The Herald reports

Third team may be boys against men
KEVIN FERRIE May 01 2007
Health and safety considerations could prove a major obstacle to maintaining a third professional team in Scotland.

After confirming the on-going nature of discussions with a consortium which claims to want to move the Border Reivers to Stirling, Gordon McKie, the SRU's chief executive, explained yesterday that the governing body can only support that plan if it does not expose young players to unacceptable risks.

In saying so, he said he was relying on the evidence of the man who best knows the qualities of current Reivers players, and who spent much of this season campaigning internally for the team to be saved, their head coach Steve Bates.

advertisement"We're not going to use any of our money funding a development team," McKie stressed. "A development team would, in Steve Bates' words, be cannon-fodder. What does that do for Scottish rugby in terms of the national team."

The SRU board's policy is to properly resource the fast-improving Glasgow Warriors, provide improved facilities for professional players and, where possible, support player development at youth level.

McKie does not rule out finding money if any proposal to maintain a third professional team is backed by a properly formulated business plan. However, even if there was no requirement for the SRU to provide funding he cannot guarantee that permission to play in the Magners League would be granted.

"We would have concerns that a development team would be in severe danger of creating health and safety problems for the players if they can't stand up to the Munsters, the Leinsters or maybe now the Glasgows of this world. So we would have concerns about the underlying viability of that," he said.

"We would require to nominate that team to play in the Magners League, and I'm not sure the board would want to nominate a development team because unless it's got a vision to become a properly funded team then what's the point of a team getting hammered every week."

A confidentiality agreement means he will do no more than confirm having met with the Burgess consortium last week, and that their plan - apparently supported by a string of wealthy individuals including billionaire American Roy Carver - is very different to that proposed by the same group a year ago.

He was speaking after a press conference announcing continued financial support from Bank of Scotland Corporate, as sponsors of the World Cup warm-up Tests.

In welcoming the backing of people who fully understand the SRU's financial situation, McKie expressed irritation about problems being caused by what begins to look like wilfully ignorant reporting of how the organisation is being run.

"Others are keeping their distance," he said more generally of potential sponsors. "What is going on is damaging the game, damaging people's interest in the game. That is inevitably going to make sponsors question whether or not they want an association with Scottish Rugby for reasons of where we were two years ago.

"I find it disappointing that there are pockets of continuing negativity, and while those people may not agree with what the board has done then it's time to move on, keep trying to grow the game and make Scottish Rugby credible and respected."

Bidding to address that he is conducting communications meetings with clubs around the country, but he admitted to finding the working environment testing. "I find the events of the last month very difficult to deal with," he said. "It is undermining a lot of the good work done.

"Two years ago this thing was teetering on the verge of a real problem. We've moved away from that now. We will announce good results at the AGM at the end of June. That will put things into perspective, so to have these continuing accusations of the Union being in disarray and not being competent to govern I just find distressing," he added.

This article was posted on 1-May-2007, 06:42 by Hugh Barrow.