SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Vibrant club scene is vital for future
IAIN MORRISON

A TRUNCATED Premier 1 consists of just ten teams this season, and as a result the league will be over by January. The senior clubs will then play in the Super Cup, although some have yet to be convinced that it will live up to its name.

The cup will see clubs divided into groups. A - Hawick, Ayr, Glasgow Hawks, Boroughmuir and Aberdeen GSFP and B - Currie, Melrose, Watsonians, Heriot's and Dundee HSFP. Teams will play rivals in their league from January 6, with winners of each going head to head at the Super Cup final on March 31. Whether this will undermine the National Cup has yet to be seen, but since just 5000 fans turned up at Murrayfield in April, there seems little to undermine.

The league contest will get under way next weekend - without a headline sponsor. Despite having an optional one year left to run on their contract, former sponsors BT were sent packing, and there is no replacement. After many years taken to find a backer for the Magners Celtic League, few believe that an opportunity to put money into the Scottish club game will start a stampede.

It is impossible not to feel some sympathy with Scotland's top class of clubs, as they have borne the brunt of the game turning professional with all the implications of that decidedly mixed blessing, and a decade of SRU policies that ignored the club game or, in some cases, actively undermined it.

Contradictory messages emanated from Murrayfield. When he was director of rugby, Ian McGeechan requested that the clubs reduce Premier One to ten in at attempt to drive up the standards and intensity of the club game.

When Frank Hadden got into a position of power, the clubs were told the very opposite: that they had no significant role in elite player development. In which case, they might as well expand Premier One back to 12 - or 14 or however many clubs they fancy - which is exactly what they have done for season 2007/08. Little wonder that club-land is feeling a bit bemused. Attempting to build from the top down is shortsighted even by the standards of Mr Magoo, so it is good news that the apprentices are to be released to the club game whenever their training schedule allows it, even if it took an undignified tug o'war to decide it.

Clubs are assuming that their best youngsters will be available for league matches unless they hear otherwise, which has the benefit of preventing the poor players from going mad with boredom. To take just one example, Glasgow Warriors have eight props on their books including apprentices, which would suggest that without the outlet of Premier One, there would have been a lot of big men out there moonlighting in the demolition business as they banged heads in frustration against whatever brick wall was presented.

The clubs also have their eyes on the unwanted full-time professionals, though that seems unlikely to happen in the short term, at least until Glasgow and the Borders finally follow Edinburgh and pass into independent hands. Whatever anyone says about the standard - and it is probably better than many imagine - the club game continues to provide players for the professional sides, especially in those positions that require a little longer in the oven. Eric Milligan signed for Glasgow in the midst of last season at the age of 25, and Aberdeen's Ben Prescott was even older when he joined the Warriors a couple of injury-wracked seasons ago. Ayr lost prop Stuart Fenwick to Castres over the summer.

Hawks' chairman Kenny Hamilton pointed out that his hugely successful side have provided five players to the professional ranks in the last 18 months, and Watsonians lost four to the professional ranks over the summer alone. Certainly, young players need far more and better conditioning than club rugby can ever offer them, but to claim that the pinnacle of the club game in Scotland is irrelevant to the professional ranks seems to be stretching a point.

For all the mistakes of the past, the Premier One clubs had a meeting last week - and the mood among them was upbeat.

The union has a plan in place to grow the game, and a strict audit of the current numbers suggests that the base from which they hope to do this is 9,050 adult male players. A target of 5% for this time next year has been set, and development officers have been made aware of what is expected.

The clubs have new platforms from which to air their views, and the Premier One elite have a seat on Henry Edwards' new Performance Forum. This group have met once, and are due to reconvene come September to thrash out the best way to integrate the club game with the performance section of our sport.

It is a vital step in the regeneration of the club game. The national team may pay all the bills, but without a vibrant club scene, the long-term health of the game in Scotland can only go one way: a message that those now charged with running our game seem to accept.

This article was posted on 20-Aug-2006, 07:55 by Hugh Barrow.