Reflections On The Super6 Week End

WEEK THREE of the FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series has given further indication of S6 finally finding an identity – with the remit that it provide a “bridging” tier of the game, between the club form and the full-time professional brand appearing to win the argument over: “It's a competition, so, we are in it to win it.”

Back in those simpler pre-Covid days, when S6 was first dragged, screaming and hollering, onto the Scottish Rugby landscape, even when acknowledging its usefulness as a development tier, more than one of the chosen franchise operators made it clear, the part of the S6 landscape on which they would be judged was the cross-border element, against the Welsh Premiership clubs.

With an eye towards not being trampled-on by the Welsh, clubs such as Ayrshire Bulls deliberately recruited NSQs – Non-Scottish Qualified players, whom they thought would be better able to withstand the pressure from the Welsh clubs than young players who had come through our domestic development programme, hopefully, at the same time, helping the kids lift their game.

Then, Covid intervened and to date, three years on, the cross-border element of Operation S6 has still not happened – and will not for at least another year.

This has seen a change to the protocols around Super Rugby. There is now a limit on the number of NSQs a club can field – no more than four.

Assuming we eventually do get cross-border fixtures in a year's time, some of the new boys who are being given their opportunity during the current series, should be adjusted to the requirements of semi-professional play. By then they will have had well over a dozen games to find-out what is required of them.

What does concern me at the moment is the fact, a couple of the Edinburgh-based outfits seem more-concerned with winning the thing, rather than medium-term, far less long-term development of players.

I would like to see the SRU imposing certain selection standards on the franchises. Already we have a limit on the number of NSQs, why not also limit the number of older players? Let's see S6 becoming mostly an Under-23 competition.

There is still a place for more-experienced players. For instance, I have no objection to former professionals such as Boroughmuir Bears' Tom Brown lending their professional expertise to this tier of the game. But, maybe we should be limiting the number of older players who can participate.

Again, I welcome the new normal of this season, where a greater number of fringe players from our two United Rugby Championship sides are stepping down to play in Super6. These full-timers provide the additional experience our bright young players need alongside them.

If the S6 sides and the coaches at Edinburgh and Glasgow can get their protocols around player release correct, then two or three years down the line, we will probably not see too-many over-25 players in S6.

I honestly feel, if a player – other than perhaps a front five player – has not got a full-time professional contract by aged 23, he's not going to get one. He can then step down to club rugby, or give up, but, he should free a place for a younger player coming up.

BUT – to the games on Friday and Saturday. Stirling County deservedly beat Southern Knights, at The Greenyards on Friday night. But, it maybe wasn't as easy a victory as some might have imagined it might be.

We hear all is not well down Melrose way. They lost a few of last season's stalwarts and are relying on some fairly-inexperienced youngsters to plug the gaps. However, they still have enough seasoned forwards to keep them competitive, and, you never write-off a Borders team on their own pitch.

But, across the match, even before Jacob Henry picked up his red card to leave the Knights with 14 men, County always looked the likelier side to score. This was without Archie Russell, who was such a key attacking weapon for county in the Autumn campaign.

IT IS well-known that I am a major supporter of Super6, but, even I had to admit, Saturday's opening game, between Boroughmuir Bears and Watsonians was absolute mince. I accept the conditions were poor, however, we expect higher standards of handling and control than we saw there.

Both sides were poor and this one degenerated into a local derby arm wrestle, with the visitors relying again on their older, more-seasoned players to see them home. I did enjoy the half-time feature, on Alex Toolis's work with the Boroughmuir youngsters, however.

They may be struggling a wee bit at the moment, but, long-term, I fancy Boroughmuir to prosper.

READ CAREFULLY, I shall probably only type this once – Thank You SRU!! I watched the Boroughmuir v Watsonians match on the BBC iplayer. As he signed-off, commentator Stuart McFarlane reminded us the Ayrshire Bulls v Heriot's game would follow.

I am still waiting. In fact, I was forced to switch to the SRU's live stream on their website, since the game vanished completely off the iplayer platform. Look,. We don't expect much of BBC Shortbread, their definition of “Sport” appears to be coverage of The Bigot Brothers in football.

But, come on SRU. Surely you have enough clout to get them to cover the games they say they are going to cover. This status of not treating S6 – or indeed Scottish Rugby as a whole, seriously is nothing new where Pacific Quay is concerned.

Back to the game, however. The Millbrae match always looked like being the pick of this weekend's three fixtures, and it lived up to this pre-match presumption. These side rarely do mundane when they meet, and this one, played in difficult conditions, followed the well-established template.

After an hour, I thought: “Bulls are playing like Glasgow Warriors – they're going to lose this from a winning position.” For the second week running, Bulls had total dominance for a complete quarter, but squandered umpteen chances to make the victory safe.

Heriot's, to give them full credit, gave it a real go, but, the defence on which the Bulls base so much, held firm, even if Bulls' attack misfired badly. In this aspect of their game, I believe Bulls are seriously missing injured centre Bobby Beattie. With his great running lines, Beattie is one of those players whose qualities you don't appreciate until he isn't there.

 

For the second Bulls' home game running, lock Alex Samuel (pictured above), was voted Man of the Match. He's a big lump, of the kind we Scots don't often produce, but, if he can continue to train-on as he has so far, he will be a key player for Glasgow Warriors and Scotland for years to come.

Red Cards At Night - Nobody's Delight

RED CARDS are currently a big issue in the game – which is a bit of a concern for us old-timers. In my day laddie, you almost had to kill an opponent to be sent off, and we didn't need our referees to flash a red card at us as we went.

Of course, red cards, like Captain's arm bands, are a football thing – I still get a laugh at that well-known hooker turned coach but still a rapscallion: Franklin Clark, and his story of being sent off by Murray Clayton, back when Murray was one of Scotland's top officials.

As Franklin tells it, Murray invited him to: “Walk with me Franklin, we are heading for the touchline, and when we get there, I will stop, but you will keep walking.”

Now, that's class, as those who knew him would have expected from Murray. No need for the theatrical flourish, the message got across.

This current fad for discussing discipline is perhaps a sign of the times. Back in the amateur days, the game was largely self-policed. As in ice hockey, every team had its 'Enforcer,' the guy who ensured the talented players were allowed to display their talents, but nullifying the opposition's 'goon' to use the ice hockey definition.

But, mass punch-ups, or even one-v-one 'square-goes' are frowned upon these days; bad for the game's image and all that. Thus, the referees are now being asked to police issues which were once sorted-out by the players themselves.

This current call for “20-minute red cards,” whereby, if a player is red-carded, his team plays for 20 minutes, one man short, before a replacement comes on for the miscreant; well, to my mind, this is being driven by the elite, professional teams. The justification being, one team having to play a man down spoils the spectacle.

“SPECTACLE,” an awful lot of so-called elite games these days are a series of “biff-bang-bosh collisions,” with not a lot of champagne, handling rugby to be seen. So, where's the spectacle?

What the proponents of the 20-minute red card rarely acknowledge is the need for player education. Fundamentalists are increasingly calling for the tackle height to be lowered to “below the waist,” from the current border of “the nipple line.” That is perhaps an unattainable objective, in the real world, things happen so quickly it would be, in certain situations, impossible for even the average-sized player, never mind the behemoths of the front five, to get down below the maximum tackle height, so quickly does the ball-carrier appear before them.

Mind you, I do feel, if we banned all above the waist tackles, after what I am sure would be initial chaos as the players adjusted, this would make for a faster, more-open game.

One of the reasons behind the current fad for high tackles (high as in above the waist, rather than deliberately high), is that this is believed to prevent attacking sides form off-loading and keeping attacking thrusts going.

Stopping someone with a chest-high challenge prevents off-loads, generates static breakdowns and allows defences to re-organise – that's the thinking.

Make all tackles waist-high or lower and the ball carrier would be better able to off-load and keep the attacking thrust going – or so we assume.

I am not saying lowering the tackle height border to the waist would entirely eliminate the current spate of red cards for head-to-head contact, but, I suspect it would make such collisions even rarer than they are today – so why not give it a go?

However, all this talk of 20-minute red cards is just one of the many concerns around Rugby Union in the 21^st century. The fact is, many of us in the media and elsewhere are growing uneasy about the apparent lack of positive action from World Rugby in properly managing the global game.

The 20-minute red card, if introduced, would be but a sticking plaster over a wound which, in reality, requires major surgery.

The Law Book, as currently written, isn't working. But, worse than that, even the Laws, as currently written, are not being enforced properly. And this isn't the first time I have made that observation. Clearly the game's high heid yins aren't listening.

I can remember, I came from a football background, back in my schooldays – and I left 60-years ago – we jumped on top of each other when we scored; not to the extent of today's players, but, we celebrated.

Then I switched to rugby, and such open displays of pleasure for a try were frowned upon. A pat on the back, or a handshake, that was ok, but, I can still recall Peter Brown, running back to half-way after kicking the conversion which, in 1971, ended Scotland's 33-year wait for a Calcutta Cup win at Twickenham.

He was met, just inside the England half, by younger brother Gordon, keen to congratulate him. Except, Peter indignantly waved his wee brother away – the game had still to be completed, and PC wasn't going to celebrate before then.

Today's Scotland captain almost turns cartwheels at every small victory – such as a scrum penalty being awarded. Standards folks, standards.

This shows, Rugby Union is, particularly at the elite level, aping what happens in football. At least, when Stuart Hogg was guilty of over-acting against Samoa at St James' Park, back in the day, Nigel Owen could famously warn him: “This is not soccer.”

Seven years on, we have not reached the levels of simulation, play-acting and faux indignation which scarred Sunday's Liverpool v Everton game, but, I fear we are heading that way and we really do need, I feel, to improve player discipline at the top end of the game.

Rugby Union hasn't - yet – become as ill-disciplined as football, but, the authorities are, I feel, struggling to hold the line and perhaps not that bothered where that line is drawn. We really need to tighten-up.

A Scottish-Harlequins Arrangement - Who'd Have Thunked It

I HAD a wee opinion piece all set to run today, then, some news popped up which demanded an immediate response. I refer to the news of a “Strategic Partnership” between London Scottish and Harlequins.

It will, I feel, be very interesting to see where this partnership leads; and I do not think we should be jumping to any conclusions about it. As with other recent developments, such as Super6, we must wait and see how things unfold.

London Scottish in its current guise, is a two-tier club. The semi-professional first team is struggling in the basement of the RFU Champoionship. The 2021-22 season has just ended with Scottish bottom of the table, with 1 win, 1 draw and 18 defeats from their 20-match campaign. However, there will be no relegation from the Championship this season, so, their status is secure for at least another season, with Merseyside minnows Caldy RFC coming up to restore the division to a 12-club league.

Lower down, London Scottish Lions, the club's top amateur side, has just won Herts/Middlesex League 1, this is a Level 9 league in the RFU's pyramid and with promotion, the Lions should (pending league re-organisation) move up to Level 8, as far as I can make out, London 3 South West.

The Lions will also be leaving Scottish's traditional home, Richmond Athletic Ground, to play at the King's House School Playing Fields, which are also in Richmond-on-Thames.

Of course, the big news is the deal with Harlequins. In a news item on the official London Scottish website outlining the details, we learn that Scottish will offer initial game time to 'Quins' Academy and fringe players, while being able to tap into the coaching expertise at Harlequins.

The clubs will also play pre-season games at each other's grounds and the deal offers the tantalising prospect of Scottish perhaps moving to the Tewickenham Stoop, at the end of their long-standing ground-share with Richomond at the Athletic Ground, which is in-place still until the end of the 2024-25 season.

Some people are already saying this new Harlequins move will kill-off any notion of London Scottish joining Super8 or even becoming a third full-time Scottish professional side in the United Rugby Championship.

In a note to the members, the Scottish management made it clear: “We have kept these options open, but, we have also continued to look at other options for growth for our club.

“Whilst our efforts continue, it's important to note that we have not received any assurances from the RFU about the future state of the Championship, and what, if any funding will be provided to clubs.

“Over the course of the pandemic we saw the RFU's financial support to our club halved, and then halved again.”

This one, I feel, will run and run.

I SEE Irvine have bowed to the inevitable and withdrawn from West Division 1, their inability to raise a team having finally and sadly brought them to this decision.

That means, that division will, next season, only have five Ayrshire clubs in it, which only slightly dilutes its competitiveness. I am sure, however, the Marress club will soon bounce back.

Their withdrawal also means, if Allan Glen's can win at Kilmarnock on Saturday, they will move beyond the grasp of the chasing Stewartry, and be back in the National Leagues next season; always assuming there still is a National 3 when hostilities resume in September.

Giving Them A Chance To Fail

I CAN RECALL, during his tenure as Scotland National Team Manager, the great Craig Brown discussing newspaper calls for him to: “Get So-and-So capped.” 'Bleeper,' as he was known, generally ignored such calls, which usually came from the direction of Anderston Quay, or Kinning Park, but, on at least a couple of occasions, in otherwise meaningless 'Challenge Games,' he dished-out caps like confetti, to players who were generally never heard of again. “I gave them a chance to play themselves out of Scotland contention,” was the Brown explanation.

There is no indication of Gregor Townsend going down that road, although, Scottish Rugby history does include a good few examples of players, unexpectedly capped during an end-of-season tour, or in the Autumn Tests, being nowhere to be seen come the Six Nations or a Rugby World Cup.

I sense a sort of similar scenario unfolding, however, during the current FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series. A lot of younger players are being given their opportunity during this springtime jamboree, I fear, when the full Super6 campaign gets going in late August, some will be back playing in The Premiership or National League 1, having been found to be not yet ready for S6.

How those who are deemed not ready react is a double-edged sword, however. If they go back to their clubs and put in the additional work necessary, they may get a second chance. If they opt to remain within their comfort zone, or even decide to quit playing, well, 20 or 30 years down the line, they might well be seen, propping up the club bar and giving their version of Marlon Brando's legendary “Ah could have been a contender” speech from 'On The Waterfront.' When opportunity knocks, you have to be ready.

IS THERE a case for Scotland, at least temporarily, dropping out of the Women's Six Nations? OK, our girls may well beat Ireland in their final match, and thus avoid the wooden spoon, but, this I fear would be little more than papering over the cracks.

I bear no ill-will to the girls themselves, or to the coaching team. They are giving all they have to the cause, but, the hard fact is, unless the SRU starts to take Women's Rugby a good deal more seriously, and until the clubs get on-board at promoting the women's game, we are always going to struggle.

There is no doubting the talent at our disposal and the commitment of the girls to rugby. The SRU website lists 33 women in the national squad. Of these 19 play in England's top league, the Premier15, another 13 play in Scotland, one plays abroad while one squad member, Elizabeth Musgrove, who has only rec ently returned to the UK from Hong Kong does not appear to have a club. And, by the way, on the SRU website, not every player's club is shown – yet another example of how poor the SRU's media and pr operation is – if they cannot put-up basic information like that.

So, we have the talent, but, while the bulk of the England squad are full-timers, our girls are having to juggle rugby with jobs, they really need to be better supported by the governing body.

I looked at the clubs of the 19 players playing in England's top flight. The split is: 5 playing with Loughborough Lightning, 3 each with Darlington Mowden Park, Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors, 2 each with Harlequins and Saracens and 1 with Exeter Chiefs.

Now I can understand Exeter, Harlequins, Sale, Saracens and Worcester having the financial resources to recruit and retain Scottish talent, but, are DMP and Loughborough better-resourced than might be possible in Scotland?

Initially, the standard will not be as good as in England, but, might there be a case for a sort of Women's Super6 up here, to get our best players playing against each other regularly.

Or, here's a left-field suggestion, let's get our best women playing for Edinburgh and Glasgow Women, either in a Women's version of the United Rugby Championship, or in the Premier 15s. If the will was there, that could work, I am sure.

But, there's the rub – if the will was there. Well – is it?

The Bullshit Wasn't Just At Bridgehaugh

THE WEEK-END which just passed was not my best. Ayrshire Bulls played absolute mince in losing to Stirling county on Saturday afternoon. Take nothing away from County, they took their chances and deserved to triumph, but, I reckon Bulls made more unforced and costly errors in that single match than they have in all matches since the very start of S6.

I am struggling to work-out the thinking within the SRU's Performance Department around the Super6 Sprint Series. Is it simply a short, sharp event to keep the players up to speed? Or is it part of the long-term player development programme – a means whereby younger players who have shone in the club game are given an opportunity to show what they can do against a higher calibre of opponent?

I sense, at least two of the six teams are in it to win it – and prepared to throw a lot of money at it to achieve this end, while the other four are more-inclined to look on S6 as a development tier.

I certainly don't have a problem with fringe full-time professionals from Edinburgh and Glasgow playing in S6. If, as we have been told by Murrayfield, it's a bridging tier between the club game and the professional one, then it makes sense to allow the players coming up to test themselves agains players temporarily coming down a level.

We need, I feel, tighter eligibility rules in place, to make for a more-even playing field, but, we should never forget, S6 is a work in progress and it may well be towards the end of the initial five-year plan, before we get things sorted out completely.

EDINBURGH might have to win the European Challenge Cup if they are to play in the Heineken Champions Cup next season. Qualification is so-tight, that has to be an option for the capital side.

Eight United Rugby Championship sides will qualify for next season's tournament, and, as thngs stand, it's a case of eight from nine.

The four Shield winners (the top Irish, Welsh, South African and Scots-Italian sides) qualify automatically. At the moment these four teams are Leinster, DHL Stormers, Scarlets and Glasgow.

The remaining four places go to the next four teams in the table, currently Munster, Cell C Sharks, Ulster and Edinburgh.

Leinster's place seems fairly secure, but, with just four points separating second-placed Stormers, and ninth-placed Bulls, the final run-in is going to be tense. A final list of eight qualifiers which comprised three Irish sides, three South African, one Welsh and one Scottish is a distinct possibility – I can hear the howls from London and Cardiff already.

ASSUMING we still have four national leagues next season (Premiership and National 1, 2 and 3), we could be seeing two of the famous old Scottish clubs back on the national stage.

Royal High School FP have already won the East Regional League, to return to the national stage after a traumatic few years. They could be joined in National 3 next season by Allan Glen's. The Bishopbriggs club currently lie second in West Division One, one point behind Stewartry, but with two games in hand.

Two of Glen's remaining games are against bottom club Irvine, who really are struggling to put out a XV on a Saturday, so, it definitely looks like: advantage Glen's in the promotion race.

MY FAVOURITE rugby lady – Ayr's big Lou Lou McLauchlan is heading abck to Murrayfield, after her team reached the Final of the women's National Plate.

In this, they will play Biggar, on Saturday, 14 May. Now son Jamie has broken into the Ayr Club XV, I hear Lou Lou is considering retiring from playing. If so, she will be missed, but, I dare say she will still be seen in one of her many roles around Millbrae – as well as helping the Ayr Ladies squad maintain their reputation as the true descendants of Cutty Sark, when they go out en masse of an evening.

FINALLY – between the counter-attraction of the live streaming of the two Saturday FOSROC Super6 Sprint games on Saturday, and youngest grandson's tenth birthday party on Sunday – I didn't get my full weekend fix of the Gallagher Premiership. I did, however, get a row from Number Two Daughter; apparently kicking her sons' erses, after they used Papa for target practice with their bows and arrows does not fit-in with modern parenting.

A wee bit of controversy from the Harlequins v Leicester game, where some smart refereeing by Wayne Barnes kept Joe Marler on the park, when the world and his uncle were screaming for a red card.

Not so-much talked about, however, was another Barnes decision, when he pulled Ellis Genge and Wilko Louw out of one seemingly-eternal scrum and told them: “Sort yourselves out, or, you're both going off.”

Every scrum thereafter – perfect. Note to other referees, sort them out early doors, make it clear you mean it when you threaten yellow cards and, some of our scrummage problems would be over. We would still have to sort-out squint feeds and deliberately playing for penalties, but, it would be a start.

Back To The Future - Maybe

THE SCOTTISH RUGBY UNION turns 150 next year; I'm currently 75, so have been alive for half that time. I've been involved in rugby as a player, administrator, journalist and as a fan for nearly 65 years – so I've seen a good bit of the game over the years.

When I first went to Murrayfield, the electric blanket hadn't been laid, the full-back, rather than the loose-head prop, wore the number one and wingers threw in to the lines-out. Most of Murrayfield was uncovered terracing, the boys from the posh schools got a ringside seat, we oiks from the state schools had to go in with the herd.

Edinburgh Wanderers was the only “Open” club in the capital, West of Scotland the only “Open” one in Glasgow and the unofficial championship, ran by the rugby correspondents of the Glasgow Herald, the Scotsman, The Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Record was won on a percentage basis, since not all the “championship” clubs played each other.

The playing base was drawn mainly from the Former Pupil clubs in the Scottish cities and London Scottish and advancement for club sides involved a tortuous progression.

Say you were an open club from somewhere outside the cities or the Borders. You got a fixture for your first team, with the second or third team of a club in the unofficial championship. You then had to thump them two or three years in succession, then you might get a fixture with the posh club, a midweek one at the start or end of the season, or perhaps one on the morning of an international. Provide half-decent hospitality and a good game, you kept the fixture.

Get enough fixtures with the unofficial championship clubs, eventually, you got in. For instance, Ayr were a junior club for the club's first 50-plus years of existence, then they bought Millbrae and developed it. Installing floodlights enabled them to get midweek fixtures with some big clubs and in time, they had enough to be considered a senior club.

I think I am right in saying Ayr, and Broughton FP, were the last teams to be admitted to the unofficial championship, before it became official in 1973.

But, back then, ambitious players who hadn't gone to the “right” school, moved-up to bigger clubs. The great Bill McMurtrie of the Glasgow Herald used to joke there was a drove road across the Fenwick Moor, which took the likes of Peter and Gordon Brown, Alistair and John McHarg, Ian McLauchlan, Gordon Strachan, Ian Murchie, David Shedden and Quinton Dunlop from Marr, Irvine, Ayr, Ardrossan Academicals and Old Spierians to Burnbrae.

Even when Ayr and Kilmarnock achieved senior status, the odd good player escaped from Ayrshire – David Gray from Kilmarnock to West, Neil Scott from Cumnock to West and a full back whose name escapes me, who also went from Marr to West.

That's just from my own neck of the woods. But, Ayr and Kilmarnock also benefitted, drawing players such as Fergus McDowall, George Nicholson, Jim McConnell, Hugh and Jim Parker and David Fulton Travelled up from Dumfries and Galloway to play for the Ayrshire clubs and for Glasgow District in some cases.

Elsewhere, the road improvements from the 1960s meant players such as Nairn McEwan and John Frame could commute long distances to play for Gala, while, for a time a good percentage of the Selkirk team travelled down from Edinburgh to train and play at Philiphaugh.

So, can we agree, ambitious players have always moved. Also, there has always been a hierarchy of clubs. I came across an unofficial championship table from that final season – not quite the final table, but one after the final Saturday in March, which given few 15-a-side games were played in April back then, means it's fairly close to the final one.

Eventual Champions Boroughmuir were top, with 20 wins from 22 games, for 93%. However, they didn't all play the same number of games. Second placed-Gala had played 25 games, third-placed Hawick 23; further down the table, 14^th place Ayr had played 19 games, new boys Broughton had only played 14, for 22^nd place, while Perthshire, in 26^th place, had only played 11 games.

In all, 32 clubs were listed in that final unofficial championship, in descending order from the table I viewed: Boroughmuir, Gala, Hawick, Langholm, Jordanhill, Edinburgh Wanderers, Watsonians, West of Scotland, Gordonians, Leith Academicals, Glasgow High School FP, Melrose, Dunfermline, Ayr, Glasgow Academicals, Hillhead High School FP, Selkirk, Kelso, Jed-forest, Trinity Academicals, Hutcheson's Grammar School FP, Broughton FP, Edinburgh Academical, Heriot's FP, Musselburgh, Perthshire, Aberdeen Grammar School FP, Royal High School FP, Kelvinside Academicals, Edinburgh University, Stewart's College FP, Glasgow University.

Today's equivalent, the Premiership and National Leagues One and Two give us 34 clubs. Twenty of these clubs have survived, some via amalgamations, from those 32 clubs in the last unofficial championship. They have been joined by 15 clubs who have climbed the greasy pole from the Regional Leagues: Currie, Marr, Biggar, Highland, Dundee, Stirling County, Cartha-Queen's Park, Dumfries Saints, Newton Stewart, Preston Lodge, Falkirk, Hamilton Bulls, Peebles, Kirkcaldy and Whitecraigs.

However, with a nod to the special situation of the six Super franchise-owning clubs, only three of these 15 clubs – Stirling County, Currie and Marr have made it all the way to the very top in 50 years.

This does not mean I am, like Holy Wullie, a believer in predestination, that a certain percentage of clubs will always be at the top and the rest can go hang. But, what it does show, is how difficult it is to get a club into the top flight.

Look at Scottish Football for instance. Of the clubs in the top two divisions, only Ross County, Livingston and Inverness Caledonian Thistle have not been there since we were actually good at the game.

That, in a nutshell is my argument for cutting the number of National Rugby Leagues. Save the clubs from themselves, spending money, time and resources they cannot maintain, in the search for a season or two in the sun.

Get involved in more-localised games and leagues, bring through your young talent and, if they have what it takes to move on up the ladder, create good relationships with a bigger club so they can be looked after at a higher level, and, maybe you get one or two players back who don't want to play at that level.

I still maintain, as is the case with Junior football, now levels six and under on the SFA pyramid – local competitions and rivalry breeds strong, community clubs, playing to a good standard, and still producing players able to move up the ranks.

I got a message from a club official earlier this week, suggesting my call for fewer national leagues and national league teams would mean the regional leagues would be unbalanced and we would see mismatches.

Maybe in the first couple of seasons, yes, but, if the teams being hammered got the message and upped their game, we would see a stronger, more-even league.

The better players would still move-on, as always, but, with stronger regional games, the grass roots base would also, I suggest, be stronger. We can go on shuffling the deck chairs, or, we embrace real change. But, whatever we do, we must hope, self-interest will not strangle the re-birth of Scottish rugby before the toddling stage.

Rugby Could Learn A Thing Or Three From Football

I WAS CHATTING last night to a friend who is heavily involved in what used to be Junior Football. What he had to tell me was very interesting and might be a reality check for those who advocate the cancellation of the Super6 project with the funds diverted to the club game. A notion which I think is utter pish.

I have written this before, umpteen times. I dare say this will not be the last time I write it, but, here goes again:

• Super6 isn't perfect, but, most of its failings are down to the SRU and the dog's breakfast they made of introducing it.

• We do need a level of rugby between the amateur club game and the professional or semi-professional “performance” game – hence S6.

• They will never admit it, but, S6 was introduced as a cheaper option by the SRU, cheaper than a third full-time professional team, even a “Development” one.

• If we did ditch S6 in favour of throwing more cash at the club game – what controls would the governing body have on how each club spent their new riches?

• We would still have to go back to something like Inter-District Rugby as that bridging tier between the Club and Performance game – additional costs there.

So, we might well be better-off going with S6, smoothing over its difficulties, and it has had a difficult birth, and, in time going to S8 or even S10.

I also have difficulty with this insistence of many clubs, that they have access to National Leagues. Let's look seriously at this.

The RFU has 2000 member clubs, of whom just 39 play in a truly National League. These are the 13 Gallagher Premiership clubs, the 11 – including London Scottish – who play in the Championship and the 15 clubs in National League 1. Below that, English rugby is regionalised.

The 39 clubs playing in the three National Leagues, account for 1.95% of the member clubs. Up here, 1.95% of the member clubs means three clubs.

The WRU has 200 member clubs, of whom just 26 play in a truly national league. These are the 12 clubs in the Welsh Premiership and the 14 in the Welsh Championship. Below that, Welsh rugby is regionalised.

The 26 clubs playing in the three National Leagues account for 13% of the member clubs. Up here, 13% of the member clubs means 19 clubs.

The IRFU has 205 member clubs, of whom 50 play in the national All-Ireland League.

These 50 clubs playing in the All-Ireland League account for 24% of the member clubs. Up here, 24% of the member clubs means 36 clubs.

We currently have 44 National League clubs, which means 29% of Scottish Clubs have National league status, the highest percentage in the Home Nations.

Can we justify such a high percentage of our clubs having National League status? I think not.

However, put forward the notion that maybe we have too-many Naitonal Leagues, and while you may well get general agreement, this always comes with the caveat – so long as my club isn't one of the ones being relegated to the Regional Leagues.

Right at the start of this post, I mentioned a conversation with a friend heavily involved in football. His club was formerly a Junior one, they now play in the West of Scotland League, a part of the Scottish Football Pyramid.

In this pyramid:

• Level One – The Premiership: (Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts etc.)

• Level Two – The Championship: (Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, Dunfermline Athletic etc.)

• Level Three – League One: (Airdrieonians, Queen's Par, Falkirk etc.)

• Level Four – League Two: (Kelty Hearts, Annan Athletic, Stenhousemuir etc.)

• Level Five – The Highland and Lowland Leagues

• Level Six – The West of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues

Level Six is actually the top flight of the WoS League, clubs such as Auchinleck Talbot, Pollok and Irvine Meadow. The lower WoS League divisions are levels seven and eight.

Auchinleck Talbot, the team whose manager Tucker Sloan has more medals than the Duke of Rothesay, look well-set to win the WoS this season and gain entry to the Lowland League promotion/relegation olay-offs.

Succeed there, and they could be on their way into Senior Football. However, they have had to jump through hoops to be in that position. Promotion through the pyramid is not automatic. You have to become an accredited club to stand a chance.

The SFA, some years back introduced their accreditation scheme, their version of Agenda 3. This came at four levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, with strict criteria to be met for each level.

But, to rise through the various leagues to Senior level, each club has to meet certain standards at their ground. For instance, my friend was telling me, one of the smaller WoS League clubs, a Level Eight club, was in-line for promotion to Level Seven at the end of this season, but, to guarantee this, they would have to as an absolute minimum, erect a covered enclosure holding 100 fans. Now, I can think of Premiership clubs in rugby who do not meet that criteria.

Then there are things such as floodlights, seated accommodation, disability access, even facilities for those terrible men and women of the media – not criteria I see being sought-after in rugby.

I suspect such concerns were behind the often-disparaged “Fewer but Stronger” remark around Agenda 3.

The reality is, today, more than a quarter of a century on from Rugby Union going “Open,” we are at the stage where we have two different games – the Community one and the Performance one.

Time for the SRU to settle, once and for all, which clubs are “Performance Clubs” and which are “Community Clubs.” We can then establish base line criteria for both and then move to implementing this two strand approach to the game.

We then need to decide how many Performance Clubs we can handle, and stick with that number for a set period of time, say five to ten years. Then, we can let things settle down and see how it goes.

Going with the percentages of clubs playing in a national league across the four Home Nations, and going for a median figure – I reckon, in Scotland, we are looking at no more than 24 to 26 national league clubs. That might be a good figure to start with.