed by Guernsey-based Steven Lansdown, whose net worth is estimated at £1.3 billion. He owns the Bears, Bristol City FC and Bristol Flyers Basketball Club, under the umbrella of Bristol Sports.

There are plans to build the Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter around the main ground, these £100 million plans include a new, 4000-seat basketball arena and a major hotel. However, even someone as well-heeled as Mr Lansdown has admitted, he would not be against either a partial or full sale and there are suggestions, he would be willing to let go of the Bears and the Flyers, but, his dream is to get City back into the Premier League.

Bristol Bears has lost him a reported £66 million over their last two accounting periods, so, should they not improve on their current eighth place, 11 points off a play-off spot, might not that sale look a bit more appealing, even to a man of Lansdown's means?

Exeter Chiefs are bucking the trend in England, cutting their wage bill, by releasing big-earning stars, replacing them with younger, locally-trained players, but maintaining a top four place. Chiefs are, however, the outlier, “Spend, spend, spend” seems to be the preferred management model, as the other clubs mainly follow the lead of English football, but, without the spectator capacity or the media profile of that game. It will all, sooner or later, end in tears, I believe.

Our game, up here, is not perfect, we have major issues around governance, youth development and infrastructure, but, I think we are in a healthier state than in England.

To return to Bill Mata. He certainly has “The X-factor” as a player, but, I would assume given he's a Fijian, he will command a higher salary than the current Bristol number eight, one Magnus Bradbury. Let's compare the two:

• Magnus Bradbury – age 28 : 6' 4” : 116kg : 19 international caps

• Viliame Mata – age 32 : 6' 5” : 116kg : 20 international caps.

Looking long term, which player would you rather have in your squad? Mata has the profile, but, while Bradbury is probably at his peak, Mata is now surely on the downward slope. Still, some people will always buy a Mercedes, when a Skoda could do the same job, as well and more-cheaply.

THE BREAKDOWN, The Guardian's weekly rugby blog, this week published an article, by Michael Aylwin, which pretty much met my old mucker Graham Spiers' definition of hermeneutics – it challenges the Gospel of rugby, which sayeth: “the game was better in the old days.”

To be fair to young Master Aylwin, who I hold to be the best of the Guardian bunch, he makes a fair point or two. He has backers too, John Beattie Senior has long maintained, the game which his son Johnnie played so well calls for a level of fitness and athleticism which was never required when Big Bad John was smashing into Wade Dooley all these years ago.

We see modern props giving and taking passes and making runs which back in the amateur era, only a chosen few, such as wee Fudd, or Big Fran Cotton could make. Mind you, against that, I would not like to be a modern “Great” such as Ellis Genge or Joe Marler going head-to-head with McLauchlan and Cotton circa 1974; that would be a painful and embarrassing experience for the modern men. Similarly, I wonder how even Eben Etzebeth or Brodie Retallick would fare in the free-for-all which was the amateur era line-out.

Against that, how might Al McHarg or Peter Brown have flourished under today's line out laws of strictly-policed gaps and lifters? Or, how many more tries might Arthur Smith for instance, have scored on the end of Finn Russell's passing range from hand or via his boot?

Defences are so-much better these days, but, the call today appears to be: “it doesn't matter how you do it, just stop your opponent.” I long to see a return to proper tackling; perhaps, when the below the sternum tackle law is expanded to the professional game, we will again see the swashbuckling three-quarter sallies of the likes of the 1971 Lions, free from the threat of an opponent in your face as you receive the ball.

Yes, in lots of ways, 21^st century rugby is better than in the amateur days, but, not so much better that a major revision of the Laws and, even before that, much-stricter policing of the Laws as they stand, would not make the game even more-watchable and enjoyable.

FINALLY – on the tricky subject of playing numbers, and the lack thereof. I received a Hogmanay missive from one member of the blog's very-exclusive think tank, who, in a wide-ranging note, included the following paragraph:

“Social factors have led to a decline in playing numbers. Watching club league cricket in recent years, I observe how it is increasingly becoming a young person’s game. The days of heading off to enjoy a day of cricket, leaving behind wife/partner/girlfriend to look after the children are long gone, particularly when one’s other half has also been working full time during the week. And as for getting one’s beloved to sign up to the cricket tea rota, just forget it!”

For cricket, read rugby union, clearly the times they are a-changing. Between the observations made above, and the notion of “Rugby fatigue” kicking-in by a time some players reach the age of 18 or leave school, it is a case of - “Murrayfield, you have a problem.”

 

Aristotle's Agenda For Change - Part Three

AS THE SNP is maybe discovering, or maybe not – I have little regard for the people in-charge of that political party at the moment – advocating major change in any area of life in Scotland is a sair fecht. “It's Aye Been” is seemingly the natural attitude of the Scots. We steadfastly refuse to support The Conservative and Unionist Party up here, but, for awe that, we remain an almost religiously conservative country – happy to muddle along as we always have.

This attitude is particularly entrenched in Scottish Rugby, where forcing through change, even when that change appears necessary, is fraught with difficulties, not least the old Scottish drrawback of self-interest coming first.

I have discovered this this week, as I have attempted to call for major change to how we organise this great game of ours up here. Bill Faulds of Falkirk RFC has taken me to task for daring to advocate change. I fear Bill is not the only one, although, to give him his due, he has questioned me. So, Bill, here are your questions and my responses. Bill's questions are in italics, my answers in normal font.

1/ how many Regions? Or what’s an acceptable distance to drive for a match? 20 miles? Or 40? Or an hour / 60 miles? An hour sounds sensible, if you want to be “home for tea”?

If you had read Part One, you would have realised I am advocating six regions. These would, as happens in Ireland, be organised at a regonal level, with regional committees elected, giving the clubs in that region more control than at present.

I have based them on the current Regions, which means, Falkirk, your club, would be in Midlands Region. You could always, I suppose, opt to transfer to either the Glasgow Region, or the East Region, if you felt geographically, this suited you better.

2/ Leagues of 10, or 12, or 14?

I admit, I might have been out in some of my geography in the North Region, but, I envisage, initially, the top league in each region would be made up of the current National League clubs from that region. Ideally, I would go for ten-club leagues, but, I accept, not always possible. Below that top Regional League, the other leagues would be as localised as possible.

In Falkirk's case, yes, initially you would have to travel to Aberdeen, Inverness and Orkney, but otherwise, your furthest trip would be to Dundee. As things currently stand, your club is quite happy to travel to Berwick, Aberdeen and Newton Stewart – your three longest trips this season, so, I don't see what you are complaining about.

You mention “mis-matches”. How do you define a mis-match? Is sticking 50 points on another team a mis-match? Is the borderline 60 points, or 70?

You asked if I would let Newton Stewart into my West of Scotland (not Ayrshire) League, If you had read the piece properly you would have seen that fine club already in there – do pay attention.

3/ What about Orkney, Caithness, the Aberdeen sides? Should rugby just be a Central Scotland sport?

You say, for Falkirk to get “appropriate competition” you have to travel to Aberdeen and Newton Stewart, well, under my plan, you wouldn't have to travel to Newton Stewart. If that's a problem. You say staying local would not work. Well, provided your club remained in my proposed Caledonia League, staying local would not be a problem.

You asked for my proposals re Regional Leagues. Did you even read the piece?

Your failure of comprehension was particularly evident in your response to Part One.

To pick out some of your random thoughts:

“The I'm alright Jack Leagues.....Your set up seems simply about allowing those in the Borders, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Ayrshire to play against their old chums and be home for tea. Should you live out with these areas then your proposal offers no meaningful benefit - distance wise?

Part One visualised REGIONAL LEAGUES. If you had read it properly, you would have understood, NATIONWIDE club rugby would still be available, to the best players in each region, playing for their Region's representative team. Ordinary players would be playing against local rivals.

Unfortunately, because of the spread and perhaps a lack of talent, there are not enough National League sides in the North, so at the upper club level, there would need to be a single Caledonia League. I made that a 12-club league, because, right now, there are 12 National League clubs from Caledonia. That Caledonia League would be the starting point. With Regional committees, and greater local control, that committee might decide they didn't want a 12-club league. My proposed divisional set-ups are only my initial ideas – it would be up to the clubs, what set-up they wanted.

Secondly, looks like you’ve mercifully euthanised the S6 before some of those Clubs go bust.

Not at all, I still believe in Super Rugby, but, I didn't mention it because Super Rugby has nothing to do with Club Rugby. Super Rugby is part of the Performance Level of Scottish Rugby – run directly from Murrayfield. I will, however, tackle Super Rugby in the next part.

Your failure of comprehension is again evident in your lengthy rant about the seasonal structure. As I have already explained – these are broad brush strokes thinking, how it finally is organised is down to the local clubs, acting at Regional level. Smaller leagues would allow the return of County or Regional Cup competitions, what's wrong with that? It's local rivalries which keep the pot boiling.

If you think Falkirk is so-much better than the other clubs around it, well, you could always opt to switch to the East Region, I'm sure the “Edinburgh Posh Boys” would love having you.

NOW FOR PART THREE - read this, in fact, read all three pieces. Or, better still, have someone who understands, read them to you. I can recommend a guy from a nearly club who might be willing to help.

I APPEAR to have been channeling my inner Billy Connolly, when I suggested we might improve Scottish Rugby by taking lessons from Ireland and giving more power over the community club game to the Regions. This suggeston went down like a fart in a space suit.

The alternative to more regionalisation is to stick with central control from Murrayfield, and have national and regional leagues, the status quo. Except, I remain convinced, five national leagues, involving more than one-third of the clubs playing competitive rugby, that's too-many national leagues.

OK smart-arse, I can hear you saying; how many leagues should we have?

I honeestly believe, a Scottish National League ought to be restricted to the absolute top clubs. The question is, how many clubs would comprise an elite? Do we say 10% - 15 clubs, or do we become even-more elitist and go for 5% - 8 clubs; or is the preference for 10 clubs?.

There may well be a case for something radical, such as a 16-club National League, split into two conferences, with a Grand Final to settle The Champions. However, I feel, having an elite 8-10 club national league would also solve another problem – what to do about Super Rugby.

Why not re-brand our National League as the Super League?

By all means keep what would become Regional club leagues strictly amateur, but, if we allow the Super Rugby clubs to be semi-professional, we could solve one or two problems.Although, I will never be convinced there are sufficient players of the required quality to support three franchises in Edinburgh – and the way they have poached players from the Borders clubs would seem to back this up - good luck to anyone suggesting one of the franchises ought to gracefully withdraw. So, we would have to assume the current six franchises: Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir Bears, Heriot's Rugby, Southern Knights, Stirling Wolves and Watsonians would be in there. Where else might we look?

Since one of the objectives of Super Rugby was to form a bridge between the club game and the professional one, while another was to give our brightest and best young players a platform on which to demonstrate their quality, why not a place for Edinburgh A and Glasgow A teams – with the condition, the bulk of their match-day squads comprise Academy or First Year Professional players.

That's eight places filled – surely, finally, we could get a franchise from beyond the immediate north shore of the River Forth, while, in an extended Super Rugby format, surely Hawick would fancy their chances.

I would hope the SRU would enforce strict infrastructure parameters on the teen clubs. This was supposed to happen with Super6, but, as we now know, some of the hoped-for infrastructure criteria was quietly ditched.

A review of Super Rugby is currently underway. If The Junta was prepared to listen and sort-out the current failings, Super Rugby could work as the elite level of the club game, albeit more of a Performance Level league. However, we all know the potential draw-back – the involvement of The Junta.

In Wales, below their Premiership, all club rugby is localised. OK, Scotland is a bigger geographic area than the Principality, but, we too could have competitive Regional Leagues. We could also have cross-league play-offs each Spring to produce an overall Champion below the Premeirship.

I accept, the usual suspects will shout from the rooftops about mis-matches. Hell, it's a sporty, you get mis-matches in every league, always will. However, by and large, as the leagues matured, I am sure there would be fewer mis-matches and, with the added spark of local rivalries, better games.

Of course, as more than one critic has taken pains to remind me – the biggest draw-back to a rosey future for Scottish Rugby is the seeming reluctance of today's young men to play the game once they had discovered the alrernative charms of wine and women.

Make the club game more localised, sell it better, coach it better and be more positive about the game, and I am sure, in time, we can get more players playing at club level.

These are my thoughts, so, what do we want - totally regionalised, a mix of National and Regional leagues, or, the status quo - Discuss.

 

 

How Do We Change Things For The Better? Part 2

WHEN I posted my piece on reform of the club game, I expected incoming flak; I was not disappointed, first to open fire on me was weel-kent man about Falkirk, Bill Faulds, who asked a number of questions, which I now intend to answer in the course of this post, which is the second part of what is, at the momernt, a three-part piece. So here goes.

One: I should say, right at the start of this post, the first thing I would do to change and improve Scottish Rugby, would be to DE-CENTRALISE. Back in the days when it was an Amateur game, a lot of the heavy lifting was done at a more-local level, via the four District Committees. We did away with these hard-working “Bufties” in favour of the “Murrayfield Apparatchiks”. I, for one, feel, putting too-much power and control into the hands of guys who are some way divorced from the clubs, was a bad move.

I can see the sense in having a smaller central core of people working with the elite performance end of the game, but, running the club game has to be done from a more-localised place.

I honestly believe, we need a Third Professional Team. So, let Murrayfield run:

1. The full international side

2. A Scotland A side

3. The Age group teams

4. The three URC teams

Below that – everything should be run at a regional level.

Bill Faulds' first question to me was: “How many regions”?

I see Six Regions:

1. North of Scotland

2. Midlands

3. East

4. Borders

5. Greater Glasgow

6. West of Scotland

How the leagues were organised within each of the regions would be a matter for that region's clubs to sort-out for themselves. But, I would envisage more localised regional leagues.

For instance – in Wales only the Premiership is a fully-national league, this features the 13 top clubs in Wales. At the next level down, The Championship, there is an East Wales – West Wales split. Below that there are 24 localised “National” leagues.

In Ireland each of the four Provinces runs its own provincial leagues, where, the lower down the ladder you go, the more-localised the leagues become. It is not rocket science to sort things.

There might, I would admit, be a case for taking one of the provisions of Agendfa Three and using them, whereby each club was given a ranking, according to how many teams etc they ran; some would be “Senior” clubs, others would be “Junior” clubs, ranked accordingly in their regional leagues.

So let's get down to hypotheticals, starting with the hypothesis, all club rugby is regionalised. Hereafter, in defining a club as Senior or Junior, I have gone with whether they are currently playing in one of the National leagues, or a Regional one. A process which, at the moment, would involve 143 clubs, split as follows:

North Region: 27 clubs

Geographic area – Grampian, Moray Firth Coast, Invernessshire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Orkney and Shetland.

Senior Clubs (4): Highland, Gordonians, Aberdeen Grammar, Orkney,

Junior Clubs (23): Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen Wanderers, Caithness, Ellon, Mackie FP, Moray, RAF Lossiemouth, Banff, Deeside, Dyce, Garioch, North Police Scotland, Shetland, Caithness, Inverness Craig Dunain, Kinloss Eagles, Ross Sutherland, Skye, Stornoway, Aberdeen University Medics, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Turriff. [Skye and Stornoway are in italics because I would envisage switching them to the West of Scotland Region].

PROPOSED SET-UP:

Caledonia Premiership (12 clubs):

Highland : Gordonians : Aberdeen Grammar : Orkney (NR) : Dundee : Falkirk : Kirkcaldyt : Stirling County : Howe of Fife : Strathmore : Dunfermline : Perthshire (MR)

Grampian League (7 clubs):

Aberdeenshire : Aberdeen Wanderers : Mackie : Deeside : Dyce : Garioch : Aberdeen University Medics

Moray Coast League (8 clubs):

Ellon : Moray : RAF Lossiemouth : Banff : Kinloss : Fraserburgh : Huntly : Turiff

North League (6 clubs):

Caithness : North Police Scotland : Shetland : Caithness : Inverness Craig Dornain : Ross Sutherland

Midlands Region: 24 clubs

Geographic area – Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire, Perthshire, Fife, Tayside and Angus.

Senior Clubs (8): Dundee, Falkirk, Kirkcaldy, Stirling County, Howe of Fife, Strathmore, Dunfermline, Perthshire

Junior Clubs (16): Panmure, Grangemouth Stags, Hillfoots, Carnoustie, Kinross, Blairgowrie, Alloa, Glenrothes, Mardras, Aberfeldy, Dundee University Medics, Crieff & Strathearn, Bannockburn, Rosyth Sharks, Wair Academy FP, Bo'ness (again in italics because of a proposed change of region)

PROPOSED SET-UP:

Caledonia Premiership (12 clubs): [as with North Region]

Highland : Gordonians : Aberdeen Grammar : Orkney (NR) : Dundee : Falkirk : Kirkcaldyt : Stirling County : Howe of Fife : Strathmore : Dunfermline : Perthshire (MR)

Midlands-Fife League (8 clubs):

Grangemouth Stags : Hillfoots : Alloa : Glenrothers : Bannockburn : Rosyth Stags : Waid Academy FP : Kinross.

Tayside-Angus League (7 clubs):

Crieff & Strathearn : Panmure : Carnoustie : Blairgowrie : Madras: Aberfeldy : Dundee University

East Region: 29 clubs

Senior Clubs (12 clubs): Currie Chieftains, Heriot's Blues, Musselburgh, Edinburgh Academical, Watsonians, Lasswades, Stewart's Melville, Preston Lodge, Boroughmuir, North Berwick, Murrayfield Wanderers, Ross High

Junior Clubs (17): Linlithgow, Haddington, Broughton, Forrester, Leith, Portobello, Royal High, Dunbar, Penicuik, Dalkeith, Corstorphine, Livingston, Trinity Acadeicals, EdinburghNorthern, Edinburgh University Medics, Lismore, Inverleith.

PROPOSED SET-UP:

East Region Premiership (12 clubs): Currie Chieftains : Heriot's Blues : Musselburgh : Edinburgh Academical : Watsonians : Lasswade : Stewart's Melville : Preston Lodge : Boroughmuir : North Berwick : Murrayfield Wanderers : Ross High

Edinburgh Junior League (10 clubs): Broughton FP : Corstorphine : Edinburgh Northern : Edinburgh University Medics : Forrester : Inverleith : Leith : Portobello : Royal High : Trinity Academicals.

Lothians League (8 clubs): Bo'ness : Dalkeith : Dunbar : Haddington : Linlithgow : Lismore : Livingston : Penicuik.

Borders (South) Region: 14/15 clubs

Senior clubs (8 clubs) Hawick : Kelso : Selkirk : Jed-forest : Melrose : Gala : Peebles : Berwick,.

Junior clubs (6.7): Langholm : Hawick Harlequins : Hawick Linden : Duns : Earlston : Gala YM : Walkerburn.

PROPOSED SET-UP:

One Borders Senior League (8 clubs) as listed above and one Borders Junior Lerague (6/7 clubs) as listed above.

 

Greater Glasgow Region: 26 clubs

Senior Clubs (10 clubs): Glasgow Hawks : Glasgow Academicals : GHA : GHK : Allan Glen's : Hillhead Jordanhill : West of Scotland : Cartha Queen's Park : Hamilton Bulls : Whitecraigs.

Junior Clubs (16 clubs): Lenzie : East Kilbride : Dalziel : Cambuslang : Bishopton : Uddingston : Waysiders-Drumpellier : Cumbernauld : Clydebank : Paisley : Birkmyre : Glasgow University Medics : Shawlands : Hyndland : Strathendrick : Lomond and Helensburgh.

PROPOSED SET-UP:

Glasgow Senior League (10 clubs): Allan Glen's : Cartha-Queen's Park : GHA : GHK : Glasgow Academicals : Glasgow Hawks : Hamilton Bulls : Hillhead Jordanhill : West of Scotland : Whitecraigs

North Clyde League (9 clubs): Clydebank : Cumbernauld : Dalziel : Glasgow University Medics : Hyndland : Lenzie : Lomond and Helensburgh : Strathendrick : Waysiders-Drumpellier

South Clyde League (7 clubs): Birkmyre : Bishopton : Cambuslang : East Kilbride : Paisley : Shawlands FP : Uddingston.

**One club could be moved to the other geographic area to even-up league numbers **

West of Scotland Region: 24 clubs

Senior Clubs (8 clubs): Ayr : Marr : Biggar : Newton Stewart : Dumfries Saints : Garnock : Stewartry : Greenock Wanderers.

Junior Clubs (16 clubs): Ardrossan Academicals : Oban Lorne : Cumnock : Strathaven : Wigtownshire : Kilmarnock : Annan : Carrick : Irvine : Moffat : Lochaber : Mid-Argyll : Lanark & Clydesdale : Isle of Mull plus Skye and Stornoway

PROPOSED SET-UP:

West of Scotland Senior League (8 clubs): Ayr : Biggar : Dumfries Saints : Garnock : Greenock Wanderers : Marr : Newton Stewart : Stewartry

Argyll and The Islands League (6 clubs): Isle of Mull : Lochaber : Mid-Argyll : Oban Lorne : Skye : Stornoway

South West of Scotland League (10 clubs): Annan : Ardrossan Academicals : Carrick : Cumnock : Irvine : Kilmarnock : Lanark and Clydesdale : Moffat : Strathaven : Wigtownshire.

I HAVE used this season's league tables as my basis for the splits. However, as I mentioned above, using Agenda for Change and its criteria, it is clear that some Senior clubs simply do not have the appropriate facilities to be considered a Senior club, while some currently Junior clubs do.

If we were to continue with National Leagues at a Senior level, this could be an issue – might we not want our Senior clubs to have a minimum level of facilities:

• A grandstand

• Floodlights

• A costed plan for installing a G3/G4 surface within a certain time frame if they do not alreradfy have one

• A clubhouse with a minimum standard of bar and catering

• An appropriate youth development scheme in place

This might not be such an issue if we operated the club game along regional lines, but, certain minimum standards for facilities would need to be put in place.

In countries where the club game is regionalised (New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina etc) the bridge between the club game and the professional one is Inter-Regional Representative Rugby. We would need to think seriously abot how we run this area of our game.

A modified version of Super Rugby might work here, with the five regions each running a Regional Senior Representative Team:

• Caledonia

• East of Scotland

• South of Scotland

• Glasgow District

• West of Scotland

These Regional Representative teams could also be replicated at Junior Club level.

The next question is, how would the season look with this set-up?

The rugby season ttraditionally starts on 1 September, with the 15-a-side season ending on 30 April, which gives us either a 34 or 35 week season.

So 35 Saturdays; current practice appears to insist we clear the schedules for internationals; WHY? Back in the amateur era, club matches were played on the morning of internationals, since everybody who might want to attend a Murrayfield game cannot possibly be accommodated inside the 67,000 capacity stadium, why should those who cannot attend, or choose not to, be denied their club rugby fix?

So, there we have five to nine barren International Saturdays which could be added to the schedule. OK, I can accept, the Murrayfield bead counters would rather have the day to themselves, so, if we accept, no alternative Saturday rugby when Scotland is playing at Murrayfield, then we lose six or seven Saturdays, leaving us with 28.

My Regionalisation proposal envisages a total of 17 leagues – 5 Senior, 12 Junior. To get them played-off we would need:

1. Caledonia Senior League (12 clubs) – 22 Saturdays

2. East Senior League (12 clubs) – 22 Saturdays

3. Border League (8 clubs) – 14 Saturdays

4. Glasgow Senior League (10 clubs) – 18 Saturdays

5. West of Scotland Senior League (8 clubs) – 14 Saturdays

6. Grampian Junior League (7 clubs) – 12 Saturdays

7. Moray Coast Junior League (8 clubs) – 14 Saturdays

8. North Junior League (7 clubs) – 12 Saturdays

9. Midlands-Fife Junior League (8 clubs) – 14 Saturdays

10. Tayside-Angus Junior League (7 clubs) – 12 Saturdays

11. Edinburgh Junior League (10 clubs) – 18 Saturdays

12. Lothians Junior League (8 clubs) – 14 Saturdays

13. South Junior League (6/7 clubs) – 10 or 12 Saturdays

14. North Clyde Junior League (9 clubs) – 16 Saturdays

15. South Clyde Junior League (7 clubs) – 12 Saturdays

16. Argyll and the Islands Junior League (6 clubs) – 10 Saturdays

17. South West of Scotland Junior League (10 clubs) – 18 Saturdays

Therefore, we have enough Saturday's to get all the league fixtures played, and have some left over for possible postponements. Indeed, 11 of our hypothetical leagues do not require more than half of the available Saturdays.

Thus, we have plenty of time to factor-in cross-league events which would produce Regional Junior Champions. We could also, have play-offs between the 5 Senior Leagues, to produce an overall Scottish Champion.

Again, I stress, with more-localised leagues and competitions, such as County or Regional Cups, we could see midweek games in April and September, giving us more potential days in which to get fixtures played.

I now turn to my suggestion of Inter-Regional competition. In recent years, we have seen the season extended into May. - so why not use these extra weeks to play-off the Inter-Regional competitions?

A point which Bill Faulds made was, how much the Borders clubs appear to love their “Sports”. Well in the example of seasonal structure which I have posted above, the South Region would only require 14 of the 28 available Saturdays to get their 16 a side league games played, plenty of free Saturdays for their precious Sports.

I don't presume to have all the answers, but, here I am setting down one potential agenda for change. In Part Three, I will introduce another agenda, so, let's at least talk about how to make things better.