Well Said Barney - Englightenment Is Catching

YOU HAVE no idea the lift I got yesterday, when I read David Barnes' piece in his excellent THE OFFSIDE LINE website. If you haven't seen it, the big man asked the simple question: “Why does the SRU have a lawyer on its board, but not a Director of Rugby?”

I was beginning to think Aristotle, which is after all the bitter and twisted rantings of an old has-been in a remote corner of East Ayrshire, was the only place resembling a media outlet which had ever ruminated on that very point.

It is some carry on when a board on which Citizen Camembert – the big cheese, has to have Citizens Roquefort, Brie and Beaufort – the smaller cheeses, who all report to him, on-board as well.

It is an even-bigger farce when the body concerned does not have on its board a specialist in its core business – the playing of the game of Rugby Union football.

Even the dumbest front five “donkey” in the worst pack in club rugby knows this is an absurdity – but, it happens and continues to happen. Some of us have realised, the notorious “broken arrows” - “They're useless, but, we cannot fire them,” thrive in their natural habitat, inside The Big Top at BT Murrayfield, so-called because: “It's a circus, and the clowns are in-charge.”

But, I am now coming round to the conclusion, some of the most-broken arrows have seats around that big polished table in the board room. It really is time, the clubs grew a pair, engaged brains and mounted a serious campaign designed to clear-out the dead wood and get the SRU moving forward.

The ongoing Gammell-Murray governance review, coupled with Ben Ryan's review of the Performance Department ought to give the clubs – who we must never forget are the main stakeholders – the opportunity they need to force through the necessary changes.

If these changes do not happen once these reports are in and PRESENTED UNEDITED TO THE STAKEHOLDERS, then, I fear, this guy might be correct.

In closing on this topic, I refer again to Ian McLauchlan's dictum: “We should have a rugby man, running the rugby side of the SRU.” It is long past time this happened.

FURTHER to Sean Kennedy's partnership deal, between Glasgow Warriors and Stirling County, I hear of another similar deal due to be announced any day now – featuring another of the Super-6 clubs.

I can see a few more similar deals coming down the line, and, to me it makes sense. We will see experienced full-time professionals, in their thirties, start the transition from player to coach, or even to former player, by stepping down to take-on a senior professional or mentoring role with the S6 franchises, helping the younger players to fully appreciate the demands full-time rugby will make of them, and to work that wee bit harder to get there.

Having a guy in your squad who has been there, done it and got the caps as well as the tee-shirt certainly makes sense to me.

A SHORTER than usual blog today, unfortunately – not a lot happening at the moment. Disappointing that the proposed Scotland Open Training Session at Scotstoun this afternoon had to be postponed, following a poor weather forecast, but, probably sensible.

I have got one rugby event to attend later today, on which I will blog tomorrow, with hopefully some big news to impart.

In closing, I have to touch on something which one of the awkward squad of Scottish rugby writers drew to my attention earlier this week. One of our SRU Councillors found himself, in the course of his day job, involved in an Employment Tribunal after sacking one of his staff for alleged misconduct.

The sacked guy walked away with a £60,000 settlement, while the Councillor was branded as a somewhat unimpressive witness – I wonder where he learned that.