THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
BALANCING the books is something Gordon McKie is well used to, coming from a background of turning around failing businesses.

But managing that feat while developing a nationwide sport is a different proposition. He has experienced the high point recently with Scotland's Calcutta Cup success, but now the reality of how a country of fewer than 10,000 players supports that level of achievement, and competes regularly with cash-rich professional nations like England and their 300,000 players, is hitting home.

Clearly, such a small nation has to make the most of its resources, ie: its players, and there was widespread concern yesterday when McKie, in one fell swoop, cut out a couple of rungs of the ladder used to develop promising teenagers into internationals. He announced that the under-21 and under-19 squads will disappear and, although he spoke of a commitment to look at a new under-20 squad, this is unlikely to be started soon.

The under-18s and new under-17s squads will remain, though an under-18 A squad has been chopped. McKie said the current structure was not working and that the changes were part of a bigger plan to improve development.

The under-20 push is coming from the southern hemisphere nations, who believe players have either made it or proven themselves not good enough for the step-up by the time they turn 21. That is less true in Scotland, where few 19, 20 and 21-year-olds have the opportunity to prove themselves at a high level of intensity and so are found wanting when they step into the international arena. Opportunities will be reduced further if the pro teams are cut from three to two, and the same is true for under-19 players. However, the new £500,000 investment in a proper academy structure is long overdue and would enable a good number of young players to develop daily within a professional team environment. Again, the value of that drops if there are only two pro teams and so two academies, and matches still have to be found. McKie's board, with advice from national coach Frank Hadden, is now attempting to balance that with a commitment to spend another £500,000 on improving the community game, which takes in schools, minis, midis and club rugby.

The sevens was always the favourite for the chop, but it has not been abandoned. As he did with the age-group teams, McKie criticised the sevens as providing "dismal" results and being of "questionable value as a development tool".

He pinpointed defeats to Portugal and the recent poor Commonwealth Games showing, though ignored the fifth-place finish in last year's World Cup and the fact Scotland have defeated France in their last nine meetings and beat England, current favourites for the world title, last year.

Instead of the current set-up, which pulls players on a variety of contracts and one-off payments, from clubs, pro team apprentice schemes and the pro teams themselves, the new squad will be drawn from the new national academy structure, as and when needed for tournaments.

The total saving across the national teams McKie estimates to be around £400,000, though some of that will be redistributed as the academy changes are made. The IRB funds most of Scotland's participation in sevens tournaments and so McKie admitted that a new squad, drawn from players already on the payroll and earning no more for sevens duty, could still compete on the world circuit.

That, in turn, would keep the IRB on board as they consider whether or not to make Scotland, and Melrose, a new host in the world sevens series, starting next year and running until 2012. McKie is to meet with the IRB next week to discuss how viable that project will be.

The chief executive insisted: "We have taken hard decisions but they're not all about cutting back. We have ambitions to grow the game at both ends of the sport, to offer more young people from all sorts of communities the opportunity to take up rugby from an early age, and stay involved through clubs and schools.

"Success for the Scotland team is an absolute priority, but to succeed in our goals we need to attract greater funding through many sources. In the meantime, our priority is to recognise where we are in these objectives and cut our cloth to fit our resources."

This article was posted on 29-Apr-2006, 07:10 by Hugh Barrow.