THE TIMES REPORTS

The demonstration in support of the Borders professional rugby team
planned for Murrayfield has been called off after organisers claimed
they were detecting a thawing in attitude from Scottish Rugby
executives, who last week announced the club\'s closure. Instead, the
Borders Rugby Action Group (BRAG), which had organised the
demonstration, urged supporters to make their feelings known a week
tomorrow at the club\'s next home game.

Despite sounding slightly more optimistic about a rescue, it is
unlikely that the union will be represented at tomorrow night\'s
meeting in Edinburgh when the action group and Graham Garvie, the
businessman behind it, are due to up-date clubs and their members on
moves to mount a rescue.

The gathering will not, however, be presented with the details of the
proposal, as had originally been promised. \"We are taking a day or two
extra to make sure that we have a fully-funded, fully-costed plan that
we can take to Scottish Rugby,\" Garvie said.

\"We have to make sure that everything is just right before taking it
to the union. It would only be proper that they should try to take it
apart, so it has to be robust. We have only had a short time since the
closure announcement, and rather present than them with something that
is full of holes, we have to get it right.\"

At the same time, he says he is delighted at an apparent change of
emphasis by the union, which had presented the closure as a done deal
last week but is now saying that it is willing to listen to the rescue
plan. The first stage of that will come on Tuesday next week when the
union will meet David Kilshaw, the chairman of the Borders, and
representatives of the Scottish Borders council, both of whom are
involved with the Garvie proposal.
The Times reports


The union also says it is willing to meet Garvie, who was on the board
of Edinburgh Rugby when it acquired that club from the union but has
since resigned to concentrate on this project, when he gives them a
fully-costed and credible business plan.

One issue for Garvie is that his projections could change today if, as
expected, the French clubs confirm that they are pulling out of the
Heineken Cup next season, the English clubs follow suit and the
competition is then scrapped. It is believed that until now his
planning has assumed that the Borders would continue to derive an
income from both the Magners League and European competitions.

The decision to abandon the planned protest tomorrow night, which
would have coincided with Edinburgh\'s home game against Newport Gwent
Dragons, had been taken early in the day after Andy Irvine, the union
president, spoke on radio about \"keeping the door open\" for the people
who were preparing the rescue package.

From the union\'s point of view, it is finding it harder to convince
people that professional rugby is at the heart of its financial
problems. The fact is that in 2001-02, when it was operating two
teams, it spent £10.26 million on professional and international
rugby, including wages (£5.46 million for 66 players) and expenses. By
the 2005-06 season, when it was operating three teams, that had hardly
grown, and was standing at £10.95 million (£5.94 million in wages for
122 players, including apprentices). Paying its professional players
has dropped from 59.5 per cent of the union\'s wage costs in 2002 to
49.3 per cent in the latest accounts available.

In the meantime, again according to the latest accounts, the number of
nonplayers employed by the union in all its functions — including
coaching, developing young players, supporting the member clubs and
administration — grew from 153 to 179, a 17 per cent rise. The latest
figures are for the year in which the present executive took over, and
therefore reflect decisions taken before they took charge, but with
finances at the heart of its woes it is tricky to justify acting on
the playing side, where costs have risen by 6 per cent over five
years, rather than the commercial and operational departments, where
they have risen by 40 per cent (£8.37 million to £11.75 million).

This article was originally posted on 5-Apr-2007, 16:22 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 5-Apr-2007, 16:23.