Relegation up in the air as club debate is re-opened
DAVID FERGUSON
A NEW working party of club officials has been set up to look into player development, which appears certain to re-open the debate over a new club structure in Scottish rugby.

It has emerged from the Premier One Forum's meeting this week that a majority of the leading clubs wish to scrap the plans voted through at last June's SRU agm for the leagues to be reduced from 12 to ten clubs, and held that way for the next four years. This has sparked widespread concern with just a handful of games remaining this season, and most clubs still unsure of whether or not they are clear of relegation.

However, it appears that more clubs are now questioning the wisdom of the working party chaired by John Jeffrey, the Scotland Under-21 manager, last year. As ever, self-interest is clearly a factor, with most clubs wanting to stay with 12-team leagues, or even expand to 14, to ensure they avoid relegation and have more fixtures and income each season, while a minority are keen to go the other way and revisit Ian McGeechan's old plan for a more ambitious, part-funded eight-team Premier League with full-time coaches.

Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, discussed the issue of bridging the widening gap between professional and club rugby with the Premier One Forum along with Frank Hadden, the national coach, and the current under-21 and under-19 coaches, Iain Paxton and Peter Wright. They left the meeting after the first hour and the clubs agreed a new working party should meet again with McKie next week to deliberate further. McKie is to give a presentation tomorrow to the special general meeting at Murrayfield, originally called to reveal the findings of the Flockhart Report into restructuring of the lower-level, district league scene.

The new working party includes Peter Blackhall (Boroughmuir), Iain Russell (Currie), Brian Simmers (Glasgow Hawks), Terence Froud (Hawick) and Ray Mountford (Stirling County). Kenny Hamilton, the secretary of the Premier One Forum, said: "There is no doubt that while this is about studying how we can improve player development, the whole issue of league reconstruction will come under the microscope again.

"There has been a lot of discussion, and personally I think we need to establish a principle of raising standards so I'd prefer an eight-team Premier League. I think clubs can contribute to the elite end of the game, and the development of players, if we have a small, ambitious premier league - but if we try to run a parallel club game, with huge leagues playing mediocre rugby, I fear the gap would just become wider and club players would move further away from the elite channels to progress."

Meanwhile, Glasgow Hawks have supplied six players for the first Scotland club international. Coach Gary Parker yesterday announced his 22-man squad to face a team made up of Irish club players. The game is to be played at Donnybrook, Dublin, next Friday night, the eve of the Six Nations match between the two countries.

Scotland club squad (v Ireland Club at Donnybrook, Dublin on Friday 10 March, 7.35pm): R Maxton, S Warnock, M Adamson, S Duffy, S Smith, M Strang (all Glasgow Hawks), D Cunningham, A Martyn, R Couper, Calum Cusiter (all Boroughmuir), W Mitchell, J Murray [flanker], J Murray [centre], M Robertson (all Melrose), A Dunlop, E McLaren (both Biggar), M Low (Aberdeen GSFP), B MacFarlane (Stirling County), B McNeil (Hawick), T McVie (Heriot's), R Borthwick (Stewart's-Melville FP), AJ Macfarlane (Ayr).

This article was posted on 5-Mar-2006, 08:44 by Hugh Barrow.