SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
IAIN MORRISON
THE end, when it finally arrived after almost ten months of bickering, was mercifully quick. Friday's announcement from the SRU, made through gritted teeth, stated that both sides had come to an agreement that they could "live with". Scottish rugby's all too brief flirtation with outside investment was dead; the inquest can begin.

The first and obvious point is that if God makes man in his own image He still leaves plenty of room for diversity and it is difficult to imagine two more different characters than Gordon McKie and Bob Carruthers.

The SRU boss is an accountant, and a hard-nosed one at that, right down to his underpants. He has been called blunt, lacking in diplomacy, tact and any other social graces. He is also, after a decade of financial mismanagement, just what Scottish rugby needs or, perhaps more accurately, deserves. He will do his stuff and move on to the next basket case company in the next few years. The experience of the last year or so is unlikely to persuade him to tarry at Murrayfield longer than is strictly necessary.

He met his diametric opposite in Carruthers who is energetic and charming, combative and contradictory all in the time it takes to down a single pint of Guinness. Whatever his shortcomings, and there were plenty, even his enemies usually concede that Carruthers probably arrived at Murrayfield last spring with a sack full of good intentions.

Something happened to turn that enthusiasm into cynicism of the most destructive kind and McKie must shoulder some part of the blame for that. The fact that he repeatedly offered to go to arbitration won Carruthers much popular support. The fact that he withheld players from a World Cup training squad lost virtually all of it overnight.

For his part McKie is reluctant to take any blame for signing the deal with Carruthers and possibly with good reason. With the chief executive wary of this larger-than-life character it was Andy Irvine who persuaded a reluctant McKie to sign on the dotted line.

Whatever his motivation the chief executive must be regretting his decision to dip his pen in the ink and his toe into a commercial partnership that was unbalanced from the very start.

Some have accused Carruthers of failing to pick through the fine print of a deal that was, apparently, done and dusted within two working days. It certainly felt that way over the ensuing weeks and months as arguments sprang up like weeds. Quite why Edinburgh Rugby agreed to a deal that insisted they field just two non-Scots in the starting line-up when Glasgow can field almost an entire team of them is anyone's guess.

But Carruthers points to 30 November of last year as the date that things began to go awry. That was the day that money from the Union didn't arrive at Edinburgh Rugby and, while he says that some cash did arrive on 4 December, the Edinburgh boss maintains that much was held back with spurious excuses offered.

McKie has always claimed that the Union has not only abided by the contract but has bent over backwards to accommodate Carruthers' increasingly unreasonable demands.

One example he cites is the Heineken Cup money. In the original contract Edinburgh Rugby was due to receive £525,000 per annum. McKie insists that Carruthers accepted this figure, much less than one third of ERC monies, because he had a guarantee from the Union. In the event that the Heineken Cup did not take place Edinburgh Rugby would receive their contribution regardless. The shortfall was essentially an insurance policy.

In the so-called "peace deal" between the two bodies from March of this year the slice of money contributed to Edinburgh Rugby had risen to £740,000, one third of the Union's ERC income. McKie says that he made the concession simply to try and keep Carruthers sweet and, if that's the whole truth, £215,000 is quite some concession to make.

It still didn't quite work. McKie claims the two parties agreed terms verbally at that time but Carruthers failed to sign. Carruthers claimed that he was still discussing the small print when the deal was taken off the table.

Ever since then McKie has been looking for an end game that didn't include a seat at the table for Carruthers and now his wish has been granted, albeit at a price. McKie was keeping the exact figure that Carruthers' consortium was paid to walk away close to his chest but he rubbished one newspaper report that the figure was £1m and insisted that £750,000 was still an exaggeration. Whatever the final payment it will make a horrible mess of the next set of accounts coming, as it does, on top of the cost of closing the Borders.

McKie was promising a new start for "New Edinburgh" yesterday but any light at the end of this particular tunnel is more likely to be another locomotive than a new dawn for the game. Sadly the shambles that has become the hallmark of Scottish Rugby in the professional era continues and to what end? The Union is back to square one, funding two teams and exciting precious little by way of support for them either from rugby fans or commercial partners.

Edinburgh Rugby have some good players but not nearly enough once injuries start kicking in. They will struggle in the Magners League and get crucified in the Heineken Cup. They are still playing to a cast of just a few thousand hardy souls in the empty cavern of Murrayfield and losing money, despite the reduced wage bill, hand over fist. Any investors who might have thrown money at the game, and the queue never did stretch the length of Roseburn Terrace, will surely head for the hills.

"My view is that the pro-teams have to be self-standing," was McKie's line yesterday and he's right. But just how he hopes to spring the two remaining clubs from the dead hand of Murrayfield's centralising control after the events of the last few months is unclear; like so much else in this sorry business.

• Todd Blackadder spoke about his feelings of failure after leaving Edinburgh Rugby and Lyn Howells was singing from the same songsheet last week.

"I am just sorry that I was hired to do a job and I won't have the opportunity to see it through," said the veteran Welsh coach. He was one of just three people, alongside Aussie legend Steve Larkham and Edinburgh managing director Dean Lewis, who have probably parted company with the club in the wake of the SRU's "buy-back".

Howells accepts his squad would have struggled in the Heineken Cup, but he insists his young players would have "done a job" in the Magners League.

"Take Dougie Hall for instance," said Howells. "Andrew Kelly and Steve Lawrie can both do a job for us, but they would never get a chance if Hall hadn't left."

The bad news for the two young hookers is that Hall may well find his way back to Edinburgh rugby next year since Glasgow, with Ross Ford and Fergus Thomson, already have an embarrassment of riches. While Edinburgh Rugby had lost nine international players at the last count, Howells maintains that it was not necessarily a bad thing for the development of the team.

"We tried to change the culture at Edinburgh Rugby and it didn't sit nicely on a few shoulders," said Howells in a dig at some departing stars. "You can do it the same old way or you can try to change things. I have always found that the clubs that are willing to work harder are the ones that are usually successful.

"There were some very important people here living in their own little area. We tried to take them out of their comfort zone. If Edinburgh Rugby is happy to finish 5th or 6th in the Magners and fail to get beyond the pool stages in the Heineken Cup, then someone should have told me."

For all his optimism, Howells' inexperienced squad will do well to finish anywhere other than the basement next season, and they will do so under new management.

This article was posted on 12-Aug-2007, 07:41 by Hugh Barrow.