One Of The Greatest Rugby Quotes

I BEGIN today's sermon with a quote. The name of the person being quoted, I know not, but, I am referring here to page 131 of Michael Aylwin and Mark Evans' book: 'Unholy Union,' “when rugby collided with the modern world.”

“I couldn't give a fuck about the good of the game.” Thus sprake if not Zarathustra, at least one of the millionaire owners of one of England's Gallagher Premiership clubs. These club owners, while some may be more-sympathetic than the gentleman quoted, to the overall health of the game, are wedded to the principle of market forces. These guys wouldn't give a toss if the rest of the game was on life-support, so long as their club was in the top-flight and putting bums on seats. This is the wrong road to go down, but, that's where the big English and French clubs are headed.

Losses accumulate, but, for as long as these losses can be managed, nothing will change. The rich will get richer and the poor will get nothing.

One of the measures 'Unholy Union' advocates is that the game's big northern Hemisphere leagues: The United Rugby Championship, The Gallagher Premiership and The Top 14 implement Collective Bargaining Agreements – CBAs.

As the book explains, CBAs are a basic in North American and Australian professional sports. These are the two countries in the world where professional sport makes money – big money, and the CBAs are part of the reason for this success.

In North America, basketball's NBA's CBA is 600 pages long; ice hockey's NHL has a 500-pages-plus CBA, baseball's CBA for MBL (Major League Baseball) is 400 pages long, while American football's NFL gets bye with a 300 page CBA, as does Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

It might not be a magic bullet, or a one size fits all answer, however, the way leagues with a working CBA have thrived and grown is in stark contrast to some leagues which make no effort to level the playing field and consider each member club to be the same.

Good luck to the RFU and the FFR in trying to wrestle control of their game from the big clubs, but, since nearly all the clubs in the URC are controlled by the respective Unions, maybe they should adopt a CBA and see how the competition can grown.

CBAs govern such subjects as a salary cap, a salary collar (which enforces a minimum spend on player wages), minimum wages to be paid, whether or not the league is open (promotion and relegation) or closed, squad sizes, prize money and distribution . Basically, however, the idea is “equalisation,” ensuring the league is as competitive as can be, with no big fish or little fish.

Even then, as happens everywhere, some clubs will be better-run, better-coached and be at the top, but, the notion is – on any given day, any team can beat any other team. This concept, for instance, would never be allowed to happen in Scottish football!!

NOW – HERE'S a thought. Suppose we go for a CBA in the URC, might the SRU be able to give us the third professional team we need to really take the game in Scotland forward?

I know the current thinking is that they stick with two teams, but increase the tier below that, Super6 rugby to Super8 and even Super10. It's the worse-kept secret in Scottish sport, but, they want to go to S8, asap and one of the chosen expansion franchises will be London Scottish.

How this will be managed will become clearer later this month, when Conor O'Shea reveals his findings on the state of the English game below the Premiership. But, the presumption is, Scottish will no longer be tied to having to have a high percentage of their paid match-day squad “England-qualified,” and will be free to join an SRU-supported competition – provided their amateur sides remain within the orbit of the RFU.

We hear rumours of a sort of modified British Isles Cup, featuring English Championship sides, our own Super sides, teams from the Welsh Premiership and some say – some of the top teams from the All-Ireland League. That's all very well, and it could be a great competition, but, unless we get the third professional side, we will end up producing good players with nowhere to go in Scotland – since our two full-time pro sides can only employ so-many.

Right now, Glasgow employs 40 Scotland-qualified full-timers; Edinburgh has 36 Scotland-qualified players, while there are at least 35 Scotland-qualified players spread across the top leagues in England, Ireland, Wales and France. There are also 19 Stage III Academy players who are full-time with our two URC teams. That's a total of at least 131 Scotsmen earning a living as full-time players in Europe.

I accept, we will not get some of the bigger-earners back if a third professional team was to be established soon, but, say ten per-cent of the exiles decide to say “No thanks” to a “please come home” request from the SRU – that would still leave us with enough players to staff each of the three teams with 40 Scotsmen. Add Academy players and the best from Super Rugby and each squad could have sufficient depth to get bye.

Unfortunately for home-based rugby fans, the best place to locate the third pro team would be -LONDON. Make Scottish the third pro side, the URC would love it, the Irish, Italian, South African and Welsh teams would love it – their London-based exiles would turn up to watch their sides, and the many Scots in the Sudentenland would love it too.

More importantly, I think CVC, who have made such a significant financial contribution to the URC, would absolutely love having a presence in London, and the television companies would love it too. The SRU might even be able to persuade them to weigh-in to offset the set-up costs.

Why don't we be bold and give it a go?

NOT PERHAPS what old Rudyard Kipling meant, but I was reminded of his quote: “What do they know of England, who only England know?” when listening to Ben Kay and Austin Healey in the build-up to yesterday's Saracens v Sale match on BT Sport.

OK, anyone with the slightest interest in Rugby knows, for all his occasional flashes of insight, Healey is the Prat's prat, but, I am afraid, Kay was demonstrating that he wore his IQ on his back, when he tried to argue that Maro Itoje is: “arguably the best player in the world.”

Maybe in the wet dream of a former England four or five Ben; but, in the real world, he isn't even the world's best in his position. That's before you factor-in the one place where he MIGHT be the best? In the world – that of penalty conceder. He certainly gives away too-many to be a truly great player.

By the way, I noticed, in the same broadcast, four Saracens' backs, including oor ain Sean Maitland, were wearing tights on Sarries' artificial surface. Clearly more than a fashion statement.