THE HERALD REPORTS

Members of Scotland's club rugby community can demonstrate tonight that their love of the game is genuine and that they are not merely serial whingers.

An essentially amateur international match between Scotland and Ireland gives them a chance to show how much they care about their clubmates, the domestic game having been dragged down by years of carping over the impact of professionalism.

Among the factors that have resulted in the rise and rise of Irish rugby in recent years, while the game in Scotland has been failing, is the relative way in which the rugby communities have responded to professional rugby.

While Irish club members did not like their loss of status, they accepted it and got behind their provincial teams. In Scotland, a brooding resentment, fed by agenda- driven sections of the media, constantly dragged down the morale of all involved in trying to lift spirits.

What many complainers pointed to was that club rugby had lost much of its purpose when the top teams no longer had direct input into the national side. The introduction of the club international has gone some way towards filling that gap.

While it was a Scottish initiative to introduce it, the Irish, who hosted the inaugural match, have, almost inevitably, embraced the concept more purposefully.

When Ian Rankin, coach of the Scotland side, arrived at Dublin Airport on his spying mission ahead of the Irish club side's meeting with the English Counties, he was assailed by a barrage of posters declaring: "Behind every great player there's a great club."

The pictures those words accompanied were not of Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell, Gordon D'Arcy et al who would face England in the following day's Test at Croke Park, but of the relative unknowns who would, that night, beat a powerful, semi-professional English Counties side at Donnybrook.

The SRU pleads poverty when it seeks to explain why it does not indulge in a similar marketing exercise, but enough people in clubs should know their lads are in action tonight to ensure that Meggetland is packed to the rafters.

"I desperately hope they do support us," said Tam McVie, the Scotland captain, who admitted this week that the introduction of this team has, at the age of 31, revived his enthusiasm for playing. "As a nation we can be so negative about everything."

McVie is accompanied by four Heriot's clubmates, while host club Boroughmuir, as well as Watsonians and Currie, are all well represented, so there is no shortage of local interest in the capital. Nor is there any excuse not to be there for supporters of Ayr, Dundee, GHA, Glasgow Hawks, Hawick and Melrose, who also have players in the side, or, for that matter, anyone who has stood over a beer and grumbled about professionalism ruining the game.

Whether or not Scotland can reverse last year's result - they were beaten 30-13 - the match represents a chance to celebrate club rugby. It will be fascinating to see how many take the opportunity.

This article was posted on 9-Mar-2007, 00:00 by Hugh Barrow.