THE HERALD REPORTS

Scottish Rugby's most senior officials confirmed what has long been seen as inevitable yesterday by closing the Border Reivers.

The decision leaves Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh as the remaining two professional teams in the country.

The announcement, effective from the end of the season, was made first to the SRU's full-time professional players, then to all the organisation's staff before being made public at a press conference yesterday.

The Reivers' best players will be encouraged to join Glasgow Warriors to help strengthen the team that has kept Scottish interest alive in European competition this season, contesting the Challenge Cup quarter-final against Saracens in Watford on Sunday.

As Allan Munro, the organisation's chairman, Gordon McKie, its chief executive and Andy Irvine, its president, sat stern faced throughout the press conference while taking turns to speak, however, no-one was pretending other than that this was another hugely challenging day.

Munro used the word "dying" and Irvine "drowning" when describing graphically what they felt was happening to the professional game. As leaders of the Scottish Rugby Board and the SRU Council respectively, they believe it vital for the professional game to have a future in Scotland, and that any teams be supported to a competitive level.

The decision had 100% board support, while Irvine said the council gave it's full backing to getting rid of one team and while there had been some dissenting voices about which, the vast majority supported backing Glasgow.

With Jim Hay, chief executive officer of the Scottish Professional Players Association feeling unable to sign the council's code of conduct because he believes there is a conflict of interest, the association was not represented in that discussion because it has not yet nominated an alternative delegate a year after that issue was identified.

With private investors backing the Edinburgh team in the shape of the Carruthers brothers, it should now be feasible, though, for the two remaining teams to be properly funded with the governing body now having sole fiscal responsibility for one team, as opposed to three this time last year.

"I would hope most sensible followers of Scottish rugby will support and applaud what we did today. It took a lot of balls and I'll certainly not get many Christmas cards from the Borders, but we could not have continued the way we we're doing," said Irvine.

"I feel very sorry for the Borders because they have been a tremendous contributor to Scottish rugby, but at the end of the day we have not taken finance into account enough. Too many times we've made decisions based on emotions rather than a proper business sense. When you start a business if you don't have the proper seed capital you're going to fail and that's exactly what happened here."

More than either of the others Irvine knew just how this decision would go down in the Borders, even though locals have failed to back the team in anything approaching meaningful numbers.

Even after the briefing yesterday he spent a substantial amount of time fending off questions from the Borders lobby asking how the area could be expected to continue to produce talent without a professional team based there. While attempting to be aware of their sensitivities, he noted that Caledonia has continued to do so in the absence of a pro team there over the past nine years.

Setting aside local difficulties, it has been obvious for some time that the SRU do not have the wherewithal to provide the three teams with the required level of investment. While Irvine acknowledged that pro rata support may be far greater in the Borders than in the other two areas and that there is little between their core support base and that of Glasgow, he also pointed out that their gate receipts for the season will not cover the salary of one of their senior players.

Since there is hardly likely to be a major improvement in that in the foreseeable future, the priority was to look at commercial potential. In that regard there is no comparison.

Irvine did offer a glimmer of hope to Borderers by suggesting that if a big money backer now materialised, the SRU would be wrong to discount maintaining a team there. Yet he noted that for all the speculation about possible buyers that has appeared in the media, the only people to have made a serious offer were the aforementioned Carruthers brothers, who are debarred by International Rugby Board rules from owning two teams. Consequently the attention now moves to making Glasgow Warriors competitive.

The only thing blocking that would appear to be facilities, or more importantly, the lack of them. McKie admitted that they do not yet know where they will be playing next season largely because Hillhead Sports Club, their current landlords at Hughenden, still hope to develop part of their land so cannot offer a full season's lease.

"We have options and need to put the finishing touches to discussions quickly to remove uncertainty over the short-term playing location," he said. "Scotstoun, Burnbrae and Stirling are the three long-term locations under consideration."

Most readily available is Stirling, but McKie admitted moving out of Glasgow would be difficult. "It would be potentially disruptive to go there Stirling now," he said. "Having announced the closure of Borders, to move the Glasgow players at the same time is probably not a sensible thing to do, particularly in World Cup year. So our preference is to stay in Glasgow or the west of Scotland, certainly short-term."

He said Archie Ferguson, a member of both the Glasgow and Scottish Rugby boards, had also proposed developing Cartha QPs ground. "Again that would be an expensive option, but we are committed to professional rugby and if we have to go and buy a set of floodlights and put in a stand we will do it. That decision's now been made," he added.

If that had to happen ahead of next season the likeliest option would be Burnbrae.

"There are ways and means of putting in temporary terracing that we've used in other situations to ensure that the capacity's increased," McKie said of West of Scotland's home ground.

However, among the factors listed by the SRU yesterday as key to the potential success of a professional team, was the availability of a modern, seated and covered stadium capable of accommodating 6000 to 10,000 spectators.

That clearly points towards Glasgow City Council's plans to redevelop Scotstoun, but talks between the organisations fell through last year and McKie said the SRU may be forced to look at building its own ground. "We might have to," he said. "If we can't do it in partnership with somebody else who's building one where we can become their tenant then we need to find a piece of land and build it ourselves with some sort of suitable funding."

As for the team's make-up, the Warriors can select from between 15 and 20 Borders players who are not yet out of contract and have not been released. Pick of those would be Chris Cusiter, the Reivers captain who is one of the world's finest scrum-halves, but the SRU president admitted he was one player who could exercise the option to leave.

"He's in France talking about a contract, but we're very keen to hold on to him," said Irvine. "We want to make sure that Sean Lineen Glasgow's coach gets off to a decent start."

12 years of professional rugby . . .


1995 Rugby goes open, catching the SRU - whose most senior official Bill Hogg had predicted three months earlier that it would never happen - completely on the hop. So much so that no Scottish side takes part in the inaugural Heineken European Cup.


1996-97 Four Scottish districts enter Europe, assembled on a part-time basis, but of the three involved in the Heineken Cup only the Borders win any of their four matches. Glasgow also collect a single win during their five match Challenge Cup campaign.


1998 An encouraging European effort as the teams go full-time, with Glasgow winning three matches before suffering a humiliating 90 point defeat in the quarter-final play-off to Leicester and Caledonia two, albeit the Borders lose all six. Edinburgh also win two of their six Challenge Cup matches, but the decision is taken - against the wishes of Jim Telfer, the national director of rugby - to amalgamate four into two, becoming Edinburgh Reivers and Glasgow Caledonians. That takes place against a background of turmoil at Murrayfield which eventually sees Andy Irvine and John Jeffrey quit their committee posts to lead the campaign which results in Dunc Paterson and Charlie Bissett being ousted from office later in the year.


1998-99 Ulster bring the Heineken Cup to Ireland for the first time, while the Edinburgh Reivers would have beaten them to the knockout stages. It is arguably the turning point in the two nations' fortunes, Ireland going on to beat Scotland for the first time in 13 attempts the following season, while their provinces grow in confidence to become major players in Europe.


2001 Telfer's campaign to bring back a Borders team as a third professional side gathers momentum and agreement is reached to reintroduce a third team the following year. That is in spite of dire warnings in the committee room from Ken Scobbie, then SRU chairman, regarding a looming black hole in the finances, largely because of lost autumn Test revenues when the 2003 World Cup takes place.


2002-03 The Reivers beat Madrid in the first round of the Challenge Cup before Montauban - then unknown but now sufficiently established to lure Scott Murray to France from Edinburgh - knock them out in the second.


2003-04 The high point of Scottish pro rugby as Edinburgh beat Toulouse in their opening match at Meadowbank and go on to reach the quarter-finals, losing this time to the French giants. Their success is overshadowed by a catastrophic Six Nations Championship, ending in a first whitewash in 19 years, then more board-room turmoil culminating in the overthrow of a century of committee rule.


2004-06 The three under-resourced Scottish teams gather a total of four victories from 24 Heineken Cup ties as the gulf widens between them and the rest of European pro rugby.


2006 The SRU come within days of closing a pro team before Carruthers brothers agree the deal that sees them take over the running of Edinburgh.


2007 Once again rationalisation forces a reduction to two Scottish pro teams, but this time there is promise of long-term support for the project.

10:26pm Tuesday 27th March 2007



By KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer

This article was posted on 28-Mar-2007, 07:55 by Hugh Barrow.