THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS


Reivers in urgent need of supporters, not agitators
NEIL DRYSDALE April 03 2007
More than a week after the Scottish Rugby Union announced the closure of Border Reivers, the team has attracted far more publicity in its death throes than it ever did while the governing body kept the ailing patient gasping for breath on a life-support machine.

There is a meeting of Reivers aficionados at an Edinburgh hotel tomorrow, while a demonstration is scheduled for Murrayfield the following night, with supporters being provided with free buses - and tickets - from the south of Scotland by the Borders Council.

That local body has sprung into action this week with all the galloping energy it so patently failed to exhibit when asked to put their money where their mouths were last summer. Only a cynic would note the connection between the imminent local elections and the sudden cry to arms by a posse of politicians.

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Where on earth have the likes of Graham Garvie - he resigned from his post with Edinburgh Rugby at the weekend to launch a Reivers rescue plan - been hiding these past few months?

Does he deny, for instance, that Gordon McKie, the much-maligned chief executive of the SRU, made sustained efforts throughout the summer of 2006 to build partnerships with Borders Council, while urging the authority to demonstrate their commitment to the professional team, not just with honeyed words, but with some hard cash.

Having spoken at length to McKie last Friday - and been convinced that, though he might be guilty of insensitivity in his handling of the axing the Borders, he is neither disingenuous, not inclined to naivete - I have no doubt he has been treated shabbily by his critics, many of whom seem to dwell under the delusion that Scottish rugby can exist in a vacuum, oblivious to the normal rules of business.

Only a cynic would note the connection between imminent local elections and the sudden cry to arms by a posse of politicians


Some of this never-never approach to paying the bills has been apparent when you study the notions of those who would keep the Reivers afloat - chock full of Romanian and Spanish migrants, as one notable observer suggested - without wondering why such an absurd folly would neither command the affection of Borders people, nor merit backing from the SRU.

In plain terms, if Hawick and Melrose folk won't travel to Galashiels to cheer on their own players, why would they be interested in supporting a bunch of foreigners?

That parochialism remains one of the principal reasons why the SRU was derided and disbelieved at every turn even as McKie and Allan Munro sought to convince Borderers they had to appreciate that the threat to their side was genuine.

Only now have those in Scotland's supposed rugby heartland woken to facts which should have been staring them in the face, given that any competent accountant could not fathom that average gates of 1300 and an annual revenue below £150,000 are pitifully inadequate figures when you have 30 players and 15 to 20 support staff to pay every month.

As for the growing involvement of Edinburgh's Bob Carruthers on the "Save the Borders" bandwagon, you have to inquire why he appears so determined to get behind the Reivers when his efforts thus far with his own club have been largely negative.

To date, since he entered the scene - and it should be pointed out that the SRU are still investing a seven-figure sum in his organisation every year - Edinburgh have suffered a poor Heineken Cup campaign, flattered to deceive in the Magners League, lost the services of most of their truly world-class personnel, including Simon Taylor and Scott Murray (with Chris Paterson not far behind them?) and have not attracted a single high-profile signing to their ranks in the best part of nine months.

Could it be that Carruthers, who yesterday suggested to The Herald that scrapping the Reivers might be a means of deflecting attention away from the SRU's supposed plans to sell off their back pitches for development, is actually engaged in orchestrating a smokescreen of his own, to conceal the fact he does not possess the funding to match the main players in the rest of Europe?

No matter the reason, his intervention has merely acted as the catalyst for a daily diet of toxic publicity, which must be in danger of driving away sponsors, local councils and anybody else still inclined to show goodwill towards the oval-ball activity.

Ultimately, McKie has issued a challenge to the Borders: "If they want to submit a bid to bring the Reivers back from the brink, and they are prepared to submit a business plan, then run the team, fund it, manage it, make it credible, and ensure it will be competitive in the Magners League, we will be happy to discuss it."

Garvie and Carruthers might have been more sensibly employed on that objective this past week rather than organising demonstrations. Then again, the latter tend to generate more free publicity.

This article was posted on 4-Apr-2007, 07:24 by Hugh Barrow.