THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
THE Scottish club leagues will kick off on Saturday without a league and cup sponsor, but with the SRU pledging to inject more funds into the club game.

Colin Thomson, the SRU's new head of community rugby, confirmed yesterday that no sponsor had yet been found to fill the gap left by BT, who pulled the plug on sponsorship in the summer. Attracting significant sponsorships remains a problem within Murrayfield in the wake of the most tumultuous year since the game turned professional.

The club game has also suffered heavily in union cutbacks over the last few seasons, the £2million distributed in 2002 falling to a low of £364,000 in the last financial year. The prize-money, which has dwindled from more than £30,000 in 1998 to less than 50 per cent of that last season, helped shore up the financial troubles of some clubs. However, Thomson explained yesterday that the union had decided against stepping in with prize-money to cover the loss of BT in favour of a more wide-ranging package of funding for clubs.

"We are still actively looking for a sponsor," Thomson said, "but we will be starting the season without one and so there will be no prize-money unless that changes.

"The BT prize-money went to a limited number of clubs. Money is tight with a £23million debt, so we have to prioritise our funding and make a judgment call on what we feel is best for Scottish rugby - is it prize-money or is it better to invest in clubs who want to grow the game? We feel the latter, but we are not decreasing the money we put in.

"We have increased the spend into the community rugby budget this year and we're looking at investing in clubs who will come into partnership with ourselves and local authorities to grow the game."

Since taking over as SRU chief executive last August, Gordon McKie has striven to force departments within Murrayfield to take a stronger grip of their finances and prioritise more keenly. The fact that rugby has become a dying sport in Scotland, with the number of adult rugby numbers dropping to under 10,000 and shrinking the country's stock on the world stage, has put growing the sport at the top of the agenda. Thomson added: "We only have just over 9,000 players in Scottish rugby and, quite simply, that's too small a base for our game.

"Look back at any successful period in Scottish rugby and the number of players we had at that time was the key factor, and that's why we have to work hard with the clubs to address that. We have got positive dialogue now with clubs and want to work with them to improve the standards and grow the game; everyone has to be part of this partnership to grow it.

"Yes, the winning of leagues and cups is important - these titles are the pinnacle of the club game and we should talk them up - but we have to look further and ask how we measure success in our club structure, from Premier One all the way down. Is success just winning, or is success growing the game? I think it's a combination of both because if you get a club growing the game and putting the right structures in place they will inevitably win.

"We have a new community structure with regional development managers out meeting clubs, but the [SRU] is not going to grow the game; it's the volunteers out there who will do that, so we have to create the supportive environment to give them a chance. If clubs in these communities don't grow the game, rugby in Scotland will die."

There will be an inevitable disappointment felt among clubs, however, that the lure of prize-money - which many now split between players as an end-of-season reward - has disappeared.

Hugh Barrow, the long-standing secretary of Glasgow Hawks, stated: "I know you have to play for the honour of being league or cup champions, but that rings a bit hollow to be honest in today's world. Prize-money does have a place because it provides an incentive, something for clubs to aim for.

"We suggested perhaps giving the league winners the chance to play in a cross-border competition with league winners in Ireland or Wales as an incentive, but the SRU vetoed that. I understand what Colin is saying about money filtering through the game, which is welcome, but it is still disappointing that there is no longer that incentive of prize-money for clubs."

Somewhat ironically, while the club game struggles to unearth a title sponsor, referees yesterday announced a new backer. Following on from Specsavers, the referees' first sponsor, Optical Express, have now agreed a five-figure, one-year deal.

Avoiding the obvious connection between referees and the need for spectacles, Roy McCombe, the SRU's referees' manager, said: "Supporters often say that refs should have eyes in the back of their head so I suppose there's a certain logic that we're now in partnership with proud Scottish opticians."

This article was posted on 24-Aug-2006, 07:20 by Hugh Barrow.