SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS

Game is afoot as rugby's future is on the line again
IAIN MORRISON
THE landscape of professional rugby in Scotland is likely to change dramatically with a raft of crucial decisions to be made in the coming weeks. The executive board, under the chair of Allan Munro, will have to approve the changes and then the Scottish Rugby Council will be asked for their support.

The executive board met last Thursday and it came as no surprise that the meeting overran by at least half an hour. Naturally the professional rugby review figured prominently on the agenda because it has done so at every board meeting for months on end.

No firm and binding decisions were made at the meeting because, as one insider put it, "we've gone down the wrong road for the last ten years, we can wait another few weeks to get it right this time". There is a determination within Murrayfield to put right the wrongs of the past, to avoid repeating the mistakes that have dogged the professional game over the last decade or more.

Certainly, no one can defend the status quo. The professional game as it currently exists in Scotland has been little better than a disaster, hoovering up money that the Union can ill-afford, offering disappointment on the field and spectacularly failing to engage the public.

The best season any Scottish professional team has enjoyed in Europe was when Edinburgh got to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup in 2004, but this year's results were far more typical, with the two Scottish sides managing just one win each in a total of 12 pool matches.

In a season that has witnessed 48,000 pay to watch Leinster against Ulster, and where a crowd of 24,000 watched a London Irish side shorn of its internationals take on a similarly denuded Wasps side last Sunday, the Borders' best crowd is still the 1,661 who at least had the good judgment to see the team pick up what was, until they beat Edinburgh 10-3 on Friday night, their solitary league win of the season against a strong Leinster side. Glasgow's best crowd figure is higher, 2,799 when Ulster visited, but these numbers are boosted by the travelling supporters. The two pro-teams left under Union control both bumble along with about 1,000-1,500 fans per match. Or put another way, far too few to build a business around.

In short, professional rugby isn't working in Scotland. With fewer fans, the income gap between Scottish teams and their opposition widens, and so too the wage gap which is why there has been the biggest exodus on record since Moses and Pharaoh had a bust-up. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and eventually the class gap on the field of play is unbridgeable; a situation that we may already be experiencing at pro-team level.

The board's first decision is how many teams it can afford. While Frank Hadden and the rugby men have been arguing that three is an absolute minimum there is an alternative view that, with so many Scots currently playing overseas and a few more still to go, Scotland could cut one pro-team, better resource the remaining two and still have a respectable pot of experienced players from which to select the national side. Anyway, the "brawn drain" of recent weeks makes it very difficult to fill the three teams with players of sufficient quality, unless there are a lot of big Polish lads out there amongst the legions of joiners and plumbers landing on our shores. The Borders boast just two wins to their name this season, and are set to lose many of their best players this summer. Even if they are reduced to "development team" status, how much lower can the wage bill go before the side becomes completely uncompetitive?

There are two other variables that could influence the Borders' future. If the Heineken Cup does not go ahead, as seems increasingly possible, the Union will forfeit something like £2m of revenue each year. There was a meeting last week and the final decision is said to be imminent, but it may not come for months and it is difficult to see the accountant in Gordon McKie putting his shaky bank balance at the mercy of Serge Blanco et al.

The other variable is two separate groups of investors, both of whom are based in the southeast of England, at least one of whose discussions with the Union have been advancing nicely. One group is still pursuing a Magners franchise in or around London while the others have their sights set on Scotland. If either group can come to a speedy agreement with Murrayfield - and McKie is rumoured to have offered a seven-figure investment over five years - the third team may yet be saved in one form or another, but it would be unwise to rely on what Donald Rumsfeld would refer to as "the known unknowns".

Naturally, with a 20-year rental agreement on Netherdale in place, there is an incentive to maintain a team to play there but, in the big scheme of things, the sums involved are marginal. The reported £50,000 that the SRU pays Gala Rugby Club is the annual wage cost of just one decent player so the lease alone, ignoring for a moment the madness that saw it signed in the first place, won't save the Borders. The strong likelihood remains that the two remaining teams under SRU control will be merged, although where the resulting entity will play remains a huge problem. Hughenden is scheduled for re-development with work due to start in October. However, planning permission has not yet been granted and there is every chance that Glasgow will find themselves back at their favoured West End ground next year.

Longer term, Hughenden is not an option and one Murrayfield insider admitted that they had been scouting "every ground that you can imagine and a few more you can't".

SRU officials have looked at Falkirk, Firhill, Pittodrie and McDiarmid Park before rejecting all the above for one reason or another. The Union is left with several alternatives to house Glasgow next year. The first is maintaining the status quo with another season at Hughenden, although this is dependant upon the owners Hillhead Jordanhill not being granted planning permission any time soon.

Scotstoun is a long-term option, although work on the new stadium is not scheduled to be completed for years. The running track around the pitch makes it less than ideal given that smaller crowds need an intimate, enclosed venue to ensure a good atmosphere.

The need to offer fans an exciting experience is paramount but Meadowbank, another ground with a track, felt more like a morgue than a bearpit, even when Edinburgh famously beat Toulouse there.

Forthbank, the gloriously accessible home of Stirling Albion Football Club, was always the option favoured by Graham Burgess for his stalled venture although it may need some temporary stands added. Stirling Council admits that they have had talks with the SRU about the ground and they are known to be keen to attract professional rugby to the area. This is just the sort of local government support that the SRU is attempting to tap into but the fact that Stirling Albion are understood to have primacy of tenure at the little stadium may prove a stumbling block.

Glasgow's final option is a ground share with West of Scotland. Burnbrae would need extensive upgrading to host professional rugby; lights, temporary stands and perhaps some extra drainage, but it would at least keep Glasgow in the city. Moreover, when West of Scotland moves home so would Glasgow Rugby.

West are ambitious and hope to sell their Burnbrae ground to Cala Homes in return for 30 acres at Auchenhowie, close to Rangers' training ground. This greenfield site would then be developed into what Scotland is desperately short of: a modern, specialised rugby ground with first-class facilities. There is talk of building a huge indoor arena and gym to go along with the usual training and playing fields with parking for several hundred cars. If the local council can be brought on board to offer any help, cut-price rates for one, then the SRU would love to get in on the ground floor and possibly even influence the end design.

West of Scotland President Gordon Cairns declined to say whether he had had talks with the Union about a ground share but he did admit that he wasn't against the idea in principle. Everything depends upon West's current site at Burnbrae being granted planning permission for houses. Of course, it might not happen at all but, in a best-case scenario, Cairns envisages a new facility at Auchenhowie being ready as early as 2009.

If the Glasgow sites, Scotstoun and Auchenhowie, don't come on line as and when they are expected then the Union can always use Forthbank as a fallback option.

Final decisions are expected in weeks rather than days and they can't come too soon for the pro-team coaches who have been stuck in limbo for months now. Whatever plans the Union does settle on, it is important that they are long-term in outlook because without the ability to plan from one season to the next, the Scottish pro-teams have zero chance of narrowing the gap on their European opposition.

All this might be hopelessly optimistic, and Murrayfield's new structure may fare no better than the old ones, but the alternatives to success do not make pretty viewing. Professional rugby will certainly not survive in Scotland if the next ten years are anything like the last ten.

THE FUTURE
IF PROFESSIONAL rugby is to thrive - or even survive - in Scotland, here are five key steps that need to have been taken in five years' time. Here's what we'd like to see in our crystal ball...

MURRAYFIELD: The flood prevention scheme that was agreed only last week has now been built. It ensures that the bus park is no longer a flooding liability, so the Union has entered into a partnership with a developer to build 500 flats as and when the requisite planning consents come through. When this happens, the Union pays off several millions of its overdraft in one go with the resulting windfall, but continues to benefit financially because of a profit-sharing scheme.

EDINBURGH RUGBY: A partnership between the Carruthers brothers and the SRU is about to move from their temporary home at Meggetland to the new Edinburgh Council facility at Slateford. Take That's fifth comeback tour takes in Murrayfield and the revenues net the club two Springboks and former All Black centre Aaron Mauger who is, coincidentally, also on his fifth comeback.

GLASGOW RUGBY: The club has attracted outside investment after making a successful move to Forthbank in Stirling where the local council have given the owners a healthy rates rebate to prevent them moving back to Scotstoun after the development of that arena. The "Wallace Warriors" play their Heineken Cup matches at Falkirk, their Magners matches at Forthbank and they train daily at West of Scotland's state of the art facilities at Auchenhowie.

FOREIGN CLUBS: Several players have returned to Scotland but foreign clubs still employ a full 22-man squad of Scottish professional players who have signed for French, English, Welsh and Irish sides. This gives the national coach a slew of alternatives to his home-based players and brings best practice from abroad back to Scotland during national training sessions.

LONDON SCOTTISH: The club beats Richmond next weekend in front of 3,000 fans to secure National Three status next season and a few years down the line they are surviving comfortably in England's National One. Their wage bill of £500,000 is split between the club's sponsors and the Union who now use the exiles as a development tool, sending their young players to get a taste of semi-professional rugby in England.

This article: http://sport.scotsman.com/rugby.cfm?id=463452007

This article was posted on 25-Mar-2007, 08:29 by Hugh Barrow.