SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS
Dawn of a new era?
By Hamish Stuart
Professionalism was supposed to enhance the game and improve results. But the statistics paint a starkly different picture for Scotland
Comment
SOMETIMES THERE can be truth, damn truth and statistics - Scotland are the worst of the old Five Nations in the professional era and were better off in amateur rugby. The figures show while England, Ireland and France have all improved by almost a fifth since the game went open, the Scots were more successful as amateurs than as highly trained professionals.

The slump is most pronounced if you compare the 11 years before professionalism with the 11 seasons since. Since rugby went professional in 1995, Scotland have won just 35 per cent of their Five and the Six Nations matches - the lowest out of England, Ireland, France and Wales.

In the 11 years before rugby union went professional Scotland won more than half their matches on 52.1 per cent, beating England three times as opposed to two, Ireland nine times instead of five, France six times instead of three and Wales seven times compared to five.

advertisementSince international rugby began with a Scotland victory over England, the Scots have enjoyed a comparable record with Ireland, only narrowly behind France.

Over the 85 years of a recognisable amateur Five Nations championship, only England and Wales with their greater player numbers or rugby commitment had a significantly better record in the Five Nations - both winning more than half their games.

So what has gone wrong? Why did amateur rugby union suit Scotland better than the professional game when players develop their game full time?

In a way the most surprising thing is that no-one is surprised. Scotland's professional ineptitude is taken for granted, these figures just confirm what people suspected anyway.

"I do not think the professional game suits Scotland," is the stark assessment of 1984 Grand Slam-winning captain Jim Aitken, someone whose whole rugby career was amateur. "A lot of that will go down to the people involved in and running Scottish rugby at the time the game went professional who did not really know what they were doing.

"In particular I mean some of the people who were involved in the success of the amateur days - Jim Telfer and Ian McGeechan."

Telfer was Aitken's coach for the 1984 Grand Slam, McGeechan was in charge for 1990 with a youthful Craig Chalmers at outside half. "The players in the amateur era were certainly more dedicated and they were not even getting paid," said Chalmers, whose career spanned amateur and professional days and who is now the Melrose coach. "When the game went professional it was not done very well. People did not look into it enough and a lot of players did not adapt well enough.

"I wish I had gone to play in England earlier because I found a much more professional set-up, much more analysing, talking about things, communicating, looking at ourselves, our opponents and the referee - there was no stone unturned. There was so much more work so you could see why they were ahead of Scotland."

Scotland's Wooden Spoon performance this season put them below Wales in results since 1995, but England, France and Ireland have all improved substantially in the professional era.

England and France have been able to make the most of superior player numbers, while Ireland face comparable resources to Scotland or Wales but have handled the transition much better with an incredible 18 per cent improvement in results.

"Ireland have been calculated about how to make a job of the professional game and they had people with business heads to make it work," said Aitken. "We have a mountain to climb and I do not think there is anyone there to lead us over the top.

"The way things are going we won't be there in 10-12 years time, the game will be a thing of the past - there will be a few amateur clubs and that will be it. It is a sad state of affairs but the facts and figures prove it."

Of course one of the key areas is the near collapse of Borders rugby - one of the traditional strengths of the Scottish game. More than half the 1984 Grand Slam-winning team and half the 1990 side were Borders players.

With just two Borders teams left in the top division and the disbanding of the poorly supported Border Reivers, the national problems are summed up in this former rugby heartland.

Chalmers is a Melrose product and now the club's coach as they survive in the first division. "There are only two Borders clubs left at the top level, Hawick and Melrose," he said. "We have got to make sure we develop these players so they can go to Edinburgh or Glasgow or Newcastle and hopefully they will still come through without having a Borders team.

"The clubs need to take more responsibility and we need to take it on ourselves to give these young guys the best we can give them."

Former Gala captain Aitken is less positive. "Borders rugby is a disaster area and that is where the strength of our team was," he said. "There is still a Borders union and I think they should pull out of the Scottish Rugby Union and build an amateur game.

"In the first year of league rugby Gala and Hawick played off for the title on a Tuesday evening. There were 14,000 in the ground and the area was gridlocked. Now Gala are in the third division, Hawick second from bottom in the first and they struggle sometimes to get 14,000 to watch Scotland."

Scotland with an historical reliance on the struggling Borders area and public schools has suffered in the professional era, while others - such as Ireland - have left them standing.

For instance, Ireland have won the last seven matches between the two.

Scotland have suffered slumps before, the early 1950s in particular, and come through. Can that happen again this time? "It is getting worse. I have chosen to walk away from the shambles and have no answers to it any more," is Aitken's summing up. "Since the game went professional they have completely ditched the clubs who were the base of the success.

"They spent obscene amounts of money on bringing over anyone with a Scottish granny which turned people off the game, they tried to buy themselves out of trouble.

"It has gone so far now I do not think the situation is retrievable. We have no money, hardly anyone left playing and are completely lacking in ideas.

"The only thing they have succeeded in is turning a lot of rugby people off the game.The only way this can be sorted out is to get rid of everyone who has been involved and start again from scratch - then maybe we have a chance."

This article was posted on 29-Apr-2007, 06:54 by Hugh Barrow.