EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS REPORTS

COLIN RENTON


TWO of the Capital\'s top flight coaches are reluctantly bidding farewell to key players at a crucial stage of the season.

But Currie supremo Ally Donaldson and his Stewart\'s Melville counterpart Grant MacKenzie insist there is no ill feeling over the departure of their young guns at a time when both clubs are battling against relegation.


MacKenzie, who will have the heart torn out of his side by call ups to the Scotland Under-19 and Sevens squads, said: \"We\'ll be losing Ross Rennie at the end of January - he\'s off to Wellington to play sevens - and we\'ve had Colin Goudie, Andrew Easson, Richie Vernon, Dave McCall all involved in the Under-19s, so we\'ll lose them.\"

However, the Inverleith coach, whose side currently occupies second bottom spot in the BT Premiership is not bitter.

He added: \"You just have to accept that. The school does a good job bringing young lads on, we look after them pretty well and there is not much you can do about it. If they are good enough to go to the international squad they go with our best wishes.\"

And that is a sentiment echoed by Donaldson whose only gripe is the early withdrawal of players from their clubs.

Donaldson, who lost Ben Cairns, pictured right, and James Taggart to the Under 21 squad last week, said: \"We are not the only club in this position. It\'s a wee bit disappointing when the Six Nations is still a few weeks away but we have to accept that.\"

But he warned that the policy, while good for the development of Scotland\'s rising stars, could prompt clubs to cast their nets wider when it comes to recruitment. \"Maybe some will be looking down the line and getting in older foreign players rather than bringing on youngsters, and why not when you are losing them for half the season?,\" he added.

\"However, I understand the SRU\'s thinking behind it and I realise we want to be as competitive as possible in the Six Nations and the World Cup. And we did better last year, so it\'s just something we have to accept and I suppose at the start of the season you make allowances for it. We have to look at the bigger picture and realise that we are a feeder club.\"

\"I wouldn\'t want it to be the determining factor between us staying up or going down, but I don\'t think it will be.\"

While happy to have his players involved at a higher level, MacKenzie is less inclined to agree with the policy of encouraging age group internationals from relegated clubs to move on in order to play in Division One of the BT Premiership - a practice which saw GHA in particular hit hard as several key players moved on after being demoted last season.

\"The SRU are just trying to encourage them to play at as high a level as possible and I can understand that\", he said.

\"If these guys are going away to play in the FIRA competition or whatever against guys who are playing first team rugby for Natal or Northampton or teams like that and they are playing division two or three rugby, it\'s not the best preparation.\"

\"But we have a lot in place at the club with physios, video analysis, and fitness work.

\"I would imagine that whether we are in Division One or Division Two we could still bring these guys on.\"

However, MacKenzie remains hopeful that it will not become an issue, believing that, with or without his teenage talent, he can steer Stew-Mel to top flight safety.

This article was posted on 19-Jan-2006, 12:09 by Hugh Barrow.