Why The Case For Districts Doesn't Stack Up

 

I HAVE been meaning for some time to respond to Rangi Jericevich's recent article in The Offside Line, in which he expands on the Motion which his club, GHA is putting before the SRU's annual meeting, which calls for the re-introduction of an Inter-District competition, to replace the FOSROC Super6 as the top level of the club game.

The biggest problem I can see with that idea is – Super6 is not the highest level of the club game in Scotland, it is the lowest level of Performance Rugby in Scotland.

In a typical piece of Dodson bluster, TCD originally sold S6 as a “club” competition – everyone and his mother knew this was never the case. Had it been a club competition, there would have to have been an S6 representative on the SRU Council; this has never happened, the S6 clubs have always dealt directly with the Performance Department.

The reasoning behind S6 is this. The economics/financial model for Scottish rugby is:

1. The main cash-generator for Scottish rugby is the national team. Scotland generates the biggest income in terms of gates, television income and sponsorship.

2. Below that comes the two full-time professional teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow, playing in the United Rugby Championship.

3. Below that comes Super6. The two URC teams are there to ready players for the international game. Similarly, the six S6 clubs are there to ready their semi-professional players for full-time professional play.

There is insufficient interest/money in rugby in Scotland to make the two URC teams and the six S6 teams self-funding. They need SRU subsidy, the price of that subsidy is, to a degree they have to put their own self-interest second to the wider interest of the SRU, as the managers of the game.

That is why S6 has to be franchised, for the greater good of the game, minimum standards have to be applied, the SRU cannot risk an outlier club coming into the top flight and disrupting the minimum standards set.

Any system is only as good as its weakest member. A look at the following chart might explain how S6 came about. It covers the six seasons of Premiership play, seasons 2013-14 to 2018-19:

Ayr – 6 seasons – total points won 397 – average 66 per season

Melrose – 6 seasons – 393 points – average 65 per season

Heriot's – 6 seasons – 353 points – average 59 per season

Currie – 6 seasons – 323 points – average 54 per season

Watsonians – 3 seasons – 151 points – average 50 per season

Gala – 4 seasons – 168 points – average 42 per season

Boroughmuir – 5 seasons – 194 points – average 39 per season

Glasgow Hawks – 6 seasons – 226 points – average 38 per season

Stirling County – 6 seasons – 214 points – average 36 per season

Edinburgh Academical – 2 seasons – 73 points – average 36 per season

Hawick – 6 seasons – 203 points – average 34 per season

Marr - 1 season – 29 points

Aberdeen Grammar – 1 season – 23 points

Selkirk – 1 season – 9 points

OK, let's acknowledge straight away – Currie were royally fucked by the bidding process. In every facet of the thing, except facilities, they were better than at least two of the clubs who did get in.

In the six seasons covered, the maximum available points each season was 90 (winning all 18 games with a try bonus). Only five of the 14 clubs involved won more than 50% of the available points – four of them got franchises, so, the cream rose to the top and was largely recognised. Giving SRU money to where it can best benefit the Union's management model has to be the Union's way to go.

Going back to the old system, doesn't make sense given how the Union wants to run things – so a return to Districts doesn't look clever.

Now, let's look at the top players – the guys whose efforts keep the turnstyles clicking, the TV companies interested and the sponsors on-board.

In his TOL piece, Rangi Jericevich made much of the fact, six of the eight Scottish players in the British & Irish Lions squad in South Africa “came through the old Premiership.”

True enough Rangi, except, a closer look at where they came from shows:

• Rory Sutherland – product of the Hawick system

• Zander Fagerson – top rugby-playing school to the Pathway

• Hamish Watson – Scotland-qualified programme – Leicester Tigers Academy

• Ali Price – Scotland-qualified programme – Bedford Blues

• Finn Russell – Stirling County programme to the Pathway

• Duhan van der Merwe – South African Project Player

• Chris Harris – Scotland-qualified programme – Newcastle Falcons Academy

• Stuart Hogg – product of the Hawick system.

In actual fact, only the two Teris came through an old-fashioned club system, with Hawick.

I have identified 54 already-capped Scottish players currently playing in one of the three main European leagues: the URC, Top 14 and Gallagher Premiership.

The breakdown of where they came from into professional rugby is:

• SRU Player Pathway – 23 players – 44%

• Scotland-Qualified programme – 13 players – 24.5%

• Scottish Clubs – 9 players – 17%

• South African projects – 4 players – 7.5%

• Kilted Kiwis – 4 players – 7.5%

• Kilted Australians – 3 players – 5.6%

Only nine of the 54 capped players came out of the club game. Most of them, the likes of Fraser Brown, Stuart McInally, Grant Stewart, Matt Scott and Jamie Bhatti had been on the Pathway, but had been cut at some point, only to fight their way back.

If we look at the 74 players on the combined Edinburgh/Glasgow rosters, we find the following sources:

• SRU Player Pathway – 32 players – 43%

• Not Scotland-Qualified – 10 players – 13.5%

• Scotland-Qualified programme – 9 players – 12.2%

• Clubs – 7 players – 9.5|%

• Kilted Australians – 6 players – 8.1%

• Kilted Kiwis – 5 players – 6.75%

• South African project players – 5 players – 6,75%

Again, as with the capped list, most of the 7 clubs players had been on the Pathway, been cut and fought back.

So, the hard fact is, if you're playing your club rugby in Scotland and don't get onto the Player Pathway as a teenager, you have very little chance of getting back if you are cut. I don't say, no chance, but simply a very-slim one.

I am not privy to the thoughts of Jim Mallinder and the SRU Performance Department, but, I don't think they would be too-keen on a return to District play at adult level. It would mean a lot of work, time and expense, to locate very few diamonds who had been missed first time round.

However, I can see a way whereby District games could play a part in how we take Scottish rugby forward.

We accept, the SRU wants to expand Super6 to Super10 – we make this happen. Below that, however, we have the ordinary club game, within which there is a presumption of purely amateur play – i.e. nobody gets paid. (OK, rugby is an “open” game, the SRU cannot outlaw players being paid, but, if they are being paid at club level, then the payments are declared and obvious).

This ordinary club game is regionalised, to cut costs and encourage local rivalries as a means of driving-up standards. However, at the end of each season, we encourage local cup competitions, such as a revival of the old County cups and the likes of the Glasgow & District Knock-Out Cup.

We also introduce inter-district games for the best of the club players, thus allowing the S10 clubs and the Performance Department to identify players who maybe slipped through the net at the Pathway stage, or were late developers.

Sorry Rangi – I don't see a return to Districts any time soon.