THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
JUST three months ago, the highest-ranking officials of the Scottish Rugby Union made the frank confession that the game's governing body had made a mess of professional rugby in this country.

Announcing the closure of the Borders team, the chairman of the SRU's executive board left nothing to the imagination. "Put bluntly," said Allan Munro, "the professional game in Scotland is in danger of dying."

It was a struggle to find a pulse last night as the dispute between the union and Edinburgh - incredibly, "business partners" - threatened to kill off another team and reduce Scotland's complement of professional sides to the rump of Glasgow. If the game was in danger of dying three months ago, it begs the question of what has been done to revive the patient since then.

Bob Carruthers, the Edinburgh owner, has brought the team's future to the very brink through his termination of its associate membership of the SRU. Even if the move was not designed to force the SRU to declare that Edinburgh could no longer play any games, it is difficult to see the tactic achieving anything of worth, or contributing anything positive in a bid to end the feud.

For its part, the governing body appears to have gladly accepted Edinburgh's termination of membership, and has shown no recent evidence of wanting its partnership with Edinburgh to work.

The acrimony last week cost Edinburgh two respected leaders in its managing director, Graeme Stirling, and Alex Carruthers, the executive chairman, who had built solid reputations over the past year among clubs and businesses around the capital. They quit, wholly deflated, and believe the SRU's leadership to be impossible to work with constructively.

This has the same ring to it as the disputes which have marred McKie's second year at the helm, notably in his handling of the closure of the Borders, in which he was accused by the players of "setting them up to fail", and government bodies involved in the bid to take the IRB sevens to Melrose, where, again, he was accused of misleading them. McKie is an accountant and was brought in by the SRU primarily to help a body crippled by financial losses, and he has earned his spurs since taking over in August 2005, in managing to restructure the governing body, improve the system of book-keeping and stem financial losses. The operating debt this year hung just under the £19million mark, it was revealed at the recent AGM, but that came with the warning that the leaden overdraft may actually rise from its current £23m level by the time of next month's separate financial general meeting due to compensatory payments resulting from the board's decision to shut down the Borders.

Under his stewardship, club rugby is beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel after years of dwindling resources, and he was roundly applauded by over 170 delegates at the AGM for plans for youth and regional development and club funding he has steered through.

The international scene may appear in decline after Scotland picked up the wooden spoon in this year's RBS Six Nations Championship, but Frank Hadden, the national coach, is relatively happy after securing a new academy system for developing players, new funding for World Cup preparation, with what is widely believed to be the most advanced summer training camp any Scotland squad has experienced, and other means of support from McKie.

Glasgow are also happy with a move back to Firhill, and money for a bigger squad and two big-name international signings in Daryl Gibson and Lome Fa'atau.

But, contrary to Hadden's assertions recently, some Borders players in his national squad still do not know if they have a club to return to after the World Cup, while more than 20 are understood to be quitting rugby altogether and there remains concerns that Hadden will be picking a XV loaded with exiled players, some of whom are not playing 1st XV rugby, in next year's Six Nations.

Of all those other parties, Hadden will be the most concerned at this week's turn of events. His capital-based players were happy to have emerged from a difficult first year under new owners at Edinburgh, one which promised brighter times than endured under SRU control, but was scragged by the continual snarling and back-biting between their bosses and those inside Murrayfield. Now many, released for a week's holiday, are wondering whether they have a future with Edinburgh.

Both McKie and Carruthers are undoubtedly at fault throughout this long drawn-out affair, both have made mistakes and both have created this unholy mess with their inability to find some genuine common ground. Carruthers' latest step, to withdraw as an associate member of the SRU, could be his biggest mistake, but his contention that McKie has given Edinburgh little encouragement seems to have some merit.

The end result is that Scottish rugby's governing body tried to utilise private investment from rugby-loving Scots and failed miserably to make it work. They are today left with one professional team, Glasgow, a large number of disenfranchised players, bewildered clubs and supporters, an army of European clubs, and administrators of the Magners League and Heineken Cup asking what is going to be in place, as we are fast approaching the new season, due to kick off in two months' time.

Stand-offs have long been a problem for Scottish rugby, but one fears that unless McKie and Carruthers can come together in the next few days in the best interests of the game, then this particular off-field dilemma will damage far more than just the reputations of the main protagonists.

BOB CARRUTHERS
BORN in 1960, Carruthers attended Kirkcaldy High School, played second row at Kirkcaldy and studied Economics at Edinburgh University. Worked for British Airways before joining Central TV, where he began a love affair with TV and film-making. He first became a millionaire after selling Cromwell Productions, which produced Scottish films Chasing the Deer, The Bruce and award-winning Macbeth, but attracted more critical acclaim for historical documentaries. He has since added to his wealth with Classic Rock Productions, which specialises in re-packaging well-known rock bands from the 1970s and Eighties, and concert promotion. An expert on JRR Tolkein, Carruthers has written books on military history, including The Russian Front 1941-45 with the late Professor John Erickson of Edinburgh University. Married with three daughters and living in Stratford, he is vice-president and still plays for Claverdon Rugby Club and sponsors Kirkcaldy.

GORDON McKIE
BORN in 1957, McKie is married with three children, two daughters and a son, James, one of Scotland’s top teenage tennis talents. A graduate of Heriot-Watt University and chartered accountant, McKie started out as an audit senior with Arthur Young McClelland Moores, was an investment analyst at the Scottish Development Agency from 1982-84, corporate banking manager at TSB until 1988 and general manager with John Menzies for the next four years. He spent a year as group finance director at British Thornton Holdings before being appointed managing director of MIMtec Holdings, in 1993, where he came together with Eamon Hegarty, his finance director at the SRU. They revived NT Systems for Digital and Frazier International, which they sold two years later. McKie and Hegarty tried the same recovery of Semple Cochrane, but it ceased trading in May, 2005, shortly before McKie was appointed SRU chief executive, with the backing of union bankers, the Bank of Scotland.

Q & A
Q: Why have Edinburgh resigned from the SRU?

A: There does not appear to be a strong practical reason behind the move, other than as a strategy to raise the stakes in an on-going dispute. Club owner Bob Carruthers says Edinburgh took associate membership last year in the spirit of co-operation with the SRU, but now that relations have broken down, he sees no need to maintain membership.

Q: How did the SRU and Edinburgh end up in dispute in the first place?

A: They are in disagreement over how much revenue the club should receive from the governing body.

Q: Is share of revenues covered in the contract agreed by both parties?

A: Yes, but the two sides have different interpretations of what the contract means.

Q: Why has the SRU said Edinburgh can no longer play rugby matches?

A: International Rugby Board regulations state that teams must not play against any team that is not affiliated to a union.

Q: How will Edinburgh fulfil fixture list commitments in the new season?

A: As things stand, the team will be unable to meet its obligations.

Q: Surely this scenario would have serious and negative implications for the union too?

A: Correct. The Heineken Cup and Magners League tournaments have been structured on the basis that Scotland will provide two teams.

Q: What happens to the Edinburgh players now?

A: They have been advised to consider any alternative offers of employment from other clubs. In the meantime, they can carry on training in the hope that the issue is resolved before the start of the new season in September.

Q: Will those players be able to represent Scotland at the World Cup in September?

A: The SRU was unable to clarify this position last night.

Q: What happens if Carruthers says he has had enough?

A: In the unlikely event that the club owner writes off his investment and walks away, the team can still be saved if the SRU can afford to meet players' wages.

Q: What if the union cannot afford to pick up the wage bill?

A: The doomsday scenario. Players have to move abroad, and Scotland is left with only one team. Professional rugby has failed.

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This article was posted on 10-Jul-2007, 11:04 by Hugh Barrow.