SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
NICHOLAS CHRISTIAN

SCOTTISH rugby chiefs will consider a controversial plan this week to scrap the nation's Sevens team in a desperate bid to slash their debts.

The squad could be scrapped to cut £250,000 a year from the Scottish Rugby Union's £23m debt. The Union's new chief executive, Gordon McKie, has said he is determined the game must live within its means.


But the proposal has caused outrage, with critics saying Scotland is the birthplace of Sevens and the nation stands to lose millions by not being able to host future tournaments.

The plan is part of a portfolio of options for cutbacks being proposed to trim the SRU's alarming debts. Rugby chiefs will meet at Murrayfield on Thursday to make their decision.

The SRU has lost money in five of the past six years, and the likely targets for cost-saving measures are the Borders professional team, some or all of the national youth teams, or the Sevens team, which currently competes in all eight of the International Rugby Board's world tournaments.

A Murrayfield source confirmed the worst suspicions: "I expect the Sevens squad will be axed among other items. It is there as a development tool but it simply doesn't deliver players into the professional game."

However, should Scotland choose to ditch its Sevens team, it will do so in the knowledge that it will kill off the idea of a two-day international tournament in Melrose that would inject £10m a year into the Borders economy.

The IRB has been in talks with Scottish rugby about having Melrose placed among a circuit of locations for prestigious international mini-tournaments, but those plans would be ditched if Scotland could not field its own side.

Scotland rugby legend John Rutherford reacted with sadness to the possible demise of the Sevens team.

Rutherford, who played for Scotland 42 times and was a crucial part of the 1984 Grand Slam team, said: "I would be very sorry to see the Sevens squad go.

"If you look at how many players the Australians and New Zealanders get from the Sevens, you realise it matters. But I suppose needs must. The SRU has to deal with its debt."

Ken McCartney, the vice-convener of Scottish Borders Council, and a former Hawick and South of Scotland player, said: "This would have serious implications for Scottish rugby and the Borders economy.

"A tournament at Melrose would be an enormous boost across the whole of the Borders. We would be suffering because the SRU can't put its own house in order."

This article was posted on 23-Apr-2006, 07:31 by Hugh Barrow.