A Letter From - Not America But Ayr

LAST night, at approximately 9.52pm, I received the following email:

“Further to your negative comments re super 6 I wish to confirm that you are not welcome at next season unless you want to comment positively 

Regards

Billy”

My latest pen pal - Billy McHarg

It was sent to me by Ayr President Billy McHarg, and, leaving aside the small point of Billy forgetting to tell me where I will not be welcome at in the new season - I think it demonstrates how desperate the six franchise clubs, and the Murrayfield minions who are pulling their chains are becoming. The thing is, Super-6, or, as I prefer to call it: “Stupid-6,” does not come-in until August, 2019, a full year from now. Nobody will be watching that competition in the new season, which commences on 1 September.

On that date, Ayr will be playing their first match of the new season in the Tennent's Premiership, a competition of which I heartily approve; a competition which I fully support and which I believe provides a good class of rugby.

I have never deviated in my opposition to Stupid-6. It was a competition which was thought-up on the basis of a false premise, allegedly delivered by the Lesser-Spotted Johnston, a Murrayfield apparatchick who, as far as I understand, has never been seen at a Premiership match. He supposedly denounced the Premiership as: “Not fit for purpose,” without actually going to the bother of explaining what that purpose was.

Since then, we have had the upset of the flawed bidding process – in which Murrayfield moved the goalposts midway through and: “no more than two franchises in any one region,” suddenly became three in Edinburgh.

The consequences of Stupid-6 were still evident at yesterday's agm, one year on from the Fat Controller announcing Stupid-6 to the 2017 meeting. We now have the situation whereby the “amateur” clubs of the six franchise winners may not, as the six winners had envisaged, be dropped straight into the new Championship, or even one of the other National Leagues at the start of season 2019-20.

Yesterday's agm passed the motion which underlined the long-established protocol whereby the clubs had the final say on league composition. And, in the wake of this decision, more than one Glasgow Hawk has been on to stress – the precedent has been set. When Glasgow Hawks was formed from GHK and Glasgow Academicals, 21-years ago, the GHK and Accies' first XVs had to start again from the bottom Glasgow Regional League.

 When Hawks were formed, GHK and Accies had to restart from the basement

The massed ranks of the Anniesland Volunteers will be taking every opportunity to remind Scottish Rugby: “that's what happened to us, we expect the same principles to apply to Ayr, Boroughmuir, Heriot's, Melrose, Stirling County and Watsonians.”

While I am proud to be an opponent of Stupid-6, which I remain totally convinced is a disaster waiting to happen, I might be wrong about it. But, if I am wrong, and I don't think I am, but, you can never say never - and I am not the only Millbrae regular who harbours doubts, and that number of doubters includes some very-influential Ayr men. Of course, right now, more than a year before it starts, nobody knows how it will pan out. So, why threaten a ban? That's toeing the SRU line to the extreme.

Yesterday's agm, where Stupid-6 is concerned, either ignored or left unanswered all the salient questions.

• Stupid-6 has not yet been debated by the clubs, either at an agm, or at a special general meeting. It was announced in August, 2017, and, by June, 2018, the six frnachise had been awarded.
  
  
• Surely such a major change to the format of the domestic season should have been fully debated?
  
  
• We were told, at the start, the decision to start Stupid-6 was made by the SRU Performance Department
  
  
• The SRU Performance Department will have input into how the franchises are run – a presence on the franchise board perhaps, certainly a say in the appointment of the franchise club's coach.
  
  
• The franchises will be in receipt of more Murrayfield money than any of the other clubs
  
  
• As yet, there is no apparatus in place whereby the franchise clubs will have a representative on the SRU Council, although, to be fair, they will not start operating for a full calendar year
  
  
• But, having been set-up at the behest of the Performance Department and be acknowledged to be “semi-professional” clubs, they will be regarded as being part of the “domestic game”, the same as the “amateur” clubs playing in the Championship, the National Leagues and the Regional Leagues.

As I have long said, this whole adventure has been so ill-thought-out, it is transparently clear, they are making things up as they go along, that maybe we should say: “Whoa,” and go back to the beginning.

As I have been saying all along, this whole crazy scheme was maybe conjoured-up out of the best of intentions:

• We all accept, there is a gap between the top of the amateur game and the bottom of the professional one
  
  
• We all want to see this gap narrowed – by bringing the bottom up closer to the top
  
  
• Stupid-6, as originally conceived was an effort to bridge the gap

But, what we currently have is a long way from these original concepts, it is being rushed through without proper scrutiny, and has caused needless argument and upset. It could be the way forward, but, this needs to be discussed more, to have the many still unanswered questions answered and to be subject to greater scrutiny than up till now.

With Stupid-6 this SRU is in a deep hole, of their own making. And, when you are in a hole, and not seemingly getting anywhere, the best plan is:

1. Stop digging
   
   
2. decide – am in the right place in which to dig for what I am seeking
   
   
3. if unsure, fill-in what you have dug
   
   
4. reflect
   
   
5. maybe dig somewhere else

Banning the guy who is suggesting you might not be going down the correct path, might make you feel better, but, in the end of the day – does it really help?

Because, when it does cave-in on top of you, while he will help you dig yourself out, he will still say – "Ah telt ye ye were diggin' in the wrang place."

Folks – I will be that soldier.