EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS REPORTS

BILL LOTHIAN


HE arrives protesting that he is desperate for practice in view of a forthcoming golfing holiday - which is why he has agreed to do our interview as my guest over 18 fine Lothians holes.

Over three hours later, the pride in my opponent's voice is easily discernible when he relays down his mobile phone the news that the family fortune is £1 better off as a consequence of his sporting prowess.


Chairman of the Scottish Rugby Union Allan Munro may be but this is no "fat cat" - as I have now found to my cost.

More a Tiger, in fact and little wonder. He has spent most of his adult life slipping effortlessly between company boardrooms and sports club dressing-rooms.

Allan's guise has switched back and forth from managing director of a major financial institution in Edinburgh to an accomplished footballer, squash player, lawn bowler, aspiring rugby starlet and - dare I say it - golfer.

So what does his arrival on the administrative scene at Murrayfield mean for Scottish professional rugby?

Well, for one thing Munro not only talks a good game but can go a good deal deeper in understanding what makes sport and its participants tick.

He said: "Having played a few sports myself I'd like to think I can sense when players are comfortable in what they are doing.

"When I joined the SRU as an Executive Director almost exactly a year ago, before stepping up to chairman during the summer, I had a feeling that things weren't right on the rugby-playing front.

"Now I'm delighted to say that, when you are around the players, there's a banter that didn't exist so very long ago. Put it like this - the p*** taking among team-mates is back - and, if I've learned anything from sport, it is that such a spirit can get you results. Not that sport is too much of a laughing matter for 59-year-old Munro. His football boots saw service with Hearts' youth team until one disastrous afternoon during an Edinburgh derby in the 1960s when, seated among the other Gorgie apprentices, his Hibby tendencies shone through and he leapt from his seat to acclaim a goal by Jimmy O'Rourke.

"It was more or less time to pack my bags on the spot," he recalls.

After stints with Melbourne Thistle, Hawick Royal Albert and Bonnyrigg Rose, Munro found himself at a loose end on Saturday afternoons.

"I admit I got the shakes at 3pm every Saturday. So much so that David Ross, a colleague at Ivory and Syme, who also suffered footballing withdrawal symptoms, got together with me to play 90 minutes of squash so that we could face the rest of the weekend feeling sportingly fulfilled.

"Great days but, if I have one regret, it is still that I didn't challenge myself more in terms of finding out how I'd have done at rugby."

That is some compliment to the oval ball game considering that, as a half back with Salvesen Boys' Club, Munro earned a Scotland under-15 trial in a team that included Davie Hay (Celtic), Eddie Gray (Leeds United) and John Gorman (ex-Celtic and current manager of Wycombe Wanderers).

But Munro is adamant. "As a stand off at Broughton High School I was in the sift for Scotland under-15s although I knew my chances would be slim with one Colin Telfer [subsequently capped 17 times at senior level] around at the same time.

"What finished the rugby for me was when I got injured ahead of an important football match. My dad intervened for my benefit at a time when I was on Hearts books with a possible career beckoning."

So rugby's loss was football's gain.

Munro's CV includes a stint as a director of Hibs - helping to fight the Wallace Mercer takeover in 1990.

He said: "I slept a mere 20 hours during that first week and, if it hadn't been for Sir Tom Farmer and the fans' threat to boycott Bank of Scotland, who'd been told, erroneously by Wallace, it was a done deal, the Easter Road club would have gone under."

So, how has he found slipping into the Murrayfield hot seat?

Just as when he signed up to assist Stewart's/Melville as chairman a few years ago, Munro is adamant he'll be judged on results.

"I told Stew/Mel to give me five years and we made it within that schedule into the First Division and it'll be the same with Scotland."

The reference to the national side instead of the governing body appears quite deliberate because Munro is convinced that events on the ultimate rugby stage are all-important. "The national team is the main revenue earner and the success of the game in general depends on them," he said.

The national side is the pinnacle of the game in Scotland and Munro isn't about to let ambitious club or prospective pro team investors undermine that.

He said: "What particularly concerns me about handing over the control of the pro teams is that they are set up to nurture and support the national side, which is the way it should be.

"If businessmen are given carte blanche to run them then the reasons for the pro teams change.

"Priority will instead be attached to chasing European Cups etc more and more and what happens then?

"At the moment, we have the balance between homegrown talent and incomers who can pass on expertise and knowledge - or at least we are closer to it.

"Signing away control would mean more and more foreign players. Pro teams must be a realistic aspiration of all our local talent."

That is not to say the domestic matters are not uppermost in the mind of a man whose penchant for Stew/Mel seems to extend to the red-and-black colouring of his golfing jacket, though this is heartily denied. "I got fed up with those who said Stew/Mel's recent Cup exit was down to focusing on the league and seemed content to leave it at that. I had to rattle a few cages.

"But there are some good lads at Stew/Mel - the club have nominated Richard Borthwick, Shaun McMurchy and Stephen Dalgleish for the Scottish clubs' team which will be a major boost for the Premiership scene - and hopefully we'll survive."

Not only survive, either, but become more familiar figures with Munro committed to trying to find new TV outlets for Scottish rugby.

"We've already met one broadcaster and, if the BBC don't want domestic rugby, then maybe others will be more interested," he said.

Certainly, any extra revenue would be welcome at a time when the SRU are running a hefty overdraft though, again, Munro is convinced fortunes are tied to the national side and that restructuring throughout the organisation will soon provide dividends.

"I accept we need to do something about lowering international ticket prices and the whole issue is going under the microscope soon, along with plans for Edinburgh Rugby.

"At the moment we are talking with a local businessman who can help make the Gunners more autonomous without losing sight of the primary objective of producing players. Soon things will start to fall into place so that everyone benefits."

Don't accuse Munro of not putting his money where his mouth is either as he reveals how a sweepstake operated by the Portobello club has seen him predict four wins out of five for skipper Jason White's team in the 2006 Six Nations series.

Worth a bet? Well, as his sporting and business record shows, Allan Munro is not used to adopting lost causes so I'd even stump up a £1 myself - if he hadn't already stepped in to claim the spoils with his deadly putter.

Here's my sporting tip - when someone speaks of wanting to conquer a Munro tell them to head for the hills - it's surely easier up there than on the golf course.

This article was posted on 31-Jan-2006, 14:14 by Hugh Barrow.