PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE UPDATE
Posted: 31/May/06
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Scottish Rugby has held the first in what are to become regular media briefings at Murrayfield President Andy Irvine and Chief Executive Gordon McKie covered a range of topics and took questions on current events within Scottish rugby. Here’s a brief summary of what they had to say…

Andy Irvine started off proceedings with talking about his year as President.
He said:

GOVERNANCE:
The Council is expected to meet four times a year to advise on strategy and look at the performance of the Executive Board. The whole spectrum of Scottish rugby is represented on the Council. We’re very happy with the election process – there’s certainly more democracy than there was with the old Committee system.
What we have done is identify that only four meetings a year is inappropriate for keeping in touch with what’s happening in the game, particularly in the early months when there was so much happening and we felt it appropriate that the Council should meet monthly, with the quarterly meetings used for the formal reviews of the board and the board’s performance as regards finance, the game, their communications with the clubs, liaison with other countries, pro-teams, liaison with schools, universities, women’s rugby etc so there is a formal process where the board is assessed on a quarterly basis.

As far as the Council is concerned, what I’ve tried to get over to council members is that although they’ve been elected to represent a specific group of stakeholders, I’ve asked them to look at the big picture and the game in Scotland as a whole. I believe the council ought to have a collegiate position and look at the game overall – generally, it’s gone very well. I can say in all sincerity that we have a Council that is 100% supportive of what the board is doing.


CHAIRMAN:
Allan Munro suffered a stroke a few months ago. He’s attended the last two board meetings and we’ve seen a big improvement in his energy and resilience.

AGM – Friday 30 June:
Probably the most emotive motion (submitted by Hawks, supported by Heriot’s) at the moment concerns the Academy situation and whether national academy players will be available to play for clubs. There have been a lot of assumptions made on the matter so far and I’d be very surprised if that motion was not withdrawn once Henry Edwards (Head of Player Development), Frank Hadden (Head Coach) and the pro-coaches have formalised their proposals for the Academy structure. I’d be surprised and disappointed if there wasn’t universal support for the proposals.

As far as our youngsters are concerned, they are not on a level playing field with those from other nations so we have to concentrate on what is best for them and give them the same chance and support in every aspect. I think some clubs are concerned, wrongly so, that there’ll be a whole raft of players taken out of the system but I think that’s alarmist – all I would say is let’s see the details when it comes out and work with the clubs on that. The Premier One clubs have representation on the working party. You see the results at these levels and our kids don’t let us down, we let them down through lack of cohesive support. The council have laboured this at some length and we’re 100% supportive of our executive board in ensuring our youngsters get proper development.

There’s also a motion regarding the number of teams in the Premiership. The clubs voted for ten last year – it’s really up to the clubs to decide what’s best for the game. What I’d like to think is that they vote for what the players would like as I wonder whether they would enjoy the intensity and risks of a 10 team league or would it be a bit more enjoyable if it was 12 or 14 teams?




CHIEF EXECUTIVE GORDON MCKIE CONTINUED:


ACADEMY STRUCTURE: There’s a full consultation planned with the premier clubs for around the middle of June – it’s evolving and we’re very keen to take the clubs with us on that.

AGE GRADE RUGBY AND SEVENS: It has been reported that we’re stopping U21s and U19s but we’re not doing that, we’re simply following the trend that everyone else is taking in Northern Hemisphere rugby in moving to U20 and U18 because if we don’t then we’ll have nobody left to play. Our intention is for the U19s to play in the World Championship in 2007 in Belfast and that apart, we’re looking to migrate fully to U18 and U20 rugby with effect from the beginning of next season.

It’s also been said we’re stopping sevens but we’re not doing that, we’re re-aligning sevens into the Academy structure.


IRB SEVENS AT MELROSE: A feasibility study is underway and the IRB representatives have visited Melrose for a technical and location audit. We’ll have some useful discussions with the key stakeholders and everyone is well intended. It’s been a useful start but there’s still a long way to go in the process.


CLUB v COUNTRY: The events of the last week in the Celtic League have proved very difficult decisions. The protocol for player release was put in place at the beginning of the season between Frank and the pro-team coaches and the reason most of the Scotland players did not on Friday was not because of the Barbarians game, as was widely reported, but because of the summer tour to South Africa and the criticality of certain players and indeed the lack of depth in certain key positions. One of our key targets has to be to create a pool of players who can readily step in, such that maybe next year if not soon thereafter we can play the first choice players in the knowledge that there’s someone to take their place should they need to.

When the Celtic League board has their next meeting, one of the key issues is to discuss the rules of player release for us all next season. That said, we’re very close to signing an accord and are in the final throws now of executing a sponsorship agreement which will give the tournament a stability it’s never had.

Looking ahead at Celtic League fixtures – Friday night will again be rugby night, with the majority of our games being played then. We made it very clear to the Celtic League board and broadcasters that we were not prepared to tolerate the lack of consistency previously seen our fixture lists.



ERC: We’ve had two meetings in the last six weeks with the other Unions to discuss the fact that certain clubs want a higher stake in the tournament but the ERC was originally set up to support the Unions and we fully support ERC’s control of the competition.


PRO-TEAM INVESTORS: We continue to have discussions with a number of interested parties – eleven parties have registered an interest in one form or another in investing in the pro-teams. Some are interested in a specific team, others in investing in general. We are striving to retain the three teams. In terms of timescales, we’re looking still at four weeks or so to make a decision. We’re under a lot of pressure to meet the timescales but all the potential investors are aware of those timescales and the process and discussions are underway.



COMMERCIAL: We’re discussing commercial and investment matters with five potential new sponsors, each of whom surfaced during the 6 Nations. They’re looking at different elements of the game, be that community, club, professional or international.



EDINBURGH COACH: We have got two, possibly three, guys on hold and lined up with regards to two teams v three. We’re talking with these individuals regularly and we hope to activate that appointment as soon as we can.

This article was posted on 31-May-2006, 21:50 by Hugh Barrow.