How Will The Blazers Get Past The Establishment Clubs?

THE semi-pro flotation is one day older, but, no clearer. Of course, at this stage it remains: “a consultation document”, to be presented to the clubs at Saturday's SRU agm – so, nothing much can happen before then; and very little will happen for some time afterwards.

The basic problem with Scottish rugby, as I see it is, Rugby Union in Scotland is a small game, with a small talent pool, and we have never properly worked-out how to make the best of this. How can we consistently “punch above our weight” and off-set the numerical advantage in terms of available players which Ireland and Wales, never mind England and France appear to have? But, Scottish Rugby has always been a twin-stream sport. It has proved hugely-difficult over the years to leave the “others” and join “the Establishment”.

Hawick and Heriot's, definitely Establishment clubs

For instance, in 1927, the then Unofficial (Newspaper) Championship – who got in was decided by the Rugby Correspondents of the main Scottish newspapers – was contested by:

Edinburgh Academicals, Edinburgh Institution FP, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh Wanderers, Gala, Glasgow Academicals, Glasgow High School FP, Glasgow University, Greenock Wanderers, Hawick, Heriot's FP, Hillhead High School FP, Jedforest, Kelso, Kelvinside Academicals, Langholm, Melrose, Royal High School FP, Selkirk, Stewart's College FP, Watsonians and West of Scotland – that's 22 clubs.

The Border League was contested by: Gala, Hawick, Jedforest, Kelso, Langholm, Melrose and Selkirk. Just seven clubs.

There was also, back then, a 14-club Western District Union league in the Glasgow and West of Scotland area, comprising the following clubs: Allan Glen's FP, Ardrossan Academicals, Ayr, Bearsden, Cambuslang, Cartha, Craigielea, Harland and Woolf, Hutcheson's Grammar School FP, Kilmarnock, Lenzie, Old Spierians, Uddingston and Whitehill School FP.

Ten years on, Dunfermline had entered the Unofficial Championship and some of the teams in the West District Union had also changed and would soon collapse.

By the final season of the Unofficial Championship, in 1972-73, the league had been reduced to 20-clubs, which finished in this order:

Boroughmuir (who had only been ranted "Unofficial Championship" membership in 1953), Hawick, Gala, Jordanhill College, Langholm, Edinburgh Wanderers, Watsonians, Gordonians, West of Scotland, Dunfermline, Glasgow High School FP, Melrose, Ayr, Leith Academicals, Hillhead High School FP, Glasgow Academicals, Selkirk, Kelso, Trinity Academicals and Edinburgh Academicals. (Teams which were in the Unofficial Championship in 1927 are identified by the use of italics.)

In this season which gets underway shortly, the top two divisions of the leagues – the same number of teams as back in 1927 will comprise – BT Premiership: Ayr, Boroughmuir, Currie, Glasgow Hawks, Hawick, Heriot's, Marr, Melrose, Stirling County and Watsonians.

National League One: Aberdeen Grammar School FP, Cartha-Queen's Park, Dundee High School FP, Ediburgh Academicals, Falkirk, Gala, GHA, Jedforest, Kelso, Musselburgh, Selkirk and Stewart's Melville FP.

So, it can be seen, of the 22 clubs in the top flight in 1927, 13 were still considered top-flight clubs when the Unofficial Championship ended. Today, 44-years on from there, 13 of those clubs which contested that last unofficial championship are still – sometimes via amalgamations – in the top two divisions: Edinburgh Academicals, Gala, (Glasgow Academicals-Glasgow HSFP-Kelvinside Academicals as Glasgow Hawks), Hawick, Heriot's, Jedforest, Kelso, Melrose, Selkirk, Stewart's College FP (as Stewart's-Melville FP) and Watsonians.

Ayr and Boroughmuir were in the final Unofficial Championship and are still top-flight clubs today, which leaves Currie, Marr, Stirling County, Aberdeen GSFP, Cartha-Queen's Park, Dundee HSFP, Falkirk, GHA and Musselburgh as the “outsiders” to have broken through to be considered top teams in the past 44-years.

In the Border League, there has been just one change – Peebles coming in for Langholm. Thus, by and large, two-thirds of the “top” clubs 90-years ago are still top clubs today, remarkable solidarity in a changing world.

Credit must be paid to those clubs who have maintained first-class status over the past 90-years. Now, perhaps somebody inside Murrayfield will tell us – just how are they going to get past that sort of dedication, not to say sense of entitlement to be considered a “top” club, to bring-in the proposed six-club, semi-professional set-up?

IT IS a lot simpler in the full-time professional Celtic League, now re-named – The Guinness PRO14 and re-vamped into two, seven-club divisions. Money talked, and the TV money which the South African teams will bring-in was a definite incentive to get a deal done quickly.

Glasgow have been placed in Conference A, with Cardiff Blues, Connacht, Munster, Ospreys, Toyota Cheetahs and Zebre.

In Conference B with Edinburgh are: Bennetton, Dragons, Leinster, Scarlets, Southern Kings and Ulster.

Fixtures will be released next week, once the TV companies have decided which games they want to show, and when, but, I am, on the whole, enthused and hopeful for the success of the expanded league. Yes, there will be problems and teething troubles, but, let's give it a go and see how it works-out.

RUGBY'S “Old Farts”, its administrators, have a long history of doing their thing, then copping lots of flak for it. Sometimes, their eccentricities pay-off, I just cannot think of an immediate example, but, mostly, when they get it wrong, it stays wrong.

I feel, this week, in announcing the match officials for the Super Rugby final between the Lions and the Crusaders, at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, the Super Rugby officials have trumped just about every-other mistake officials have ever made.

No offence to Jaco Peyper, who is a good referee and will have the whistle, but, to put a Saffer in-charge of such a big match, in South Africa and featuring a South African club v a New Zealand one – it is asking for bother.

Jaco Peyper - could have been handed a poisoned chalice

Surely there are competent Australian referees. Could not even Wee Nigel, Wayne Barnes and one of the top French guys have been dispatched?

Already, four days before the game, the Kiwis are screaming: “Foul”. Mind you, the notion of Kiwis objecting to a home-town referee, given rugby history, I find amusing.

I hope Peyper does not buckle under the intolerable pressure he will be exposed to.