SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
IAIN MORRISON
DESPITE being the one Scottish pro-team under independent control, there are signs that a mass exodus of playing staff is set to hit Edinburgh this summer. The departure of two of the country's brightest young stars - prop Alasdair Dickinson and flanker Alasdair Strokosch joined the Scottish exiles in Gloucester - was announced in the press last week but if these two represent a trickle they may be the start of a flood.

Rob Dewey is also leaving the capital club this summer to join Ulster. Dewey is one of the most promising of young Scottish players and his loss will send shock waves reverberating around the sport in Scotland. Edinburgh tried hard to secure his signature, coming surprisingly close to matching the salary increase of almost 400% offered by big-spending Ulster, but if the game cannot keep its brightest young star, what hope is there for the future of professional rugby in Scotland?

The strapping centre scored a try against England at Twickenham in making his Six Nations debut off the bench at the beginning of the month and he barrelled his way across the line against Wales too, only to be called back because the referee had obstructed the defence. His direct running strikes fear into even the very best opposition and Edinburgh Rugby will be one of the clubs in his firing line in the Magners League.

To lose these three young stars would be damaging enough but some of Edinburgh's more established players are also likely to leave the city side. It has also emerged that Simon Taylor is actively looking for a foreign club after Edinburgh Rugby are said to have offered him just half of his current deal, which is usually quoted around the £150,000 per annum mark.

In a moment of high farce, the Lions breakaway was spotted on TV sitting in the stand while watching one French club this season. It was Stade Français, whose colourful owner, Max Guazzini, would relish adding Taylor to the long list of world superstars playing in those distinctive pink shirts.

In fairness, something similar happened to Brian O'Driscoll at Biarritz just before the Irish skipper re-signed for Leinster until 2011, so Taylor may remain in place, but it seems highly unlikely without a much improved offer. The emergence of Dave Callam as an international class No.8 may have persuaded the club that they can manage without the two-time Lion... except that Callam is in talks with Sale Sharks.

Although he has another year to run on his agreement, Chris Paterson has already stated for the record that he would like to play abroad at some time in his career and another veteran, Scott Murray, is also understood to be looking elsewhere.

After yesterday's match, Murray is now the most capped Scot ever (along with Gregor Townsend) with 82 to his name. He is known to be keen to reach the 100 cap mark but against that he must weigh the fact that retiring from the international scene after the World Cup would extend his shelf life at the top of the club game. After a relatively quiet 2006, the long lock has bounced back to his very best this season and is seen as central to Scotland's much improved lineout performance. He also knows he will not make the next World Cup and would not be keen to become a bit-part player coming off the bench for long-term Scotland locks Ally Kellock or Scott MacLeod.

Murray will also look at the career of his second row colleague Nathan Hines and he may conclude that a spell in France has done the big Australian no harm. The veteran lock is a well-known wine buff and already dabbles in the business by importing the good stuff from areas where his rugby travels have taken him. Murray's contract ends shortly after the World Cup, perfect timing for any prospective new club, and a move to a wine-growing region in France, Australia or even South Africa would be doubly attractive for someone who has already experienced English rugby with Saracens and Bedford. Murray's mentor and friend, Rudi Straeuli, has a position with the Natal Sharks in Durban while second division Racing Club of Paris are throwing money about to get themselves into the Top 14.

Other names may join the Edinburgh exodus, which comes on top of the fact that Glasgow's Scott Lawson has already signed for Sale Sharks and Ross Ford, one of his rivals for the Scotland number No.2 shirt, is rumoured to be heading to the Guinness Premiership, perhaps as a replacement for Steve Thomson at Northampton. Another Reiver, wing Simon Danielli, is joining Dewey at Ulster.

Frank Hadden has all but begged his players to remain in Scotland but, within a year or so, the Scotland coach may have to select well over half of his starting XV from foreign clubs. Naturally enough, players have been known to talk up the prospect of a move elsewhere just to loosen the purse strings at home but there appears to be genuine unease at Edinburgh that is pushing players away.

There has been widespread discontent at the coaching methods employed by Lynn Howells and Iain Paxton, who are thought to be too "old school". The complaint is that the coaches physically flog the players, with too little emphasis on skills and not enough time to set aside for recovery.

Naturally enough, every coach has his own methods and the most successful giants of European rugby, like Munster and Leicester, are not renowned for mollycoddling their players. Edinburgh's stars may have been spoilt in the past under Hadden, who scheduled very little heavy contact work into the week.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the vast majority of the players made their reservations clear when they were asked to rate their coaches in a recent written questionnaire: the results were damning.

By all accounts, money was not the deciding factor for Dickinson and Strokosch but it plays its part elsewhere. While they were warmly welcomed when they took over Edinburgh Rugby's franchise, the Carruthers brothers, Alex and Bob, appear to have replaced SRU funding rather than added to it in any meaningful way. Their signings, at least to date, have shown a lack of genuine class although the club is not without ambition.

It is understood, for example, that Edinburgh attempted to persuade All Black centre Aaron Mauger to follow in Todd Blackadder's footsteps, but that Edinburgh's bid was approximately £100,000 per annum lower than the Leicester Tigers offer that the centre eventually signed. That said, tomorrow, will see a raft of Edinburgh signings being unveiled.

If the Mauger story is true then Edinburgh can hardly be faulted because the financial field is hopelessly lopsided. Given that they operate on anything from one half to one third of their opponents' budget, Scottish teams do relatively well on the pitch. Sadly for Scottish rugby, the income gap between our teams and those from elsewhere in Europe is not only huge but getting wider by the week.

Unlike football, which relies upon TV money, the turnstiles still contribute the majority of a rugby club's revenue. Stade Français have filled the Stade de France. Leicester have staged matches at the Walkers Stadium because Welford Road's 17,000 seats are not enough. Munster have moved their Heineken Cup matches to Lansdowne Road. Bath have sought permission from the local council to rebuild the Recreation Ground, only larger. Gloucester have dramatically increased the capacity of Kingsholm. Bristol use a football ground and Toulouse borrow one on a regular basis. The Ospreys attract over 20,000 for a local derby against Llanelli and the Blues decamp to the Millennium Stadium to host 26,000 fans for Leicester's visit.

Understandably, the players prefer the sense of occasion that a big crowd brings and the owners need the fans' money. And fans mean money - last year, as well as shifting a lake of Guinness, Munster sold 70,000 replica shirts at a profit of up to £20 each.

Professional rugby has captured the imagination of fans everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. For all the money they have spent on marketing, Edinburgh's best gate this season remains the 5,867 fans that watched them upset the odds by beating Leinster in the Heineken Cup. This number can be grown but Edinburgh, the best supported of all our pro-teams, are still leagues behind their main European rivals and the other two Scottish pro-teams are a long way behind Edinburgh. The budget gap between Edinburgh and Leicester, to take just one example, would only be bridgeable if Bill Gates, Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck all made a sudden and unlikely investment in the capital club: Leicester's turnover last year was £15m, their profit £1.5m; Edinburgh's turnover was about £2m.

While the Scottish exiles will have to play more club games - if they get selected - with a correspondingly higher chance of injury, the consequences of this exodus are not all bad. The players will be playing a high standard of rugby in England, France and Ireland but the departure of so many first-class players will give the SRU one more reason to cut one of its own pro-teams.

As the Borders' results prove beyond doubt, with just one league win this season, Scotland's resources were always stretched paper thin in attempting to fill three professional teams and, once again, the argument will be raised that two properly funded sides are preferable - especially when half of the Scotland squad is playing abroad.

• AGENTS and the top European clubs have declared open season on Scotland's top pro players, a situation exacerbated by a good Six Nations showing, low salaries north of the Border and an extraordinarily high number of players out of contract immediately before or after this autumn's World Cup.

So here is our quick guide to those players who have yet to commit themselves and who are believed to be most vulnerable to poaching:

DOUGIE HALL: Contract is up this summer and the Edinburgh and Scotland hooker has yet to sign.

ROSS RENNIE and ALAN McDONALD: The young flankers' contracts are up this summer but with other breakaways leaving, the prospect of regular first-team rugby should keep the dynamic duo in place.

ALLY HOGG and SIMON WEBSTER: With one more year on their contracts, both Hogg and Webster need game time to get back to their best, which would push their values up very nicely.

CHRIS PATERSON: The Scotland skipper has one more year on his contract, but the winger has expressed a desire to play on outside Scotland. He has turned down a whole succession of approaches from English clubs before, though, and may yet be persuaded to stay.

MARCUS DI ROLLO: One more year to go but he will be lucky to maintain the reported £140,000 salary he currently commands.

MIKE BLAIR: The scrum-half (right) has one more year on his deal and if Cardiff's Mike Phillips is worth £180,000 to the Ospreys then Blair is gold dust.

CHRIS CUSITER: The Borders skipper has another year on his contract but he does have an escape clause built into his deal with the Netherdale outfit. If the Borders are wound up, the Lions scrum-half would become a free agent.

ALLY KELLOCK: He has another year on his contract with Glasgow but with the Warriors performing above expectations and Scott Murray likely to retire and leave the Scotland second row berth vacant, their skipper will be tempted to stay.

EUAN MURRAY: The prop is contracted up to this summer but Glasgow have pushed the boat out in an effort to secure his signature. And they'll need to because tightheads rank only behind fly-halves in the earnings stakes.

This article was posted on 25-Feb-2007, 08:57 by Hugh Barrow.