Give Peace A Chance And Let's Make S6 Work

PERHAPS THE argument of this current Premiership season (the ongoing S6 bourach aside) has been the somewhat daft Professional draft system. Phil Smith, the Heriot's Head Coach, has largely kept his own counsel on this – well, he cannot really comment, since he has not had the benefit of even one released professional in the first 13 rounds of the competition.

Phil Smith - a happy boy on Saturday night

Not that this has handicapped the “Nails”, who produced a thoroughly-”professional” performance of forward power to dismantle Ayr, in horrendous conditions at Millbrae on Saturday.

Ayr certainly had two full-time professionals in their ranks on Saturday – Scotland centre Alex Dunbar, who started, but did not finish the game, after sustaining a nasty looking shoulder injury, and Paddy Kelly, who replaced him. But, the damage to the hosts, who went into the game as league leaders, was done up front.

Much of what we do this season has to be accompanied by a nod to next season and Super-6. This new competition is seen as the “bridge” between the club game and the professional one – an area in which late developers and guys who were maybe overlooked when deciding on Academy contracts can flourish.

Each team on Saturday listed 11 forwards – the starting eights, plus three subs. Heriot's forward squad included three Club XV internationalists – Michael Liness, Struan Cessford and Ruaridh Leishman - and three Under-20 “caps” - Charlie Jupp, Adam Sinclair and Martin Hughes.

Ayr's 11 forwards included one full cap – Holland's Wolf van Dijk, one Under-20 cap in Robbie Smith and three Club XV caps in Steven Longwell, Pete McCallum and Blair Macpherson.

This is the calibre of player we will increasingly see in the S6 squads moving forward and on Saturday's evidence, the one who looked most-ready to bridge that gap between club play and professional play, if needed, was Cessford, a player who has perhaps been unlucky inasmuch as he plays in a position in which Scotland is comparatively richly-endowed at the moment.

Struan Cessford - immense for Heriot's on Saturday

As Phil Smith commented post-match: “I know it wasn't possible, but, I could have loaned Struan to Dean Richards on Friday night, to solve Newcastle's tight-head shortage, and he would have done a job for them.” None of the press corps scoffed at that notion.

So, Saturday at Millbrae offered further evidence, should it be required, that S6 should be given a chance. The six clubs are united in their determination to make the concept, for all its flaws, work.

We should not forget, S6 was dreamt-up by Murrayfield, because the clubs could not agree a way forward among themselves. Yes, probably, a refined form of District competition would have been fairer or better. Of course, having three of the six franchises in Edinburgh is a nonsense. Certainly, there is a risk of a rugby desert being formed north of the Highland Line.

But, if the clubs in the northern-most regions of Scotland cannot get together and work for the common good – preferring to maintain age-old rivalries, then that is not Murrayfield's fault, or problem.

Aberdeen will never have a viable cub playing at the highest National League level for as long as Gordonian shuns Grammarian and neither speaketh unto Wanderer. It is apparently just as bad in some parts of Tayside, where we hear of clubs a shortish touch kick apart who flounce about glaring at each other like the legendary Indian and Pakistani troops putting on their show of mutual disdain when they close the border gates each night.

And we still have the argument about where the “core” clubs of the six franchise-holders will play. Of course there is a chance of the six clubs “warehousing” players – except, if say Ayr entice players from elsewhere in Ayrshire to Millbrae next season, so what – let me see: John Sharp, Jim Montgomery, Robin McEwan, “Rivet” Rae and Crawford McGuffie have all gone from Marr to Ayr in my time,

Derek Stark crossed the Rubicon from Kilmarnock to Millbrae, the big boy Duncan, a good lock whose first name I forget, arrived at Ayr from Irvine, Jim Wilson from Dalry was a huge influence when Ayr first began to be be considered a first-class side, while Mark Bennett, Paddy Dewhirst and Gavin Lowe are not the only Cumnock products to have worn pink and black - “Stiffy” McClure was sending his best Cumnock Academy boys to Ayr, 60 years ago, when they were still a “Junior” side. And Stafford McDowell was following in his father's footsteps when he moved from Stewarty to Ayr.

Ambitious and talented players like the Brown borthers, seen here in Barbarians' colours, will always move

There has always been movement – 40-odd years ago, Ian McLauchlan, Quintin Dunlop, Al McHarg, Gordon Brown, Peter Brown and Gordon Strachan were in the same Scotland pack, Alex Wilson and Ian Gray were B caps, with David Gray soon to join them. All Ayrshiremen, none of them playing for an Ayrshire club when they were capped. Behind the pack, Dave Shedden and the Gossmans did likewise.

Ambitious players will always move, it is a fact of life. Any half-decent player will want to see how far his talent and application can take him. Sure, a lesser club might lose an ambitious player or two to a Super-6 club, or even the Super-6 franchise's “core” club. But, if he doesn't enjoy the experience, or if he isn't getting the game time he wants – he will almost certainly return to his first club.

He may come back with his tail between his legs; he will then certainly be subject to some “banter”, but, if he is worth his salt at all, he will bring back some new ideas and probably return a better player. The movement will not be all one-way.

If the S6 clubs are sensible, they will forge new, lasting relationships with the lesser clubs. If the lesser clubs are sensible, they too could benefit – perhaps taking a slow-developing but talented Under-18 player from the bigger club and giving him a less-stressful platform on which to develop his skills.

Look, S6 is new, it is still a bit of an unknown, but, it need not be the “Sarajevo incident” which sparks-off full-scale warfare in Scottish Rugby.