No Fake News From this President

GROGS – Glasgow Rugby Old Geezers – is a wonderful organisation, which represents one of the eternal positives of Rugby Union. It is a luncheon club at which retired players, most of them long ago retired, meet once a month to have a meal and a drink, reminisce with guys they once fought with fiercely and listen to a post-meal speaker.

Kenny Hamilton - always worth listening to

Some of the biggest names in West Region rugby are members, and at their November meeting, one of their own - Glasgow Hawks' President Kenny Hamilton was the guest speaker. Kenny, knowing of some “bladder issues” in the room, kept his speech to seven minutes in duration, during which he gave well-received insights into current issues in Scottish rugby.

Kenny kindly allowed me to amend his address into a couple of blog length posts, of which this is the first. The words are Kenny's, although I have used editorial discretion to fit into the blog's “house” style.

“Scottish rugby at the top end of the game I would suggest, is in good shape. No “fake news” here - I hope that in saying this, I can support all of my claims, no matter how unfashionable, with facts and evidence, such as: Scotland are at an all-time high in the world rankings.

“Add to that the effective downward management of the Union's debt, great marketing effort, as illustrated by more than 60.000 tickets sold for the Samoa game – when not that long ago the autumn tests attracted poor crowds - and that upward curve is apparent. This season, we have sold out the Tests against the All Blacks and Australia.

“It seems to me that we are making much better use of the player resources we currently have. And the player development process is much better. The impact of the Rugby Academies and improvements in conditioning work and coaching have all borne fruit.

 George Horne - one of the beneficiaries of the Academy system

“My view, however, is that it is a combination of these things that will bring about further improvement.

“No one element is wholly responsible - I think clubs, schools, academies and pathway programmes all contribute. There is a clear interdependency between all levels of the game. If we remember that, and we have all of the elements speaking to each other and respecting their contribution, then we will continue to make progress.

“But often this breaks down. Sometimes because of professional demarcation and arrogance, sometimes because of parochial interest or thinking that is purely self-centred.

“One problem I see with the new or emerging professional class within rugby is that, like any new profession, it needs to assert itself - it does so by having an ‘expertise’ that the rest of us could not possibly understand.

“As these new professionals see it - jobs that were undertaken by volunteers for years, but now done on a paid-for basis, have to be justified because of the needs of ‘professionalism’. They seem to me to have invented a jargon, and they spend a great deal of time speaking to each other in the inner sanctum.

“Don’t get me wrong - I think there has been a great deal of improvement in organisation and development created during the growth of professionalism. But let’s hear it for the lowly volunteers who championed and protected our game for years.

“Equally, we need to be open to change if we want to meet the challenges of the current playing environment at International and professional level.

“Currently pro player salaries are rising at around 28- 30% per annum. So keeping them in Scotland has never been harder.

Finn Russell - one of the home-based Scots the SRU are struggling to hold onto

“Trying to retain a critical mass of home-based international-class players is a serious challenge. You could argue that we should just let them go elsewhere and simply get them back for the international windows. But the danger in this is that you have English club owners making ever-greater demands on their players, with an extended season, while the French demand their kilo of flesh for the high salaries that they also pay.

“If we lose all our best players then we lose control over their welfare and if we don’t have them training and playing together on a regular basis it has a knock-on effect on the standard of the remaining players.

In Part Two of our adaption of Kenny's address, we will turn to this experienced and respected club official's take on perhaps the most-burning issue in the club game in Scotland today – Agenda 3 and the proposals for the introduction of the semi-professional “Super Six” teams.

As you might expect, Kenny Hamilton's opinions are worth an airing.