THE HERALD REPORTS

Young players’ welfare should begin at homeKEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer January 27 2007

Player welfare has become a burning issue in world rugby as administrators seek solutions to protect the sport's most valuable assets. Unless they are Scottish, under-18 and successful, that is.

The youngsters of Cupar's Bell Baxter High School won the final of the Bell Lawrie Scottish Schools Cup at Murrayfield on Thursday to become the first state school side to win the competition in a decade, winning a match of tremendous intensity just eight days after their semi-final victory in what had been the toughest game they had ever contested.

Peter Horne, the man of the match, had to leave the field early during the final because of cramp. Several of his team-mates were suffering similarly. Rather than celebrating, they were plunged into ice baths at Murrayfield in an effort to accelerate the recovery process because the same group of boys must represent their club, Howe of Fife, in the semi-final of the Scottish Youth League tomorrow.

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Should they win that - all things being equal, they are favourites to - the final is on Wednesday.

Why such a congested schedule? In spite of the protestations of the Bell Baxter/Howe of Fife coaches, this is at the insistence of Scottish Rugby Union officials.

Rather than providing the sort of leadership incumbent on those charged with youth development, they are prepared to allow democracy to rule, after the issue was raised with them.

What they did was offer four options to the four youth league semi-finalists, including the one already in place - it is what confronts the Cupar kids - and three that would result in the youth league final being delayed either to February or April.

The coaches of Hawick Wanderers would have had to be saints not to see that their side would gain a competitive advantage if they got to play their semi against Howe three days after the same boys played such a huge match as the schools semi-final.

Those at Musselburgh and Gala Wanderers would have an even greater helping hand as their opponents would have played their semi three days before the final.

No-one will be surprised to discover that the vote went three to one. Richard McGhee, the SRU's rugby services manager and Colin Thomson, their head of community rugby, felt that was all they needed to force the issue. If any of the highly promising talents at Howe suffer serious injuries over the coming week - muscle fatigue is a huge contributor in injuries - it will be on the consciences of those two.

Player safety has been paramount in the thinking of the coaches at Gordonstoun, at Perth Colts, at Stirling County and indeed at Dollar Academy, who have told The Herald that they fully support Howe in their opposition to this schedule.

All of them highlighted the issue of player safety over which the SRU officials do not seem to care sufficiently.

Following the schools final on Thursday the Bell Baxter/ Howe youth coaches, Garry Horne and Stuart Lathangie, spoke positively about the challenges ahead as they sought to avoid taking anything away from the lads' success that night. Their communications with the SRU have, though, made it clear that they are seething and will only be playing next week's matches under protest.

This issue has highlighted the need for a longer-term solution which would be a merger of the two competitions to reduce the fixture congestion.

Short-term, though, this SRU decision to hide behind the vote of an understandably self-interested majority puts players' welfare at risk.

If these were professionals their association would, or should, be screaming blue murder at what they were being asked to undertake. Youngsters, apparently, are less deserving of such protection.

As with so many, it seems that McGhee and Thomson have become institutionalised by working too long at Murrayfield and have lost sight of what matters. Yet they work for the organisation whose president, Andy Irvine, last year said that they were letting down the nation's youngsters when an under-prepared Scotland under-19 side were thrashed by Australia at their World Cup.

If his staff cannot do their jobs this would be a real opportunity for him to be presidential and ensure that they do not continue to let down this year's most successful group of under-18s.

This article was posted on 27-Jan-2007, 08:44 by Hugh Barrow.