THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Representatives of Scotland's professional rugby players had a meeting yesterday with Gordon McKie, chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, but received no assurances.

McKie initially met with a delegation of players, including experienced pros Jon Petrie, Dave Hewett and Paul Thomson, and then accepted their insistence that discussions with players had to be conducted in future through the new Scottish Professional Rugby Association. McKie had refused to acknowledge the body up until that point, but then called its chief executive Jim Hay into Murrayfield to meet with the SRU's human resources director Jackie Anderson. Hay then met the country's pro players at the nearby ice rink.

Hay said: "Mr McKie hasn't given the players any guarantees, but he did make it clear that the last thing the SRU want is to go to two teams and that he is seriously seeking ways to avoid that happening.

"He remains confident that investors can be found and that the three teams will be able to remain next season. He is not in a position to be able to give guarantees, but the main thing from the players' perspective is that they are no longer sitting in the dark, not knowing what their employers are thinking.

"Mr McKie has said he will meet with us again next week and keep the players up to speed."

McKie told the players that if a team does have to be cut, the SRU will endeavour to move as many contracted players as possible to the remaining teams.

This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/rugby.cfm?id=664782006

This article was posted on 4-May-2006, 07:14 by Hugh Barrow.