THE HERALDS REPORTS

Logan lights up Stirling 7s with play and opinionsNEIL DRYSDALE April 30 2007
Kenny Logan was one of the stars of the show at the inaugural city of Stirling 7s on Saturday. Returning to his roots at Bridgehaugh, where he enjoyed championship-winning success with the County set in 1995, the former Scotland winger scored a try for his eponymous All Stars Select in their 47-0 defeat of Forth Valley.

Almost 2000 fans justified the Stirling club's faith in hosting the tournament by flocking to a deliciously-competitive day's entertainment, staged in resplendent weather.

However, Logan was in no mood later to draw a veil over the continuing conflict which is raging within Scottish rugby, and aimed a salvo at the SRU over their plans to reduce the number of professional teams to just two.

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"We need three sides and the future isn't bright if we keep stumbling along from one row to another," he said. "The top level of the Scottish game is in a mess at the moment and I don't understand how you can hope to attract youngsters into the sport when they will look at how the Borders have been shut down and ask themselves: Why on earth would I want to be part of that?'"

Logan had persuaded a London Wasps squad to travel north, and they romped to victory in the event with an impressive sequence of performances, as the prelude to beating the All Stars 42-17 in the final with a hat-trick of tries for David Doherty, a brace from Chris Bishay, and other touchdowns from Hugo Ellis, Ed Thrower and Mark Odejobi.

"That was a good day for me, I really enjoyed it, and I saw a lot of old faces for the first time since 1995, but the sad thing was that so many have just walked away from rugby, totally disillusioned with the way the clubs have been treated," said Logan.

"It's not even as if our pro sides are particularly good - they're not - and I reckon that most of the Wasps lads who played here today would waltz into the Glasgow and Edinburgh line-ups, but they can't get a sniff down in the Premiership.

"You saw their mentality from the start of their first match. It wasn't just that they were desperate to win, but they didn't even want to concede a single try explaining 41-0, 36-0 and 32-0 victories over Hamilton, Stirling University and 2 Scots, respectively and they managed it until the middle of the final. That is what professionalism is all about. Not money for money's sake, but the attitude that every tackle you make and pass you throw has to be 100% spot-on."

Logan had his leg strapped in plaster, and admitted that he hadn't trained seriously "for six months", but couldn't resist the offer when it arrived from County's Sam Parlane, who was principally responsible for organising the smoothly-run competition.

Logan believes the proceedings demonstrated what clubs have to do to appease their bank managers.

"This is a vibrant place for sport, they have invested in youth, and the kids are flocking to Bridgehaugh every Sunday, so the message speaks for itself that you can make things work if you have officials who are prepared to get their hands dirty," said Logan.

"That's another thing I don't understand about the SRU, namely why are they hanging on to control of the pro teams?

"They have to start realising that there are no certainties in sport and allow business people to take charge of these organisations. Because it isn't the SRU's remit to run the sport into the ground."

His words are echoed by a rising number of observers, who are beginning to wonder whether the SRU has any coherent business strategy. Thus, on an otherwise dreamy day's journey into night, apprehension still cast a shadow.

This article was posted on 30-Apr-2007, 06:26 by Hugh Barrow.