EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS
Carruthers: Don't let rugby get les Bleus
BILL LOTHIAN
EDINBURGH RUGBY owner Bob Carruthers today appealed to rugby bosses not to let the European Cup wither on the vine as French clubs prepare to withdraw next season.

The French are claiming that the continent's major cross- border competition is unsustainable in a World Cup season without having a calamitous effect on their own domestic league.

But Carruthers, speaking from St Lucia where he is currently on business, said: "The Heineken European Cup has withstood a boycott by English clubs in the past - and I'm sure the same will apply next season if the French pull out. At Edinburgh, we need a bigger programme of matches, although I take on board remarks made recently in the Evening News by Chris Paterson that the demands of the game have changed to the point of being more challenging physically.

"At the moment, we have 26 games in a season and there is no professional (team) sport in the world that can thrive on as few as that. At Edinburgh, we are not even in as good a position as the Welsh, who at least have an extra cross-border competition with England to keep them going and that is top of my wish list.

"Something along the lines of an amalgamated Guinness (English) Premiership and a Magners Celtic League split into two conferences would be the answer but that's for the future.

"Meantime, any reduction in European competition prompted by a French withdrawal concerns me although I'm confident it would only be a short-term blip.

"Even then some good might come out of it if it leads to a re-think of the structure because to have six pools with only the top team guaranteed to go through is much too tight. That can lead to a surfeit of meaningless games. As to how Edinburgh Rugby can influence changes - that's difficult.

"We are part of a Scottish Rugby Union organisation who themselves have limited influence at the top table. Besides, the cards are held mainly by the unions at the moment and battling for greater European influence in those circumstances is not one I'd been keen to take on at the moment.

"We always knew that when coming on board to provide the only team in the Magners Celtic League out of 11 that is privately owned. We aren't in a strong bargaining position at a time when the dichotomy - clubs like Edinburgh or centrally-run districts - remains. From the Rugby Union's point of view, it is about trying to provide extra games for television and I understand that.

"But such heavy emphasis on international matches has a profound impact at club level where there needs to be a strengthening of the player basis in terms of numbers and the way to do that is by spreading the hot-spots for rugby throughout the country rather than centralising.

"Solve that one, perhaps by reinstating the old North/ Midlands and you start to have a stronger Scottish involvement in Europe - regardless of whether the French take part."

This article was posted on 18-Jan-2007, 14:18 by Hugh Barrow.