THE HERALD REPORTS

Ditch snobbery and learn from French

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer December 19 2006

Glasgow Warriors' win at Narbonne on Saturday was hugely valuable as they pursue success in the short-term but it was also a trip that may have given them a feel for what the longer term future could hold.
As they chatted after the game in one of the cavernous corridors surrounding the vast changing rooms, equipped with plunge pools and saunas, Sean Lineen, Glasgow's head coach, and Shade Munro surveyed the facilities with some envy. The contrast with the grimy bunker that is Hughenden's changing room complex could hardly have been more striking.
They are not ungrateful for the efforts made on their behalf by those who have negotiated the deals that give them the use of Whitecraigs for outside training, the Palace of Arts for gym work or, for that matter, Hughenden for playing their matches.
There is, though, hardly a sense of any of those being a natural home for the team or its supporters since the geographic spread involved is hardly ideal, particularly when compared with Narbonne's ground at the Parc des Sports et de l'Amitie.
Like so many grounds in France, it is a municipally owned, multi-sport stadium. The town's pride in their leading sportsmen is reflected in its determination to ensure that their players do not feel like second-class citizens.
Since Glasgow tends, rightly or wrongly, to think of itself as the most egalitarian of Scotland's cities, the stadium we were in was very much in line with what could happen if Scotstoun were to become the Warriors' home.
The playing field in Narbonne is similar to that proposed for Scotstoun, with an athletics track surrounding the pitch, but the spectators still close enough to generate atmosphere. Not ideal for rugby perhaps, the Parc des Sports et de l'Amitie is, though, an excellent example of what sensible compromise can achieve.
That only makes it all the more sad that the SRU's financial situation forced it, earlier this year, to withdraw from negotiations to be the anchor tenants who would run the redeveloped
Scotstoun facility on behalf of the City Council, not least because there is no guarantee that Hughenden will remain available to the Warriors beyond this season.
David Mackay and Brian Simmers intended to resurrect those plans had they been able to raise the funds to take ownership of the Warriors out of the hands of the Scottish Rugby Union, but they could not.
That John Lynch, the City Council's convener of leisure and recreation, is sufficiently rugby-minded to have taken a place on the Warriors new board is encouraging in that regard.
Not all local politicians boast such vision, though, and there is a belief within the Glasgow rugby community that some influential figures in the west, MSPs among them, are working actively against rugby's interests.
The sport only got into its financial mess because it over-reached itself in bidding to be self-sufficient when paying for Murrayfield's re-development out of its own coffers rather than relying on the public purse, as was the case with Hampden, Wembley, the Millennium Stadium and Lansdowne Road.
Rather than that fact generating sympathy, however, there seems to be a lobby that feels rugby has got what it deserves because of its perception as a middle-class sport.
Even the slightest research into the work being done by the sport's network of development officers would know that the view is thoroughly outdated.
Such inverted snobbery is almost as damaging to society's fabric as the sort of prejudice the Scottish Executive has been campaigning against in attempting to address sectarianism on the football terraces and in the wider community.
By trying to broaden the horizons, as well as the minds of Scottish youngsters, there is a duty on politicians to learn from the likes of the French municipalities.
In seeking to generate civic pride, there is surely no greater device than a successful sporting organisation bearing the name of a town, city or region.

This article was posted on 19-Dec-2006, 08:24 by Hugh Barrow.