Jeffrey in driver’s seat but fails to grasp the wheel

KEVIN FERRIE April 28 2005

Comment

Those keen to see John Jeffrey given a leading role in the national team's management structure may reflect today on whether he has shown the necessary leadership qualities as head of the working party on restructuring the domestic game.
As popular a figure as there is in Scottish rugby "the White Shark" had a huge responsibility, but in an apparent bid to keep everyone happy, he appears to have achieved very little. In comparative terms the difference between the virtual reversion to the status quo his group is recommending suffers alongside the exceptional work done by Bill Dunlop's working party that has overhauled the governance of the sport.
We must hope that the latest working party which is now looking at breaking the unwieldy and undemocratic old district structure into smaller, more representative development areas, will follow Dunlop's more radical lead.
In fairness, where the SRU committee made Dunlop's job much easier by exposing the extent to which the old structure was vulnerable to manipulation by the power hungry, it was harder for Jeffrey to overcome the vested interest of the various tiers involved in the debate on regionalisation.
Jeffrey's mistake was probably failing to get the three main tiers – Premiership, National and Regional Leagues – under one roof and banging heads together. Time constraints would have made that exceptionally difficult, but Jeffrey did take on the responsibility of driving the issue and should have found a better way of reflecting the mood of clubs when so many at last year's open space meeting at Murrayfield demanded change.
Another problem seems to have been a failure to elicit the views of players as well as officials. As Russell Marchant, the working party member who broke ranks yesterday to criticise its findings, observed, they might have given a very different answer.
"The majority of people who stand up and shout against regionalisation have long, long since stopped playing and most probably don't even travel with their clubs either," he observed.
The world has changed since young men and their partners were happy that an entire Saturday should be devoted to sport. Little wonder that so many, once they realise they are not going to have professional careers, are finding other things to do with their weekends.

This article was posted on 28-Apr-2005, 07:34 by Hugh Barrow.