THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Telfer attacks 'central belt mafia' as rugby 'dustbowl' looms in Borders
DAVID FERGUSON
JIM Telfer has often been attacked for his handling of the introduction of professional rugby, and yesterday he admitted that he had "misjudged" the attraction of the pro game to people in the Borders.

However, while critical of the current SRU leaders and Borders rugby public in equal measure, Telfer insisted that the decision which he believes will leave the Borders as a rugby "dustbowl" owed much to an "Edinburgh-Glasgow mafia" now controlling Scottish rugby.

He said: "Clubs have lost influence in the running of the game because of the changes to the old district system they voted in a couple of years ago and the Borders no longer has any influence because of the Edinburgh-Glasgow mafia that now exists at board level. The whole of Scottish rugby is now driven by the central belt and very few of the people on the board have any experience of being involved in professional rugby. I just hope they know what they're doing.

"I was very unhappy at the disenfranchising of Caledonia and have watched teams from Aberdeen, Dundee and Stirling struggle to keep themselves among the top clubs, but now they've disenfranchised Caledonia and the Borders. That's fair enough - they feel they had no choice - but as they centralise the pro game in Scotland I hope there is some long-term planning there for these important areas in the north and south."

Telfer's critics will feel he has no room to talk, and while he would argue many decisions were taken in his time over which he had no control, the same could be said for rugby figures now involved at Murrayfield. The former Scotland and British and Irish Lions player and coach became the SRU's first director of rugby in 1994 and with a staff which had researched professional sport around the world drove the game down the four districts route. His decision and forthright manner brought condemnation from clubs insistent they should be given new money from European competition and allowed to develop themselves as professional entities.

But Telfer drove the SRU on with four part-time district teams in 1996 and then signed up more than 120 players to enable Scotland to join the professional revolution with four full-time teams in 1997. However, within eight months the finance division had decided the salaries could not be maintained, despite crowds of more than 5,000 watching each of the four teams in the short run of European games.

Against Telfer's wishes and contrary to the reasoning by the executive at that time that it was "for rugby reasons", the four district sides were merged into two and the feeling that the merger was a farce crystalised when the new teams soon dropped their 'Reivers' and 'Reds' epithets and became Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Telfer led the push for the return of the Borders when funds were said to be sufficient, recruiting Gary Armstrong, Doddie Weir and George Graham, and Tony Gilbert, the former All Blacks assistant coach.

Now retired from rugby, he is sceptical of the union's commitment to improve the professional game with this latest move. He said:

"We are already seeing a migration of people from the Borders to cities for work, further education and other opportunities, and this will only increase that because even young rugby players serious about playing rugby as a career will have nothing to aim for in the Borders anymore.

"The Borders will become a dustbowl. Nobody is going to see pro rugby in the heartland of the game in Scotland; it will all be in the cities and the past ten years have proved that there isn't huge support for pro rugby in Scotland's cities."

He had to concede, however, that the crowds at Netherdale had contributed to the belief that pro rugby in the Borders had no bright future either. Andy Irvine, the SRU president,

said the Borders were by far the best supported team in Scotland per head of population, but added that gate receipts for two years would not even cover the six-month salary of Wallaby scrum-half George Gregan, who has signed for Toulon for about £270,000.

Telfer said: "The Borders people do have a lot to answer for - those who call themselves rugby supporters. I misjudged them when I said we had to have the Borders team back in 2002 and if I had the decision to make again, in hindsight, it may have been better to site it in Caledonia.

"There will be some people down here pleased with the decision, but the people I've seen in Galashiels today are absolutely gutted. There seems to be shock among rugby people, and a genuine fear about what this means for the game in the Borders, and Scotland as a whole."

THE BORDERS PRO RUGBY TEAM: A BRIEF HISTORY
27 August 1995: Rugby turns professional, but Scotland waits a year to join the revolution and no Scots teams take part in the inaugural Heineken European Cup.

1995-96: Debate rages over whether clubs or districts should represent Scotland in Europe. Melrose, league winners in five of the last seven seasons, champion the case of the clubs, but the SRU gets its way and districts win the day.

12 October 1996: The South district side, renamed the Scottish Borders, makes an inauspicious start to life as a part-time pro side, losing 85-28 to Pau on their Heineken Cup debut.

17 October 1996: Scottish Borders bounce back, beating Llanelli 24-16 on a historic night at Mansfield Park, Gary Parker landing eight penalties. It's the first win by a Scots side in the Heineken Cup.

1997: Rebranded the Scottish Border Reivers, the side becomes full-time with players now tied to the pro outfit rather than their clubs.

16 March 1998: As financial reality bites, the Borders side is merged with Edinburgh to create 'Edinburgh Reivers'. The two other pro sides, Glasgow and Caledonia, are also merged. Sixty players are made redundant.

7 August 2001: Reivers name dropped and the pro side becomes simply 'Edinburgh'.

2002: The Borders pro team is relaunched with Tony Gilbert as coach. They join the Celtic League.

27 March 2007: SRU announces Border Reivers are to close at the end of the season with the funding redirected to the Glasgow. Between 15 and 20 players to lose jobs.

This article was posted on 27-Mar-2007, 23:25 by Hugh Barrow.