THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Lord Monro urges SRU to save its sevens team
DAVID FERGUSON CHIEF RUGBY WRITER
LORD Hector Monro, the former Scottish Rugby Union president, has urged the governing body not to chop the international sevens team as a cost-cutting measure.

The union's executive board is today expected to sanction a series of wide-ranging cuts designed to stem the costs of Scottish rugby and begin to bring down the £23 million overdraft. It is anticipated that the sevens programme will be watered down, and possibly cut altogether, and consideration is also being given to the Scotland under-21s and under-19s squads being streamlined into a new under-20 squad.


Lord Monro, who has been the honorary president at Langholm RFC for over 20 years and remains an avid supporter of the Borders sevens circuit, is furious that the abbreviated game could be cut from the SRU's priorities. He insisted: "It would be absolutely indefensible for the SRU to abandon sevens. There is so much to be gained from sevens rugby and I don't think Mr McKie and his board fully appreciate what sevens can do for improving Scotland's rugby players in XVs.

"We have to look at ways of improving the skills levels of our players to compete on the world stage, and there is no better game than sevens for giving players the chance to develop their ability to make breaks, to pass quicker, to beat men and to defend as if your life depended on it.

"A player can make more breaks in one afternoon of sevens than he might do in a whole season of 15-a-side rugby, so tight are modern defences. The Scotland team in recent times have been woefully lacking speed in attack and this is an area where sevens effectively develops players."

He added: "It is no surprise, to be honest, because I feel the SRU have been denigrating sevens since the advent of professionalism. But it would also be so short-sighted to throw away the chance to be part of the IRB's world sevens circuit, with all the benefits that would bring to the Scottish game, not purely the Borders, which I understand would happen if the SRU were to drop their national sevens squad," Monro said.

"I appreciate that cuts have to be made and the SRU has serious financial problems, but I feel they are in danger of making a huge mistake by looking in the direction of sevens for quick savings. I believe we should be going the other way and looking for more sevens tournaments."

The SRU's lenders, Halifax/Bank of Scotland, have demanded to see signs of the business being turned around since last year's leadership coup forced the administration to the brink. Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, has accepted there will be another loss, albeit small, on the union's books for the 2005-6 financial year but is determined it will be the last time the SRU does not post a profit under his stewardship

This article was posted on 27-Apr-2006, 07:20 by Hugh Barrow.