The SRU Should Drop Flower Of Scotland - I Did It My Way Is Now Their Anthem

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL in Scotland had bounced along for the best part of 100 years with a management model which worked for Scotland.

For most of that period would-be professionals learned the game on the streets and at school. The best then progressed via junior football to the senior ranks, there, via playing for their local club, their ranks were further thinned-out; the very-best progressing via the Scottish League team to the full Scotland side. Some, at this stage, went south to the greater riches of England, others went to the Old Firm, the only two clubs in Scotland able to compete financially with the big English sides.

As time passed, our brightest schoolboy players went, aged 15, to England, where, if they survived the first two years as virtual slave labour on the English clubs' grouhnd staff, they either got full professional contracts, or came back up the road, where, via the juniors, they had a second chance. If they didn't take that chance, they could enjoy long careers, success and, if with the right team, make good money staying in the juniors and playing part-time.

Then, for various reasons, including the rise of the boys clubs and the teachers' strike of the 1980s, things changed. The real game-changer, however, was Rangers appointing Graeme Souness manager in 1986. Helped by the UEFA ban on English clubs, following the Heysel Stadium riot, which allowed Souness to recruit top English players, the Scottish clubs suddenly began to bring-in players from England and abroad.

However, as money poured into English football, Scottish clubs, even the Old Firm, were priced out of recruiting top-grade talent, and they were shopping in the football equivalent of 'Poundstretcher,' or in the Old Firm's case Aldi and Lidl.

The national governing body (NGB) – the Scottish Football Association, didn't help matters. National team managers, directors of football, heads of youth development came and went. Joined-up thinking wasn't encouraged along Hampden Park's sixth floor corridor and Scottish football sank down the world rankings.

Scotland may have qualified for its first big international championship finals in almost a quarter of a century, but, in medical terms, the national game is still on life-support – and it's an outdated system they are using.

The Scottish Rugby Union was 100 years behind their round-ball cousins in embracing professionalism. To be honest, they didn't handle the change-over well and it can reasonably be argued, they are still playing catch-up with some bigger, and a couple of comparable-sized unions.

However, in one aspect of professionalism, the SRU has shot past the SFA, like Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes F1 car overtaking a road roller. This is in the speed with which they have embraced buying-in big name non-Scottish players.

To repeat myself from past posts. I have nothing against importing X-factor players such as Leone Nakarawa and Bill Mata – the star quality they bring is worth the investment; what simply training and playing with them can give young Scottish players is worth the investment.

The SRU is operating around a small gene pool. I have nothing against us importing a youthful son or grandson from the great Caledonian Diaspora. We cannot afford to not try to recruit Scottish-qualified players who have been schooled in Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

I would, however, put an upper age limit on the recruitment of such players, say 23 or certainly no higher than 25, at the time of recruitment – given they have the three-year residency rule to overcome. That I can live with.

However, recent recruitment moves have seen non Scottish-qualified players, older than this, being brought-in – to me, THIS IS SIMPLY NOT ON.

Sadly, as can be seen by a quick visit to the social media pages of the club, Glasgow Warriors' acquisition of Australian back rower Jack Dempsey has been greeted with approval by the club's supporters. I feel these supporters must be some of the newbies who have been attracted to the club from football or some other sport– I can think of several clubs in the west who have sent young back rowers up to Warriors in recent years and seen them discarded after a mere handful of appearances.

Their club members, I feel, would rather see Warriors fielding home-grown rather than imported talent. When I was a boy, if your club got someone into the Glasgow squad – you went and supported him, unless the Glasgow game clashed with one of your club's games.

In my own club's case, our goal for our players was the Glasgow District XV, the junior side. They generally played in midweek, under the Hughenden lights mostly, so, up we went from Ayrshire to support our guys.

Today, Warriors play their home games, mainly on a Friday night. I reckon if their match-day squad had closer ties to the local clubs, Warriors might (once crowds return) be able, with better marketing, to pull in even more fans than they currently do.

When Glasgow and Edinburgh met on 2 January, of the 46 players involved, only five of the Edinburgh squad: Stuart McInally, Jamie Hodgson, Chris Dean, Blair Kinghorn and James Johnstone were home-grown – i.e. products of the Edinburgh clubs/schools system. Of the Glasgow squad, only four starters: Richie Gray, Scott Cummings and the Fagerson brothers (who are from Dundee) had played club rugby in the city and its environs, while only Ross Thompson had come through the Glasgow club ranks – with Glasgow Hawks and Ayr.

If you count the other home Scottish-developed players on duty that night: Hawick's Rory Sutherland and Darcy Graham, Dundonian Jamie Ritchie, Magnus Bradbury, from Oban and Mark Bennett from Cumnock, in the Edinburgh line-up; and Invernessian Jamie Dobie, Selkirk's Lee Jones and Alloa's Glenn Bryce (whose Stirling County connection qualifies him as a local club boy) you find that only 18 of the 46 players had come through the SRU's schools and clubs development system.

That's 39% of the players on-duty – such a low figure is unacceptable, it is a disgrace and we wonder – what will it take for the current SRU hierarchy to start doing their job properly and develop Scottish rugby and encourage Scottish rugby players.

HIRING IN NON-SCOTTISH MERCENARIES HAS DONE NOTHING FOR SCOTTISH FOOTBALL – IT IS DOING NOTHING FOR SCOTTISH RUGBY:

GET IT SORTED – NOW.