Could This Be The Death Knell For Stupid 6

MY INITIAL response to yesterday's bombshell news – the PRO14 is seriously looking at forming a ten-team Celtic Development League: simple – Whaur's yer Stupid 6 noo?

Under-23 League or Stupid 6 - decision time for Mark Dodson

Quite simply, the Celtic Under-23 League blows Stupid 6 clean out of the water, and also causes the SRU serious problems. The guys in Dublin and Cardiff want a ten-team Under-23 development league and they want it up and running next season. Such a competition makes a great deal of sense, but, for it to be viable, they need the two Scottish sides to be involved along with the four Irish and four Welsh sides.

And, the big question for Murrayfield is – how do we fund this? I have always maintained trying to set-up their six franchises was the SRU's way to avoid admitting, they cannot find the financial backers to fund their ambitions for the professional arm of the game – so they came up with the Stupid 6 wheeze, in the hope that they might find six clubs gullible enough to underwrite these ambitions.

Cross-border rugby was one of the Murrayfield sales pitches. Then the British & Irish Cup was booted into the long grass, leaving them with nothing but vague promises of something, to sell to the clubs.

Now, with the Welsh Regions joining the Irish ones in pushing the Under-23 model, Stupid 6 will never do the same job for Scotland – so, what now?

The sensible move would be to use the Union funding identified as going to the six franchises, to run the two Under-23 sides. But, sensible moves and Murrayfield have seldom been comfortable bedfellows of late.

Stupid 6 is seen very much as Dodson's baby – with the Lesser-Spotted Johnson as midwife. Will the Ayatollah be man enough to come out and say: “Sorry, I got it wrong with the franchise idea – we will join our Irish and Welsh friends in this new Celtic Under-23 Development League.”

If he did this, he would I am sure, be praised but, he has placed such a huge personal commitment into Stupid 6 – remember: “It will happen, even if we do not get six applicants, we will make it happen,” can he now ditch it for this more-sensible Under-23 approach?

In opting for an Under-23 set-up, rather than maintaining a development function in their Premiership, the Welsh Rugby Union made the excellent point – simply playing every week was not the ideal way to bring through quality young players. The Welsh view was they need playing blocks, then development blocks when the players didn't play, but trained working on strength and conditioning and their skills.

Ayr's Stafford McDowall - one of 15 Under-23 players currently on Glasgow's books

That type of programme could only be done properly in-house with the WRU and the four Regions working together. That was the Welsh view, against that level of professional thinking, can the SRU make their semi-professional Stupid 6 plan work to the extent we could compete? I don't think so.

Actually, an Under-23 set-up rather than Stupid 6 will on-paper, offer greater opportunities for our young players. If this Celtic Development League is to start next season, I would presume the age cut-off date would be something like, players Under-23 on 1 September, 2018.

Using this albeit arbitrary cut-off point, Glasgow currently has (including Stage III Academy players, such as Stafford McDowall and Robbie Nairn, who train full-time with the club, 15 Under-23 players available next season, while Edinburgh has 19 such players.

Blair Kinghorn - one of Edinburgh's 19 Under-23 players who would be available next season

Add those current Scotland Under-20 players who will become available and both teams have sufficient players who would qualify, to hit the ground running in an Under-23 League.

Better this than to spend a year waiting to get the franchises running.

The other bonus from an Under-23 League is, it would leave the existing BT Premiership, which works bloody well as what it was always meant to be – an out and out club competition, to operate as the majority of the clubs want it.

The clubs will no longer have to feed professional players in and out to suit the pro clubs, or the SRU, it will make for a more-level playing field and, IF Murrayfield would help the clubs market it better, it could be an even better competition.

The Under-23 League as proposed would give each of the Scottish sides an 18-game season, why, there might even be the possibility of adding games against the likes of the Newcastle, and Sale Academies in England.

Of course, cost will play a big part in if this thing works. There is a belief in the wider world of Scottish Rugby that Stupid 6 was driven, in part, by the SRU's inability to fund their own ambitions for growing the game, so they wanted six gullible clubs to ease the burden.

The Money is there if the SRU wants to use it

Well, if they scrap Stupid 6, they will not have to distribute the minimum £795,000 per season which Stupid 6 was going to cost them. If they cannot run a two-team programme on that, their house-keeping isn't very good.

Also, it gives the SRU the one thing the suits crave above all else – control. They will not have to work with the sometimes contradictory ideas of the clubs and clubmen, they will have – as we used to say on civil engineering jobs: “the big squeak” - as to what and how things are done. They will not have to drag clubs along with them towards their destination.

Stupid 6 was always simply that, stupid. Getting involved in a Celtic Under-23 Development League is a much-more sensible idea, let's hope the SRU can realise this and get on board, leaving the clubs to get on with their lives without the additional hassle of making franchises pay.

Put Stupid 6 into a box, and bury it as deeply as possible in a hole somewhere at the furthest extremities of Murrayfield. Then, sort-out the kinks in Agenda 3, and get it working properly and you never know, I might give you a modicum of praise Mr Dodson.