Bells And Whistles Are Also Used In Situations Of Distress

IN JUST over two weeks' time, we, the gentlemen of the Scottish rugby press will hopefully be summoned to attend at Murrayfield, where, amidst much preening and perhaps a fanfare or two, Mark Dodson will announce the names of the “lucky” six clubs whose bids to run our new super-duper, all-singing, all-dancing, with added bells and whistles Super 6 franchises will be announced.

We will then be expected to take forth the good news – we have seen the future, it is rosy, all will be well, and we are about to enter a new era of, if not milk and honey, at least unsurpassed success: of triple crowns, grand slams, World Cups and Champions Cup success.

Except, there will be at least one miserable old git from Ayrshire, standing outside and, having greeted the announcement with a heartfelt: “We're awe doomed, doomed Ah tell ye,” he will answer every sun-dappled announcement of impending success from the Ayatollah Dodson with the traditional Scottish response: “Aye Right!!!”

Nothing good will come of this latest example of short-term unjoined-up thinking and the “lucky” clubs will be the half dozen applicants who don't cut the mustard with Bill Gammell and his applications board.

The view from the front-line of club rugby

Here, by the way, is what regular commenter on this blog 'Adco' – as in: “Another disgruntled club official” had to say in response to yesterday's piece on the Australian Shute Shield and what lessons we in Scotland can learn from the Australian experience. He commented thus:

“The Australian example is a great template for the Scottish club game. We need to detach ourselves to some degree from the influence of the "High Performance Department". I would also argue for a return to a regional governance model.

That's not to say that clubs do not play an integral part in the development of future Internationals but for the vast majority of club players, playing 1st XV rugby is their end game. We must ensure that the club competition works for those players first and foremost, because it will create a natural uplift that benefits the Elite game as well.

The grass roots game needs to be protected and invested in and that is never going to happen when those in charge of the purse strings are paid employees whose contracts demand short term results in the Professional game.

Even if they do see the value in a better long-term strategy for club rugby, that may not seem as important as say bringing in a couple of marquee signings for their first priority, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Because the result of that investment is instant - you would hope.

Super 6 comes from the same train of thought, it's about creating a competition which better supports the Pros and aspiring Pros of today and no thought has been given to how it will effect the Pros of 10 years time. We likely will never fully appreciate the damage that Super 6 will do because any short term successes will be jumped on to justify prolonging the decline in club rugby.

Sadly, many of the next generation of top class players will never pick up a rugby ball because there will be no local club for them to play for.

However, I am optimistic that something like what happened in Australia is just around the corner...”

Professional sport is all about money. It has a voracious appetite for the stuff. Back in the amateur days, rugby could survive on a rigorously-enforced season: no play before 1 September, none, except the odd Sevens tournament, after 30 April. Officials, 99% former players, ran everything on a voluntary basis, aided by a small “civil service” inside Murrayfield.

The focus was on the club game, the really-good players, the potential Scotland players, got together for their District sides, which, again, were run by volunteers, before going on into the Scotland set-up – and we competed, not always successfully, because the playing field was fairly level.

Professional rugby as a career option

Today, rugby goes ever more stupidly down the road to perdition and non-stop all year round play, mapped by football. Some of our elite public schools are offering scholarships to promising young players, which gets them onto the ladder towards an Academy place, and a professional contract – at least, if the player fails to make the grade, he will most-likely have enough Highers or A levels behind him to give him a chance of a university education or a place in one of the professions.

We are not yet at the stage, as in football, whereby an impressionable youngster is told at 13, or even earlier – he has a shot at the big time, puts everything into it and is spat out, “a failure” at 18 or so, with no qualifications and, having spent his impressionable teenage years being assured he is “special” not much of a clue about the real world. But, we just might get there.

In Scottish football, the “failures”, the discarded ones, can always get a gig with the juniors, or the amateurs. They may, if really unlucky, not get a lesser club, but, they can still play the game they love down the local five-a-side centre.

Can we be sure, after Super 6, we still have a club game for the less-than-gifted to play. I cannot say often enough – Super 6 is not about the club game, the club game has never mattered to the Lesser-Spotted Johnson and his acolytes in the High Performance Department. But, without a club game, without the parents running mini-rugby on Sunday mornings, the unpaid volunteers keeping the clubs going, there will, in what will seem like no time, be no starting point from which the next generation of top player can set off.

Super 6 is not about full-time professionals, it is a club-funded means whereby the second-or-third-raters (or those the HP department view as such) can be kept involved and hopefully trained-up so they are ready to plug gaps in the full-time ranks.

The Super 6 players will be RESERVES, but not reserve team players – they will be, at best third or fourth-team players. Now football clubs do not leave the development of their third-team players to other clubs. Sure, they will loan some young players out to lesser clubs, to gain experience – but, they by and large continue to at least part pay them, an monitor their progress.

They do not, as the SRU's HP department appears to be about to, leave it all, including paying, to the lesser club. The proposed governance set-up is a nonsense.

The Glasgow pecking order

The players with the Super 6 clubs will be akin to film extras, on zeero-hours contracts -vis:

Glasgow Warriors (2017-18) model first XV (numbered 1-15): Jamie Bhatti, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray Tim Swinson, Rob Harley, Callum Gibbins, Ryan Wilson; Ali Price, Finn Russell; DTH Van Der Merwe, Alex Dunbar, Huw Jones, Tommy Seymour; Stuart Hogg.

Second XV: Oli Kebble, Pat McArthur, Siosiua Halanukonuka, Scott Cummings, Brian Alain'uese, Matt Fagerson, Chris Fusaro, Adam Ashe; Henry Pyrgos, Peter Horne; Niko Matawalu, Nick Grigg, Sam Johnson, Lelia Masaga; Ruaridh Jackson.

Third XV: Alex Allan, George Turner, D'Arcy Rae; Greg Peterson, Kieran McDonald-Seran; Matt Smith, Lewis Wynne, Samuela Vunisa; George Horne, Adam Hastings; Rory Hughes, Brandon Thomson, Richie Vernon, Lee Jones; Leonardo Sarto.

Reserves: Ryan Grant, James Malcolm, Grant Stewart, Adam Nicol, Hamilton Burr, George Stokes; Kaleem Baretto, Robbie Nairn, Paddy Kelly, Stafford McDowall, Ratu Tagive, Sam Yawayawa, Max McFarland.

Linked to Glasgow but with Scotland Sevens or overseas: Robert Beattie Josh Henderson Bruce Flockhart, Gavin Lowe Robbie Fergusson, Hugh Blake.

That's 64 full-time Glasgow players – four and a bit XVs, or in modern parlance, two full 23-man squads - who will be ahead of any Super 6 player in the pecking order. Good luck in getting game time in professional rugby.

Last season, Glasgow used 56 players, but, only 28 of them featured – I.e. were stripped for action, in at least half of the club's fixtures. That's the reality of player management in Scotland. If you're not a first-pick, you're going to be spending a lot of your game days watching. But, to quote one experienced club coach: “At least, you'll be fit to hold a tackle bag on Monday morning.”

The HP department at Murrayfield reckons the BT Premiership does not adequately prepare these spectating players for the realities of the PRO14, can they be absolutely certain Super 6 will do the job any better?

Ah hae ma doots.