More On The Future Face Of Scottish Rugby

I HAVE to answer some points which arose from yesterday's post – regarding Super Rugby or a return to Districts.

I begin with a Facebook post from Bill Faulds, who wrote:

“I don’t get you and your obsession with Clubs playing in Regional Leagues.

If we ignore, from above:

1/ the complete lack of progression that would be available under your scenario for most Clubs.

2/ where we’ll get another 50-140 players to populate these extra 2-4 ‘Super’ sides.

And just challenge your ‘Regional’ Leagues idea:

• how many leagues?

• how many teams are going to populate these 4…. 5….. 6 leagues and show me how mixing current Prem teams with current Nat 3 and current Regional sides would, in any way be competitive or interest generating?

I’m used to the ex Public School lads who live in Glasgow or Edinburgh being keen on local leagues. But amongst most of us, the great unwashed, I’ve not heard it pushed.

How does Regional help Caithness, Orkney, Highland, Newton Stewart, Stewartry ?”

Right, as I demonstrated a couple of posts back, 70% of the clubs who had 'National League status' when the SR|U formed the official leagues in 1973 are still “National League Clubs' today. Only Stirling County and Currie of the current top clubs were not NL clubs 48 years ago. Bill writes about “a lack of progression,” there has been precious little real progression in the past half century.

Sure, some clubs have been blessed with a good crop of players of a similar age; on the back of this, they climbed through the ranks, but, only Curie and County consolidated once they got to the top – the others fell back.

[I now go off-piste somewhat, but bear with me. The most-successful professional team sports in the world in terms of money-making are in the USA's major leagues – MLB, MLR, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL. There, the governing body franchises teams and once you are in, your place is ring-fenced, the cake is evenly divided. Occasionally, a league might expand, in which case certain criteria must be met, before a new franchise is awarded. This protects the integrity of the league, as does the annual draft, whereby the weakest team gets first pick of the new talent.]

I am not saying the American model is perfect, but, it is catching on elsewhere. The new United Rugby Championship is a ring-fenced competition. The RFU is ring-fencing The Gallagher Premiership. Super Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere is, to a degree, ring-fenced.

Take away the threat of relegation and teams are encouraged to play with a bit more freedom, to entertain rather than play for the right result.

That is what is happening in Super6. I believe we should expand this. Let's go to Super10, ASAP. Ten franchised Super clubs, each limited to a 35-man squad, adds up to 350 players, approximately 3% of the adult male players in Scotland.

Ten Super clubs would account for roughly 7% of the clubs active in league play in Scotland – these would be elite clubs, attracting the best of our players who were not full-time professionals.

I honestly believe, having, as now, more than 40 'National League Clubs' is too-many. Forty clubs, each with a 35-man first team squad, adds up to 13% of the playing population. I suggest there simply are not that many players good enough for that status.

But, de-pressurise these players into playing in more Regional Leagues and I would suggest they would enjoy their rugby more. No more 275-mile round trips (Berwick to Strathmore in NL3), or 320-mile round trips (Moffat to Lochaber, West Regional Division 3), and I think the game as a whole would flourish.

In his Facebook post – Bill asked: “How does Regional help Caithness, Orkney, Highland, Newton Stewart, Stewartry ?”

It helps in this way Bill. The clubs would not have to budget for really long trips, more-regionalised play would further enhance local rivalries. Former foes would turn up to spectate when their clubs met, rather more-easily than when the their clubs were playing opponents from further away.

I am very much a rugby man of the West, look at my own Region.

In the West we have:

• 1 – Super6 team – Ayrshire Bulls

• 3 – Premiership clubs – GHA, Glasgow Hawks, Marr

• 3 – National League 1 clubs – Ayr, Biggar, Cartha-Queen's Park

• 6 – National League 2 clubs – Dumfries Saints, GHK, Glasgow Academical, Hamilton, Newton Stewart, Whitecraigs

• 4 National League 3 clubs – Ardrossan Academicals, Greenock Wanderers, Hillhead-Jordanhill, West of Scotland

• 10 – West Division 1 clubs – Allan Glen's, Annan, Cambuslang, East Kilbride, Garnock, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Lenzie, Stewartry, Strathendrick

• 10 - West Division 2 clubs – Clydebank, Cumnock, Dalziel, Helensburgh, Oban Lorne, Paisley, Strathaven, Uddingston, Waysiders-Drumpellier, Wigtownshire

• 12 – West Division 3 clubs – Birkmyre, Bishopton, Clydesdale, Cumbernauld, Cowal, GUM. Hyndland, Lanark, Lochaber, Loch Lomond,Moffat, Shawlands

That's 48 clubs. Assuming the planned expansion from Super6 to Super10, one of GHA or Hawks will move up to be one of the Super franchises, that will still, however, leave 48 clubs in the Region. Just as Ayrshire Bulls plays in S6, Ayr plays in NL1. The same situation would apply to whichever club gets the Glasgow Super Rugby franchise.

We MUST by the way, resist any Murrayfield-led plan to form a new Super club in Glasgow, directly tied to Warriors.

How to properly divide the 48 clubs up into workable leagues then becomes the problem.

Since there are currently 16 National League clubs – I would suggest they play in a one league, two conference system, similar to the URC. Each club would play the other seven clubs in their conference home and away, and would play one game against each of the eight clubs in the other conference; giving a 22-game league season. The top four clubs in each conference could then play a knock-out tournament to settle which is the Champion club.

The remaining 32 clubs could then play in four District Leagues, organised on a geographic basis. For instance:

• South West Division: Annan, Cumnock, Garnock, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Moffat, Stewartry, Wigtownshire.

• Lanarkshire Division: Cambuslang, Clydesdale, Dalziel, East Kilbride, Lanark, Strathaven, Uddingston, Waysiders-Drumpellier

• Greater Glasgow and Renfrewshire Division: Allan Glen's, Birkmyre, Bishopton, GUM, Hyndland, Lenzie, Paisley, Shawlands

• North-Western Division: Clydebank, Cumbernauld, Cowal, Helensburgh, Lochaber, Loch Lomond, Oban Lorne, Strathendrick.

Bring back local cup com petitions for the various leagues – each Regional League team would then have 14 league games, plus local cup ties. We could even bring back the Glasgow & District Knock-out Cup to provide further games.

If similar competition models were followed in the other Regions, there would be enough club rugby to go round. I can even see representative Inter-Regional rugby, featuring the best of the Four Regional Leagues, and Junior Inter-Regional rugby for the District League clubs. That way, clubs at a higher level could see the best talent playing each other, and this would help sort-out which players might be worth taking a chance on at a higher level.

Not every club has the infrastructure, or even the desire to advance up through the leagues. Give the clubs a chance to play meaningful games, against near-by clubs and have fun, and they would be very happy, as would the players be. In fact, we might expect, under this more-localised system, see player numbers rise.

Finally, an apology to Rangi Jericevich, who I mis-quoted in my last post. Ramngi's point was that six of the eight Scottish Lions had Played in the Premiership, he was not suggesting they had sorely been developed in that league.