THE HERALD REPORTS

McDiarmid Park will be given boost by the A team
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer September 05 2006
McDiarmid Park will again host top-class rugby when the Wallabies meet Scotland A in November. Three years after being shelved, the A international side reached the final of the Churchill Cup in North America with wins against England A and Canada.
Their performance dispelled doubts raised about Scottish rugby's capacity to cope with that tour while the senior team was playing a Test series and the Under-21s were contesting the World Cup.
Gordon McKie, the SRU's chief executive who was among those concerned about the strain on playing resources over the summer, accepted the value of allowing such opportunities for those pushing for places in the national team.
"The Scotland A team is an important part of the process of developing players for the rigours of international rugby, and as long as such fixtures can be accommodated sensibly we welcome the opportunity they represent," he said. If the tone of those remarks was grudging, the decision to return to the Caledonia region on November 21 - four days before the Test meeting with the Australians at Murrayfield - is a response to a previous misjudgment.
Scotland's only sell-outs in 2004/05 were at Perth, when the Japanese were thrashed by 100 points, and Aberdeen when the Barbarians were beaten for the first time. Yet, in distancing themselves from the previous management, the SRU has decided all full internationals must be played at Murrayfield.
By contrast, with the fervour at Pittodrie a year earlier, the atmosphere when the Barbarians lost at Murrayfield this year was humdrum, signalling the fixture's death knell.
Since there remains doubt about support for professional rugby in the Borders and Glasgow, as demonstrated again by pitiful attendances as the Magners League got under way on Friday is, then, a chance for another area to reinforce its case to host top-level matches.
"Rugby followers in Caledonia are renowned for enthusiastic, vocal support," McKie acknowledged. "It is pleasing we can give them the chance to see international rugby on their own doorstep."
The businessmen looking to take over Glasgow Warriors have said they were undaunted by Friday's dismal events. That only 1653 were at Hughenden seemed a telling response from Glasgow's rugby community to a summer that had much speculation over whether they might lose their team. The coaching staff were surprised by their players' inability to defend a 20-point lead generated in the first quarter.
However, David Mackay, the former SRU chairman who Brian Simmers, the Glasgow Hawks founder, wants to take over the running of the team, declared continued determination to put together the financial package required.
"We are inching forward and, assuming the SRU are still interested, are growing more confident that we will be in a position to take over within the next month," he said. "So far we have lots of undertakings to make modest contributions and there are three or four potential major investors that we have had serious discussions with."
Regarding private investment, it seemed significant that while they were least active in the transfer market during the close season but were taken over by the Carruthers brothers, Edinburgh Gunners made the best start to the league campaign of the Scottish sides, picking up a bonus point at the Ospreys. The Gunners will receive a further boost today when their new head coach is named.

This article was posted on 5-Sep-2006, 06:47 by Hugh Barrow.