Actions And Consequences

A COUPLE of social media posts have captured my attention in the last week. They are linked, so, I thought I should maybe post a blog inspired by them.

The first was when someone shared a situations vacant advertisement from the rahrahrugby.com website. This read:

“A Scottish club in the beautiful west coast are on the lookout for experienced front rower and 2nd rowers. Need have proven experience in Semi/pro-environment.

The club is playing in the newly formed Super6 competition. The FOSROC Super6 launched November 2019. It is played by six franchise teams, with part-time professional players and full-time coaches and is the top tier of domestic rugby in Scotland.

Super6 aims to improve playing standards, by better-developing Scottish players, coaches and match officials to feed talent into the full-time professional game.

The contract length would be May 2021 - June 2022, with a break for our off-season Nov - Jan. Based on the player and his level, experience, accommodation, and travel requirement the retainer will range from £300 - £550 per month. There will also be a Play and win bonus in place for the right type of player.

UK passport holders essential OR British Ancestry Visa OR have experience on an International level.”

The second post was the announcement of the Scotland squad for the three summer internationals – the A game against England and the two games in Europe, against Romania and Georgia.

The link is this: the S6 side is clearly Ayrshire Bulls – unless one of the other five franchises has located to the west coast and not told anyone, and, among the 17 uncapped players named are two props – Robin Hislop and Javan Sebastian. Both of these props, as the pictures below prove, are former Ayr players.

 

Javan (top picture, above) spent a season with Ayr on a partnership deal with Warriors. This meant, he was training full-time at Scotstoun, but, he never got a sniff of game time with the Glasgow outfit, and spent the season playing, and playing very-well, with Ayr in the Premiership.

At the end of the season, Warriors decided not to continue the arrangement, so Javan went back home to Carmarthen Harlequins, from there to Scarlets and now, into the Scotland squad.

“Bomber” Hislop (bottom picture) was released by Edinburgh following some injury concerns. He then sent south to Rotherham Titans, was then picked-up by Ayr, where he performed well and was offered a better contract with Doncaster Knights.

His displays for the Knights, earned him a short-term deal at Saracens, before a return to Doncaster, where his form in the English Championship this season has won him a contract for next season with Wasps.

You have to congratulate both players on overcoming career setbacks and fighting on to win international recognition. They deserve their chance on the big stage, but, you have to question whoever is making the decisions within Scottish rugby as to gets or does not get a professional contract.

I am also willing to believe that Javan Sebastian and Northampton's Nick Auterac, another of the 17 uncapped players in the summer squad, have benefitted from the SRU's wish to tie them into the Scotland system, before in Auterac's case England, and in Sebastian's case, Wales, come calling.

At 26, Javan Sebastian still has, in propping terms: some growing to do; he is young for a man who plays his position. Auterac, at 28, is probably in the peak period of his career. No harm to the lad, but, it seems a pointless pick, particularly when you have the likes of the already capped Murray McCallum at Edinburgh and Darcy Rae at Glasgow (although soon off to Bath), who could have been picked, or the young, uncapped, septet of Edinburgh's Dan Gamble, Sam Grahamslaw, Shaun Gunn and Angus Williams, and the Glasgow trio of Adam Nicol, George Thornton and Murphy Walker.

Maybe, if the SRU didn't have such an obsession with recruiting props from outwith Scotland, either as development projects, or as simply NSQ mercenaries, our younger tight forwards might get a proper chance to develop, via a fit-for-purpose development programme, and Ayrshire Bulls would not be looking overseas for players, while claiming: “We cannot find players of the required standard in Scotland.”

Speaking of “project players, Was Pierre Schoeman of Edinburgh not due to become Scotland-qualified this summer? If so, surely he should have got the call for the three internationals.

I accept, for as long as we only have two full-time professional teams, then hard decisions need to be made as to which players are, or are not, given contracts. It is hard on players but, as things stand, there is little wriggle room to allow for later developers, or guys suffering temporary injury setbacks.

The fact Super6's introduction was botched, then hit hard by Covid, hasn't helped either, but, if we ever do get back to “normal” - whatever normal is – let's hope the SRU somehow finds a player development programme which works better than the present one.

Then maybe players would not vanish out of the system, only to be brought back years later – as Hislop and Sebastian have been, or the franchise clubs would not need to be recruiting outside Scotland to the same extent as at present.