THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
FRANK Hadden believes Scotland will cope if it loses a professional team this summer and that the 2007 World Cup campaign will not be adversely affected.

The national coach can ill-afford to lose 35 players, as will happen this summer if no outside investor can be found to take over a pro side. Hadden, however, remains philosophical about the threat to his playing base.

"Friday's announcement is a stark reminder that we need to examine and be able to justify everything financially as something that we feel confident is in the best interests of our business," the coach said.

"It is important to keep the funnel [of playing talent] as broad as we can, and the Scottish Rugby Board understand that. Ideally, we don't want any of our best players outside Scotland, but I think we can cope. The bottom line is we have to. In fact, that's our strength in Scotland - battling against adversity - and we have become pretty adept at that, on and off the pitch, in recent years."

Understandably, there is widespread concern among the players about the possibility of a pro team being chopped this summer. The players will meet with Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, this afternoon but Hadden insists the uncertainty will not affect the new-found belief in a Scotland squad which recorded wins over both France and England this season for the first time since 1990.

"We've been here before; this is not entirely new territory," Hadden said. "I was involved when the four teams became two [in 1998]. It feels as if we're in this situation every year and perhaps this year we're just being more open about it.

"There's never going to be a smooth ride in Scotland because we haven't got the financial and playing resources to make it so. And the nature of pro sport is that it's a pretty uncertain world - players understand that every time they step on the field their jobs are on the line, and that's just the nature of the beast. I think our players, on the whole, cope very well."

This article was posted on 3-May-2006, 05:58 by Hugh Barrow.