Chris Rea seeks to follow the historic route taken by Glasgow Accies when he attempts to get a Scottish pro side into the RFU
Glasgow Accies along with West of Scotland both joined the SRU in 1871 before the establishment of the Scottish Football Union in 1873
Maybe Chris should call his side Glasgow Accies and ask for their membership to be reinstated

THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
Scots pro side in London vital, says Rea
DAVID FERGUSON CHIEF RUGBY WRITER ([email protected])
CHRIS Rea fears there could be serious damage to northern hemisphere rugby if English clubs block his plans to help set up a new Scottish professional team in London.

The former Scotland centre and Scotsman journalist, and now IRB broadcast controller, is steering the "Friends of Scottish Rugby" group who have impressed the Scottish Rugby Union with their insistence that they possess the business acumen and finance to launch a new pro team south of the border. They have several big- hitting financiers within their ranks and Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, has warmed to them in a way he failed to with private investors striving to set up a team in Stirling or take over the running of Glasgow.

The potential appears to be great - a 500,000-strong Scottish community based in and around London, with another similar-sized population of Irish and Welsh. The hope would be that a fraction of that million may be sufficiently enthusiastic about rugby to pay to watch Magners League rugby on their doorstep throughout the season.

This, in turn, would provide the cash-strapped SRU with a third team in which to develop talent for the international squad after the controversial decision earlier this year to save costs by scrapping the Border Reivers.

In theory, it sounds good. However, Rea may end up in the same dead-end as other investors keen to help the Scottish game due to the resistance of English clubs. A Scottish pro team would not be registered with the RFU, as is the case with London Scottish for instance, as it would not intend to play in RFU competitions, but in the Magners League and ERC tournaments. However, the RFU's permission is necessary for a club setting up within England. That is the major obstacle.

The Scotsman understands that the RFU has said it was broadly supportive, but that several clubs have indicated they would have no truck with what they perceive to be a new threat to their already hugely competitive commercial markets in the south of England.

The RFU management board discussed the matter last week, but would make no comment. English clubs are also refusing to discuss the matter publicly, but it is understood that there is not unanimous resistance to the project. The SRU has been asked for more detail, and that will come from Rea and his group of Scots enthusiasts.

Rea admitted: "We can't move forward without the necessary approvals and we hope very much they will be given. But I also hope English clubs realise how important this move could be for the wider game of rugby.

"Scotland is struggling to cope with professional rugby and the finances needed to compete, and the national side is currently ranked 11th in the world. If Scotland was to drop into the second tier and, worse, not maintain its status within the professional game, then it would be a desperately sad day for Scotland but also for world rugby.

"The commercial dynamic of Scotland is so important. It has a major part to play in the commercial success of the Six Nations; were you to remove Scotland it would very badly affect the commercial side of the championship. And it's similar in the Heineken Cup and Magners League - it is important to have Scotland competing at the top level.

"Scotland is still one of the major rugby-playing nations and at a time when the IRB is working so hard to expand the game and increase interest and standards worldwide, [Scotland] is absolutely critical in my view to the strength and health of rugby going forward.

"If rugby shrinks in any way shape or form then, in the long-term, it will have a ruinous effect on the game generally and we'll see it contract into a few countries, or provinces or clubs within these countries, and that will be catastrophic."

We have come to live with such fears domestically in Scotland in recent years, but elsewhere the picture does not look so bleak. So why would English Premiership clubs or the Tri-Nations feel the need to help Scotland? Rea perhaps knows more than most, having travelled to more nations than anyone in his broadcasting work for the IRB, and he insisted: "It's very swan-like in my view - it looks good on the top, but under the surface there's a big struggle going on in all these countries.

"Rugby has tended to live beyond its means and it has to be very, very careful. The IRB is trying to develop and expand the game, and increase the playing base worldwide, and the World Cup provides a great opportunity to expand. But we all need each other in rugby. It's a relatively small community. In terms of details, we've looked at lots of options, but are still in the foothills until the necessary approvals are given. There is a confidence that this is viable, and if we get a favourable wind and approvals then it could go ahead as early as 2008/09.

"It would be run as a professional business, of course, but it is not a money-making venture; this is people who are passionate about the game in Scotland and our place in world rugby, who want to help develop Scottish players, but we need the RFU to understand our motivation and support us."

Rea envisages working closely with London Scottish if the go-ahead is given, but is mindful of the concern of Richmond members about the perils that saw the club cast out from the Premiership and down ten divisions for financial collapse less than a decade ago.

Rea, who scored in Scotland's famous back-to-back wins over England in 1971, added: "The great moments I enjoyed in Scotland playing rugby and playing for Scotland you never lose, and the thrill I got when I was doing my commentary and writing for The Scotsman, from going to the 1984 and 1990 Grand Slams, was fantastic. So the excitement for me would be to do something that would put Scottish rugby into a position where those moments could occur again."

It is a tough challenge, but were the RFU to summarily dismiss a plan to have a "Scottish" club in their country, but not playing in their competitions, they may be open to a legal challenge on the grounds that such a move would be against European competition law. And of course, they already have one, in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

This article was originally posted on 16-Jun-2007, 07:59 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 16-Jun-2007, 08:19.