SOME
ONE once said: “Getting the
SRU's member clubs to agree on anything was a bit like trying to herd
cats.”
Sheila Begbie - she and her team are putting in the hard yards
In
spite of this, Sheila
Begbie and her team
in the SRU's Rugby
Development Department have
to try to do this. On paper, it ought to be reasonably simple to get
a majority decision from the ten clubs in the Premiership
Forum, or the 12
clubs in each of the National
League Forums; however,
by the time you get down to the Regional
League Forums, consensus
is more-difficult to achieve.
This
overlooks the fact, one of the driving forces behind Super-6
was the inability of
the Premiership Forum
to agree – thus
forcing the SRU to
step in and introduce Super-6.
The
new season kicks-off in ten days, and, as per the decision of the
last Special General
Meeting in March, we
should be stuck with the current seasonal programme for the next
three seasons, until Spring
2022. Or will we?
During
May and
June, the
Rugby Development
Department (RDD)
held a series of eight regional consultation
workshops, at which
some of the current hot topics within the game were discussed, these
included:
• Season
length and structure
• Player
participation trends
• Competition
formats and structure
• Youth
to adult transition rates
• Travel
time and costs
• Unfulfilled
fixtures
In
all, 227 people attended these meetings, the attendees dividing-up
as: 41% club committee-men, 27% players and 25% coaches, 7% others.
Some
of the significant figures to come out of the consultation process
were:
- 81% of those attending would like to see a season of 18-22 games in length
- 51% would like to see three National Leagues
- 27% would like to see only two National Leagues
- 22% would like to see the current four National Leagues
- 97% of the attendees would want some form of cup competitions
- 82% of the PLAYERS who attended would like to see the cups competed for separately, AFTER the league campaign.
- 83% of the attendees would want the season to start in August or September
- 82% of the attendees would like to see some form of regional representative rugby introduced.
I
was sent a copy of the comprehensive RDD paper, produced after these
workshops, and it is an impressive piece of work, including some
graphics, which I am unable to copy here, showing various different
league scenarios.
Speaking
as someone from a West Regional club, I particularly liked the
concept of, rather than having the current Region-wide Leagues, there
are serious proposals to reduce potential travelling distances within
the regions. Instead of having, as currently, three West Regional
Leagues, the Region would be split into West
North and South Leagues, with
similar localisation in the East
and
Caledonia
Regions.
Phase
Two of
the consultation process, a series of eight meetings across Scotland,
will take place between next Monday,
26 August,
and Monday,
16 September.
These meetings will be open to delegated club officials only (two
committee members per club), and will discuss the findings of the
Phase One workshops and take matters forward.
That
line about herding cats always worries me, but, hopefully at the end
of this welcome exercise, we will emerge with the sort of Scottish
Rugby Union which most of the member clubs are happy with.
The
SRU is often criticised for being too-interested in the money side of
the game, and insufficiently concerned about the backbone of the
games, the ordinary clubs. It is good to know, the Rugby
Development Department is
doing its job.
BREAKING
NEWS
GREGOR
TOWNSEND has
just announced the team to face France
at
BT
Murrayfield on
Saturday.
Stuart
Hogg is
the only starter to survive from the XV which lost so-heavily in Nice
last Saturday. The match-day squad, as ever in1-23 order is:
Gordon
Reid (Ayrshire
Bulls), George
Turner, (Glasgow
Warriors), WP
Nel (Edinburgh),
Scott
Cummings (Glasgow
Warriors), Sam
Skinner (Exeter
Chiefs), Ryan
Wilson (Glasgow
Warriors), Hamish
Watson (Glasgow
Warriors), Blade
Thomson (Scarlets);
Greig
Laidlaw (Clermont
Auvergne – Captain), Finn
Russell (Racing
92); Sean
Maitland (Saracens),
Peter
Horne (Glasgow
Warriors), Chris
Harris (Newcastle
Falcons), Tommy
Seymour (Glasgow
Warriors); Stuart
Hogg (Exeter
Chiefs).
Replacements:
Grant
Stewart (Glasgow
Warriors), Allan
Dell (London
Irish), Simon
Berghan, Grant Gilchrist, John Barclay (all
Edinburgh); George
Horne (Glasgow
Warriors), Rory
Hutchison (Northampton
Saints), Blair
Kinghorn (Edinburgh).
So,
14 changes from the starting XV in Nice, a first cap for Blade
Thomson, first
starts for George
Turner (I
think), and Scott
Cummings.
The
clock may be ticking that bit louder against the chances of Fraser
Brown,
Magnus
Bradbury
and Sam
Johnson being
fit for Japan.
Now, after two of the four warm-up games, the only fit man of the
extended training squad who has still to play is Jonny
Gray, and
it is inconceivable to think of him not going to the World Cup.
Proof of the pudding, and all that, AA dear boy!
ReplyDeleteVery true DSC, but, for once, the clubs are being offered a mechanism whereby they have a say. It's not a TCD-type order.
DeleteBeam me up (and all that) AA!
DeleteThere is (and has been since time immemorial) a little thing known by the acronym AGM - in which the clubs are empowered to "have a say", in fact rather more than just a "say". If only the body of clubs had the collective gumption, organisation, ability, desire or wtf to exercise such a fundamental organisational right....
The Dreaded Silver Croc rests his case.
Would be worth reading the byelaws DSC. the clubs have “allowed” ie been manoeuvred into a set of rules that empower the executive and disempower the clubs.
DeleteA motion needs 10 backers. Then needs to be accepted as competent. That’s within the gift of Graham Ireland. Not forgetting the new ruse in calling it incompetent in the meeting itself - one that was done to perfection at the SGM.
Then the small matter of getting a majority to support the motion.
Apart from all that you are spot on.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWho would deny you the opportunity for another lofty faux-knowlegeable rant, Clubfoot? Certainly not the fearsome though affable DSC, who is known to rise playfully yet purposefully out of the billabong from time to time for the sole purpose of venting a little justified verbosity!
DeleteHowever, back in the real world, any suggestions that the DSC (one-time Murrayfield insider) is unaware of the byelaws are scurrilous nonsense, and it would undoubtedly be inadvisable to attempt to teach such a rapacious old reptile how to suck eggs. In fact if you concentrate hard and carefully re-read the DSC's earlier post, you may come to understand what it says, rather than what you so ignorantly seek to infer. Plonker that you are, Clubby!
Furthermore the DSC is light-heartedly amused to see your reminder that long-servicing SRU car-crash management failure Mr G "Nine-Ledgers" Ireland**, a person cruelly exposed to be as woefully useless as a wet fart in a busy windowless boardroom - prior to his demotion from the position of FD, just as the entire Murrayfield juggernaut was closing in terminally on the financial buffers - might have any responsibility for determining competence or incompetence in any given situation. Unless of course the pathetic owl-eyed puppet was being worked from behind, doing the bidding of others - e.g. by Howzat or TCD, or possibly one of the stadium cleaners....
**Who, despite being conspicuously part of the mismanagement problem a good few years ago, couldn't be sacked during several deadwood clear-outs because he has known where successive fraudulent administrations'
& colleagues' malpractice skeletons are buried, deep in the ghastly bowels of the Roseburn Kremlin, that monolithic haven of criminal corruption and terminal insanity.
Just saying. Keeping it snappy....!
"serving"
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how this develops. The crucial question is how will the clubs reach a conclusion on these decisions?
ReplyDeleteI’m curious about your statement that the SRU were forced to intervene to implement S6. Indeed the premiership clubs couldn’t agree on a way forward. What we are seeing with S6 explains that though.
The SRU weren’t forced to do this. They chose to drive it through. Still haven’t demonstrated how the Premiership isn’t fit for purpose.
May you live in interesting times.
Yes insdeed - democracy is all well and good....
DeleteBut the Junta will only allow it in small, measured doses!
"indeed"
Delete