This Isn't Pap, And It Might Be A Warning To Us

FORMER Wallabies' centre Brett Papworth didn't miss his target and hit the wall this week, when he had a go at the Australian Rugby Union's “blazers” in a column in the Aussie magazine Rugby News. Here is the link

https://rugbynews.net.au/brett-papworth-as-you-sow-so-shall-you-reap/

Basically, Papworth, who it has to be admitted, is not a neutral observer, maintains that the ARU's obsession with elite performance, to the detriment of the club game has been bad for the game in that country.

 Former Wallaby centre Brett Papworth

Clubmen in Scotland will find themselves nodding in agreement, because several of the points Brett raises in his diatribe against the men in the corporate suits look uncannily like points I have heard raised up here, in the wake of the announcement of the Super Six franchises project.

In fact, I reckon my veteran Ayr contact, who, when the new set-up was announced at the SRU's agm, described it as: “A load of shite”, was maybe more prescient than even he thought.

I say this, because, I understand, those clubs which have made tentative enquiries to Murrayfield about perhaps taking-on one of the new franchises, have not been impressed by what they have heard.

Fair enough, a lot of detail has still to come-out, as has, most-importantly, the franchise agreement documents. But, from what they have learned thus far, and it aint much, the clubs are getting the impression this is another attempt by the High Heid Yins at Murrayfield to empire-build, by taking control of the clubs, just as they have done with the elite professional end of the game.

Now, to me, it makes sense for Scotland's elite players to be hot-housed together in two – or better still, three or four, full-time professional clubs, playing in the PRO14 or however many clubs it has.

BUT

The professional game cannot work in isolation – there has to be a link between the top men and the amateur players. It must still remain possible for a young player to start with his local club, perhaps move-on to a bigger one, then, if he is good enough and ambitious enough, get a professional contract and maybe a few Scotland caps.

Since the SRU split-off the two pro sides from the rest, then took control of the best young talent through the Academies, this once-smooth road to the top just got rockier.

Take a guy like my old sparring partner Billy “Gulliver” Cuthbertson. When I first got on the wrong end of Cubby's fist, he was an apprentice mechanic, playing for Marr 2^nd XV. Then, he got into the firsts, and was persuaded to move up to Kilmarnock.

Big Cubby - his career could not happen today

From there, he got into the Glasgow side, then the Scotland team – 21 caps, 11 games for the Barbarians - and he was eventually able through his own efforts to get out of the boiler suit, and, after joining Harlequins, coach rugby at a private school in West Sussex until he retired.

That could not happen today. Because, never having been on the performance pathway from Under-16, and while Marr College has a proud rugby tradition, above the Brown brothers and Cubby, it has never been one of Scotland's “top” rugby-playing schools; a young Cuthbertson, growing-up today, would be outside Murrayfield's preferred catchment area.

IF

the clubs are allowed to find their level, and given the support to fund their grass roots development and more importantly

IF

there is a link between the club game and the elite game, then the Super Six could work. However, from what we have been hearing this far, Murrayfield's control freakery means they will run things, their way and the clubs can either like it or lump it. Well I fear, again: WE ARE AWE DOOMED, DOOMED AH TELL YE!!

The preliminary outline which Mark Dodson revealed in his presentation to the agm seemed to imply, the elite game – the pro sides plus the academies would work in isolation. We would no longer see fringe professionals playing for clubs. There was a suggestion, late developers, which Cubby definitely was, might be able to cross the divide, but, no clear protocol for this.

AND

Keith Russell, the Director of Domestic Rugby, left his post earlier this year. The latest rumour is that Nick Rennie, the Head of Club Services has also left the building, just when club services are going to be really important with the changes outlined at the agm.

If rumours are correct, we will finally know what the Lesser-Spotted Johnson does

We hear the Director of Rugby, and another Murrayfield apparatchik are going to manage the Super Six, while, the very-tight timeline between the franchise documents going out to interested parties and the date by which they have to be returned was described to me by one potentially-interested club representative as: “Cancel Christmas”.

At least, we hear the Border clubs are seriously looking at a “South” franchise, but, they are unimpressed by what they are hearing from Murrayfield. Another hot rumour has it that, by hell or high water, the SRU WILL have a franchise in either Dundee or Aberdeen and arms are being twisted to try to make it happen.

Finally, we gather too, one or two of the SRU councillors were called-in for a dressing down by the High Heid Yins. Seemingly, Murrayfield was not best pleased that the clubs did not vote as they wanted at a couple of resolutions at the agm, which were lost, and the “sheepdogs” who failed to get the flock into line had to be chastised as a result.

As another club official said to me this week: “This is all about control and Murrayfield want just that – total control, things done their way.

Has nobody told Englishman Dodson, or Australian Johnson: you can persuade a Scotsman; if your persuasion is good and the rewards are there, he will follow you?

BUT

Trying to force a Scotsman, far less a whole battalion of them, to do something, is very often a self-defeating task.

The fun is only just starting.