For The Good Of Celtic Rugby - Get The Exiles To Switch To The Pro12

IN Rugby, as in so many facets of life on these British Isles, London is a sort of dark star, sucking-in so-much energy - and money.
 

It gets worse, within one small area of Greater London, in the south-west of the metropolis, you will find: Twickenham - home of English rugby; almost directly across the road,  the Twickenham Stoop - home of Harlequins. Just down the road in adjacent Richmond-on-Thames, you have Richmond Athletic Ground - home of Richmond and London Scottish, and, across a busy dual carriageway, a short stroll up the road is Old Deer Park, home of London Welsh. A couple of post code areas away, also in south-west London, you have Sudbury, home of London Irish.
 

When the new season kicks-off in late August, Richmond and the three "Exiles" teams will all be competing in the Greene King IPA Championship, the second tier of English domestic rugby. All three are professional clubs, and, while Scottish and Welsh have experience of life in this division, it may come as something of a culture shock to Irish.

 

"Big Al" McHarg - One of London Scottish's and Scotland's Greatest Players
 

These three clubs have very distinguished historical records in Celtic rugby. Scottish has provided more Scottish internationalists than any other club: Gavin Hastings, Ken Scotland, Alistair McHarg, to name but three, are just some of the Scotland greats to have worn Scottish's dark blue. Old Deer Park rugby perhaps had its zenith when captain John Dawes led six other Welsh players onto the aircraft taking the immortal 1971 Lions to New Zealand - that number included Mervyn Davies and JPR Williams. It is the same story for Irish. Future Lions' manager Des O'Brien, 1955 Lions captain Robin Thompson and, of course immortals such as Mike Gibson and the O'Reilly wore the emerald green when working in London.

Back row, left to right: Mervyn Davies, JPR Williams, Mike Roberts, Geoff Evans

Front row, left to right: Gerald Davies, John Dawes and John Taylor - 1971 London Welsh British Lions in New Zealand
 

This blog has consistently maintained - having these three great Celtic rugby institutions playing in the second tier in England is a nonsense. They should be "encouraged" by the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Rugby Unions, to switch to the Guinness Pro 12, asap.
 

Guinness may be the quintissentially Irish product, but, its corporate headquarters is in London. I am certain the Guinness High Heid Yins would fall over themselves to do some corporate entertaining at Guinness Pro12 matches in the London area. The London-based papers would, at a stroke, give far more than their current cursory coverage of the Pro12 and that competition would be enhanced by the presence of these three great clubs.
 

Certainly, finding a match-day home for the clubs might be a problem, but, nothing which a combined approach by the three Unions could not solve. The Irish, Scottish and Welsh diaspora in the Sudetenland would love seeing Celtic rugby played in their adopted new home - I would say, this is win-win.

Andy Dunlop receives his retirement present from Calum Forrester

FINALLY, Ayr held their end of season awards dinner at the weekend. Flanker Andy Dunlop retired from rugby, after a decade of service to Ayr, following the BT Premiership Final, so in waving him off Ayr Coach Calum Forrester presented "Dunny" with a couple of gifts - and also thanked him: "for all the cards", a less-than-crytic reference to the fact, without Dunny on the field next season, Ayr will hope to see a lot fewer yellow cards. Few players have spent as long on the naughty step as the former Scotland Club XV flanker.