THE HERALD REPORTS

NEIL DRYSDALE July 10 2007

KEPT IN THE DARK: SRU chief executive Gordon McKie. Picture: Gordon Terris
The row between the Scottish Rugby Union and Edinburgh intensified yesterday when the club resigned from the governing body.

The club's owner, Bob Carruthers, emailed the resignation notice to the SRU secretary, Graham Ireland, yesterday morning, precipitating a chain of events which will make Edinburgh's players pariahs unless common sense prevails.

It follows days of wrangling between Carruthers and the union's chief executive, Gordon McKie, who has now decided there will be no more public discussion of the matter, given the increasing likelihood of litigation between the club and the SRU.

Edinburgh's players face being prohibited from competing in any tournament involving clubs affiliated to the IRB: ie, next season's Magners League and Heineken Cup.

They are furious at the manner in which their careers and livelihoods are being imperilled, just two months before up to a dozen of them will be involved in Scotland's World Cup campaign.

"After all the difficulties which faced so many players with the closure of the Borders, you would have hoped for a bit of common sense to break out in Scottish rugby, but now we are heading into another unknown situation and the danger is that we will regarded as a laughing stock by the rest of the world," said an agent of several Edinburgh players yesterday.

"As things stand, we have nobody to play next season, and that is a completely unacceptable state of affairs, because all that the players want is to be given the chance to do their best for Edinburgh and they are being denied that opportunity.

"There has been stuff in some newspapers, quoting Mr Carruthers as saying that if our players are given a better alternative, then they should leave, but it just doesn't work like that. The guys all have contracts with Edinburgh Rugby Ltd, they want these to be honoured by the club and if they are not, then we will be talking to our lawyers."

Three points need stressing here. Firstly, that whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, Bob Carruthers has done himself no favours with his daily dose of doom and gloom, after the fashion of Lord Haw Haw.

On Saturday, for instance, he said there would have to be "widespread redundancies" at his club, spoke mystifyingly about "Alpha and Omega" and claimed that Edinburgh Rugby might have to emulate the example of Stirling Albion FC rather than Barcelona.

Within 24 hours, he had backtracked and was declaring: "We will never announce redundancies. What we have said to our guys is, if you have something else in the pipeline, then go for it'.

"These are highly employable guys and it is not like the Motorola people getting laid off at Bathgate."

Apart from the offensive nature of the last comment, this is making up policy on the hoof, which might work in guerrilla warfare, but not in business.

After the difficulties which faced players with the closure of the Borders, you would have hoped for common sense... we will be regarded as a laughing stock by the world


Secondly, it has to be emphasised that, regardless of whether Carruthers' grievances are justified, there could hardly be a worse time for him to indulge in sabre-rattling.

The Scotland coach, Frank Hadden, is known to be incandescent at the ongoing disruption which has affected his squad, just a month before his team contest their opening World Cup warm-up match at Murrayfield. It seems the height of folly to drag internationalists into a private spat between Edinburgh and the SRU, but that is exactly what Carruthers has done by orchestrating and exacerbating the kind of row which will seem utterly baffling to anybody who has matured beyond the playground.

Finally, of course, there is the most absurd feature of the whole stramash. Namely that all the posturing and handbags at 10 paces shouldn't disguise the fact Edinburgh Rugby will be in the Magners League and Heineken Cup next season, if only because the SRU needs that scenario, as do the players, and Carruthers must appreciate he will not earn any money while his personnel are sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

In short, this argument is about ego, not principle, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise.

As David Jordan, the Celtic Rugby director, said yesterday: "We are hoping to publish our fixtures within the next seven days, so we're obviously keen to know what's happening. But we have had no formal communication from the SRU and, until we hear otherwise, we are going on the basis of the status quo, which is that Scotland will have two teams Glasgow and Edinburgh in the competition."

Anything else and there would be the unthinkable prospect of a solitary Scottish representative. It can't happen. And it won't "The boys are in a difficult position, but we are pretty confident this will all be revolved sooner rather than later," said a second players' agent. "Sure, it's unsettling, especially because most of these lads have families to worry about, but they know their first responsibility is to Edinburgh and Scotland, they are all desperate to get out and do their stuff on the pitch and, from that perspective, nothing has changed."

The sceptic might wonder why, almost 12 years after professionalism was sanctioned by the IRB, Scotland continues to struggle so badly with it.

Yet the seeds of discontent were sewn from the moment that McKie and the Carruthers brothers, Bob and Alex, shook hands on the pioneering partnership last July, without proper scrutiny of what each of the parties wanted and expected from it. One suspects the Murrayfield authorities will not make that mistake again.

This article was posted on 10-Jul-2007, 06:57 by Hugh Barrow.