THE SOTSMAN REPORTS
ALLAN MASSIE
WHILE the Scottish Rugby Union owned our three pro teams we were at least spared the club v country arguments which have afflicted English and, to a lesser extent, Welsh, rugby. Essentially the coaches of the pro teams did as they were told by the national coach. If he chose to exert himself, they had to fall into line. So, for instance, when after the 2003 World Cup Chris Paterson was seen as the successor to Gregor Townsend in the number 10 Scotland jersey, Frank Hadden played him at fly-half for Edinburgh. However, as soon as Matt Williams selected Dan Parks for that position and moved Paterson to full-back or wing, Hadden felt free to do the same, having always himself preferred Paterson in one of the back three positions.

The point is that the interest of the national side always took priority. Presumably this is still the case with Glasgow and the Borders, even if Hadden, as national coach now, has been prepared to grant their coaches more autonomy than predecessors may have done; for example, back in October, Sean Lineen preferred Colin Gregor rather than Parks as Glasgow\'s fly-half, even though Hadden had spoken of Parks being still first choice for Scotland in that position. It is a delicate act balancing the interests of the national and club sides.

Matters have become more complicated since the Carruthers brothers took control of Edinburgh, as David Ferguson\'s interview with Bob Carruthers last Saturday made clear. Carruthers is aware that the health of Scottish rugby requires that there is a successful national side. He is aware too that the Edinburgh club he and his associates have taken over was created by the SRU, and that they have inherited, as he put it, \"Scottish talent nurtured by the SRU and brought on by guys like Frank (Hadden) and Henry Edwards\". \"So,\" he justly says, \"we cannot be churlish about now losing so many to Frank.\"

At the same time his immediate - and long-term - interest is in making Edinburgh a successful team, capable of a strong challenge in the Magners (Celtic) League and the Heineken Cup; and he is coming to the view that the two may be \"incompatible\". \"The demands of international rugby now, and the tiny pool of players we have in Scotland, mean you can\'t do justice to both.\"

Paradoxically, the difficulty is aggravated, from his point of view, by the fact that he and his associates took over the most successful of the three pro teams, and therefore the one that contributes the most to the Scotland side. Thirteen Edinburgh players featured in the Autumn internationals, as against six from Glasgow, four from The Borders and five from clubs in England and France. That thirteen doesn\'t include the injured Ally Hogg and Craig Smith. So Carruthers\' dilemma is evident. The scale of Edinburgh\'s contribution to the national side makes it harder for him to achieve his goal of winning the Magners League and making a good showing in the Heineken. In effect his coach Lynn Howells lost the whole of his first XV for a month in the autumn, and will do so again for two months in the spring. It\'s true of course that the Magners League is more or less suspended while internationals are on, but he will be aware that last season Edinburgh went into a slump for two or three weeks when players returned mentally and physically exhausted after the Six Nations.

Next season will be harder still because of the World Cup, which will mean that Howells will likely be without at least a dozen international players until late November or even December - at least a dozen and perhaps as many as eighteen.

Hence Carruthers\' decision to strengthen his squad by signing non-Scottish players unlikely to be needed in international rugby. This decision has two less welcome consequences. First, it adds to his costs; second, it closes the door to young Scottish players. The latter is not necessarily so bad. It rarely benefits young players to be brought into a weak side, such as, with things as they are now, an Edinburgh Reserves would surely be. Moreover, the seven or eight young reserves fielded in the absence of the Scottish internationalists would presumably benefit from playing alongside experienced foreigners.

There is probably no ideal solution to the clubs v country argument, but at least here in Scotland it is being conducted with a deal of mutual understanding and without the bitterness that is evident in England. Carruthers quotes Andy Irvine\'s view that \"if we have a successful Scotland, everything else flows from there\", and says he agrees with that.

This is generous because if we look across the Irish Sea the picture looks rather different. The success of the Ireland team, so evident over the last twelve months and triumphantly confirmed this autumn, has \"flowed\" from the achievements of Munster in Europe, and Leinster and Ulster in the Celtic League. It is because the provinces developed the habit, and therefore the expectation, of winning that Ireland are now ranked so high in the world and seem, along with France, to have the best chance of any of the Six Nations to reach the semi-final, even the final, of next year\'s World Cup.

Meanwhile one can\'t help thinking that pro rugby is never going to take off and generate public enthusiasm here until one of the Scottish clubs makes a real impact in Europe. Edinburgh are best-equipped to do so. It follows therefore that this week-end and next, when they play Gloucester away and at home, are the most important in the club\'s history to date.

Two wins, preferably with bonus points, will give them a real chance of making the knock-out stage of the Heineken. That would give the game here a real boost and would be a just reward for the commitment and enthusiasm that Bob Carruthers and his associates have shown.

This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/rugby.cfm?id=1829602006

This article was posted on 9-Dec-2006, 08:53 by Hugh Barrow.