Where Do The S6 Players Go From Here?

FRIEND OF this blog, 'Left Field' asked me a question on Wednesday. He wanted to know, how many of the 192 FOSROC Super6 players would get a professional contract. Not an easy question to answer. It is also a loaded one.

I seriously doubt if any of the players – except perhaps a front row player, who is aged older than 23 will get a pro contract. One or two who are under-23, but getting established in one of the professions, might have the talent, but not the desire to go for a professional contract.

The 30 Academy Stage III players should all, in theory, have a chance of that elusive contract, but, from past experience, we know some will not make the cut, while others may find themselves at the end of a log jam of Scottish players in their position.

Last week, I picked my Super6 Team of the Season. This week, on The Offside Line, David McAdam picked his.

We both picked an identical front row: George Thornton (Ayrshire Bulls), Fraser Renwick (Southern Knights), Euan McLaren (Southern Knights). In the second row, we both picked Michael Badenhorst (Watsonians), and while David left Bulls' Tom Everard on the bench, following his red card in the final – picking Angus Runciman of Southern Knights as his second lock. I had had Runciman on my bench.

I picked the Bulls' back row trio en bloc – David agreed with me in picking the Millbrae club's skipper, Blair Macpherson at number eight, but he gave the wing forward roles to Harry Borthwick of Southern Knights and Stirling County's Conor Gordon. Like me, he had Rhys Tait of Boroughmuir Bears as our back row replacement.

We both picked Kaleem Barreto (Boroughmuir Bears) at scrum-half. David paired him with Bulls' Tom Jordan at 10, whereas I had Jordan at 12. My wingers were Jordan Edmunds (Boroughmuir Bears) and Robbie Nairn (Ayrshire Bulls). David Also selected Edmunds, but had Jacob Henry (Southern Knights) on the other wing – I had Henry at full-back.

Archie Russell (Stirling County), we both picked at outside centre, with David pairing him with Nyles Godsmark (Southern Knights) at 12, while David had Bulls' Matt Davidson at full-back.

On the bench, as I said above, we both found a place for Bears' Rhys Tait, while we agreed again on our back-up hooker – Reyner Kennedy, the County captain. So, between us we picked around 25 players who impressed and might be worth a punt higher up.

Some of the players we picked – 30-year-old Macpherson, Runciman and Reyner Kennedy for instance, are never going to get a contract. Thornton had one and was cut, McLaren ditto, but, has come-on so-much and is young enough to warrant a second chance. Badenhorst is South African, and, although he has the work ethic of a Clydesdale, I don't see him getting a contract, since we have younger, bigger, professional locks.

Archie Russell has the talent, but, I think his chance has gone and he is getting established in the financial world I gather (he could handle brother Finn's investments). Godsmark and Nairn come into the ex-professionals category, so are unlikely to get a second chance, while Edmunds has been operating at a high standard for a number of years and hasn't been given his chance.

So, to answer Left Field's question: Kaleem Barreto, Jacob Henry of the Knights, young Marc Morrison of Watsonians, who was David's back-up 10 SHOULD have a chance of getting a pro contract, as should the two young Boroughmuir centres, Robbie McCallum and Duncan Munn.

Others who, for my money have a chance, are, Bulls' full-back Matt Davidson and stand-off Christian Townsend, Watsonians' centre Matt Currie, another centre, Cammy Scott of the Knights and the two young County Stage III players, Euan Cunningham and Max Williamson; while I would like to think too, that Euan McLaren would be given another crack at the big time. Five of these guys name-checked in this paragraph are already on the SRU's radar it should be noted.

That comes to 6.25% of the 192 players. This might seem a bit low to sum, but, I feel anything over 5% is good for one season.

But, the problem as I see it is – where do they go? We already know, from past experience, the two squads are over-loaded in some positions.

Using the team websites for my information, I find, between them the Edinburgh and Glasgow employ 90 full-time professionals, and also have 20 Stage III Academy players, who are full-time with the clubs.

Leaving the Stage III boys out of it for now, the 90 players break down to 74 Scotland-qualified and 16 non-Scotland qualified (82% SQ, 18% NSQ). I have asked this before, several times, and have yet to receive a satisfactory answer, but, why should the SRU, a body whose principal aim is the successful nurturing and care of the game of Rugby Union Football in Scotland employ non-Scots as 18% of their players? The United Rugby Championship does not have relegation, I see no need to “load” a squad with arguably more-talented non-Scots players to avoid relegation.

Then we look at promotion potential for the Super6 players. With fifteen props (plus four Academy props) already in the queue, I don't fancy any of the S6 props' chances of a contract any time soon. Maybe if the SRU dumped the four NSQ props, that would free-up some space.

Eleven locks, with nine of them Scottish, plus two big lumps of Academy locks. Again, not much chance for advancement there. I think if the two non-Scots were to be dumped, the two Academy boys should step-up. And, while on the subject of locks, ok, Ben Toolis, Glen Young, Scott Cummings and Kiran McDonald-Siran are all injured at the moment, but, other than on the grounds of his great experience, and Richie Gray feeling he wasn't in the right condition for international rugby - are there grounds for playing Rob Hartley (a very good 6) at lock against Tonga?

So, perhaps a glimmer of hope there for an ambitious lock, but, only a glimmer.

The two squads have 16 back rowers, 13 of them Scottish-qualified, with another three in the Academy. Again therefore, not a lot of hope for any S6 players not already in the system.

 

At scrum-half, Kaleem Barreto of Boroughmuir (pictured box-kicking above) would be most people's pick as Player of the Tournament in Super6; for me, he's certainly on the short leet with County's Archie Russell and the Bulls' pairing of Tom Jordan and Blair Macpherson. But, Kaleem is only at the present moment, our ninth-ranked scrum-half, behind the seven full-timers, Roan Frostwick of the Academy and Edinburgh and perhaps County's Caleb Korteweg.

We hear that a couple of the older nines might be jettisoned at the end of this season, which could free-up a place for Kaleem, but, that's rumour and possibility, nothing more concrete.

My advice to the three Academy tens is, don't hold your breath for advancement. And with Edinburgh and Scotland seemingly seeing Blair Kinghorn, nominally a back three player, as moving to ten, that queue just got longer.

It's the same situation in the outside backs, a rather large log jam of talent standing in front of some very-talented youngsters. Clearly we are now, in terms of our professional teams, reaching critical mass.

My view is, unless we start a third, or even third and fourth professional teams – immediately or very-soon – we risk losing some very-talented kids, either to giving-up the game, or, perish the thought, moving to England, or perhaps to the new Major League Rugby in the USA.

As things stand, because the SRU cannot and will not play the “let's pay big money in wages” game of the proliferate English and French clubs, we are developing talent for these clubs.

It annoys me no end that massive (in terms of “brand name” support and history) football clubs such as Rangers and Celtic can no longer hold onto their big names, but sell them on to English clubs with far fewer honours on their escutcheons and a far-weaker “brand identification.”

The same thing is now happening in rugby. Edinburgh is surely a bigger rugby citadel than Worcester, but, in the summer, they lost two Lions to that struggling English provincial club.

It may be that, some time soon, the big English clubs will realise, the Viv Nicholson model for budgeting is unsustainable and we will see common-sense economics at the professional level. This might mean, fewer top Scots heading down the M6 in search of riches.

But, if we keep producing fresh talent in S6, that still leaves the two-club log jam further up. Given the current professional rugby set-up is likely to continue for some years to come, with the three major competing competitions: URC, Top 14 and English Premiership, we are going to have a problem.

Therefore, to solve the problem, the SRU will really have to either spend more money, on another two URC teams – assuming the other nations will allow it; find private investors to take on the new teams (or the existing ones), but, again, only if the URC will allow two further Scottish teams; or, opt out of Tier One of World Rugby all together.

They could then drop down to the European Rugby Championship and take-on the likes of the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Germany and so on – with semi-professional teams, always assuming these countries have not, in the interim, embraced full professionalism. Actually, that might happen in ten years' time in any case. In which case, we could revert to club rugby with a District level above it and all the recent unpleasantness would have been for nothing.