The Bear Is Shitting In The Wood Of SRU Inaction

THE GREAT Iain Milne has been banging-on about the lack of “ordinary” adult players playing rugby in Scotland for some time now. He has famously said: “The trouble is, we don't have enough “bad” players playing the game.” It is an issue which concerns him.

 Iain Milne - concerned for the long-term health of Scottish Rugby

“The Bear” was on his hobby horse again, in the course of a spirited Facebook debate at the weekend, one which I thought deserved to be discussed further. It all kicked-off with something Bill Lothian posted, regarding the supposed Edinburgh revival.

The debate then took a diversion into a wee bit about Super-6, before settling down on the matter of club rugby, with The Bear saying this:

“We need to move forward now, there is not a lot of time to get things right at club level. I would doubt we had many more than 4,000 adult males playing the game on Saturday, these numbers cannot sustain the game in the future.“

I reckoned that “4,000 adult males playing the game on Saturday,” estimate from big Iain looked dubious, then I checked. On Saturday, 81 league games were played, across the 4 “national” leagues (Premiership and Nationals 1, 2 and 3) and 13 Regional leagues in Scotland. Assuming each team had a 20-man squad, that's 3240 adult male players involved.

In addition, 22 Reserve League games were played. If we assume an average of 35 players per game (2x15s plus some replacements), that gives us another 770 players in action, making a grand total of 4010 adult males playing rugby in Scotland on Saturday.

Only one scheduled league fixture at 1^st XV level was unplayed on Saturday – a 99% completion rate. However, 35 Reserve League games were scheduled for Saturday, but only 22 of these, or 63% were actually played. Overall, 88% of Saturday's scheduled adult male games went ahead.

In all, across Scotland, around 150 clubs are fielding at least one XV in first team league games on a Saturday – while a look at my latest edition of the SRU Handbook (2017-2018), listed some 250 adult male clubs in either full or associate membership of the SRU. I arrived at that figure by discounting the likes of “invitation” clubs such as Co-optimists, or the overseas clubs – London and Hong Kong Scottish.

But, even allowing that, this means, only 60% of Scotland's rugby clubs are playing on any given Saturday. I accept, the colleges and university sector has largely withdrawn from league rugby – they now mostly play in the BUCS (British Universities and College Sport) competitions, which are mostly played on a Wednesday afternoon.

Certainly, many students, as they have always done, continue to play for their home clubs on a Saturday, and we have such student teams as GUM (Glasgow University Medics) playing in the leagues.

But, can some way not be found, whereby some of the smaller – perhaps more social clubs and more university clubs - can be got playing regularly on a Saturday?

If even half of these irregular clubs could be helped to put out a team on a Saturday, that would be a further 1000 players, a 25% increase on the current number, playing. That has to be a good thing.

Again, I turn to the wise words of The Bear, who said:

“As I will keep saying the biggest issue in club rugby is the lack of adult players playing the game. The club game is not sustainable in its current form unless we increase the numbers. I am not talking financial though the more playing will generate more income but the lack of new volunteers for the future.

“The Super 6 is nothing to do with “ Grass Roots Rugby” it’s about giving a vehicle for young elite players to bridge the gap to pro rugby. Our game at the top level and by that I mean Super 6 upwards is in quite a strong place.

It’s proper club rugby that is dying, by that I mean 2xv, 3xv ( very few clubs) and 4thxv rugby. Take a look at the SRU league site, see how many games actually took place and how many reserve games are cancelled. (I have dealt this this point of Iain's above.)

“Let the Super 6 take its course but let’s concentrate on getting more bad players playing the game and enjoying our club room banter.

This is really controversial and I appreciate the work done by our club volunteers but clubs are failing in their duty to produce a product that young adults may enjoy.
With the 10,000 ‘s of youngsters (U18) playing but not coming into the adult game something is not working.

It is not a simple problem to solve but there are actions the clubs could take that would make a difference.”

Unfortunately, The Bear did not make any suggestions as to what actions clubs could take. However, on the basis of actions speaking louder than words, I could suggest, the big man has acted, through his part, along with the Calder twins, in setting-up Ferry Road Wanderers – the new Stewart's-Melville/Heriot's composite club, aimed at getting more of Iain's “bad players” playing.

As far as I can tell, FRW has a squad, some of whom are, and I do not mean this unkindly: “Has Beens and Never Weres” - experienced older players who still feel the need to get out an have a run around on a Saturday, augmented with some younger, fresher “legs”; guys who had a good grounding at the two rugby-playing school, but, who have yet to show they are ready for higher things in the Stew-Mel and Heriot's first and second team squads.

This is an old rugby ploy, back in the days – before squads and wholesale replacements - of multiple XVs being fielded. Most clubs had a “social XV”, where good players who could not devote the necessary time to training, could strut their stuff, and if, along the way, they helped develop a few players who could move up to the club's top XV, that was a bonus. But, the main idea was to enjoy the game and the craic afterwards.

We need to get more of these sorts of teams playing – for the overall health of Scottish Rugby. We have become too-focused on if not elite rugby, then performance rugby at whatever level.

Dealing only with the professional, and from next season, semi-professional side of the game suits the “suits.” But - “fewer but stronger,” simply will not cut it for the great majority of Scotland's clubs and players.

So: More power to Iain Milne's crusade on behalf of “bad players”.