EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS REPORTS
BILL LOTHIAN ([email protected])
WATSONIAN president Morris Duncan today backed calls for a Scottish club team to be included in the second tier of European rugby competition next season.

On the eve of a Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership derby at Myreside which sees third-placed 'Sonians await fourth-placed Heriot's, Duncan said the traditional club scene "could die" without a removal of the glass ceiling effectively restricting cross-border competition to two centrally-run sides.

Echoing comments made in the Evening News earlier this week by Stan Watt, his Boroughmuir counterpart, Duncan hinted at financial backing soon being made available to support a campaign on behalf of traditional clubs.

He said: "I've been asked by a benefactor of the current club scene to get fellow Premiership Division One sides together to push for entry to the European Challenge Cup."

With Scotland only having two professional sides, Edinburgh and Glasgow, who are both in the Heineken Cup, there is no team left to enter the Challenge Cup.

Unless a Scottish representative is found for the second-tier Euro competition, the SRU faces losing its £250,000 share of the challenge cup revenue or, worse, having to enter either Edinburgh or Glasgow in the second-tier event.

Duncan is keen to seize the opportunity on behalf of clubs and said: "We're told in some quarters that Scottish clubs wouldn't be strong enough but, remember, Leeds are now in the Challenge Cup having just emerged from England's second tier where they played weekly in a competitive environment against clubs who aren't that far ahead of some of us north of the border, if at all. Others concern themselves with the cost of European entry but what's wrong with cutting to a ten-team premiership and then awarding the trail-blazers a fifth of the £250,000.

"The rest of that money could be distributed equally between others in Premiership Division One."

Such a scheme would provoke an outcry outwith the top flight but Duncan added: "Rugby in Scotland could die having already sunk to its knees at club level where it's reached the stage some lower outfits don't even bother to call off - they just don't turn up!

"Re-invigoration through European competition could take the form of an annual play-off between league champions and cup winners because that would add extra focus and revenue. Besides, I see European involvement as a way of complementing the existing two Heineken Cup entries through producing more experienced players for them to use. Having run these plans past some influential figures on the club scene a groundswell is developing that it would certainly be more advantageous than forming another Celtic League team in London."

If Watsonians, whose team is identical to that which completed a fourth-successive win against Edinburgh Accies last week, have a beef about the current structure it is shared at Heriot's - albeit about another issue.

For, in preparing a side to try to overcome the only team to win home and away against Heriot's last season, coach Bob McKillop is aggrieved at league rules debarring all except one pro on release from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

"I've had to make the toughest call of my 15 months at Heriot's in preferring centre Matt Dey to flanker Alan MacDonald because only one pro is allowed.

"This might not be the perfect week to raise the issue of overseas players arriving unrestricted while Scots-qualified men miss out when we are poised to give a debut off the bench to South African back rower Werner van Niekirk.

"Nevertheless, something needs to be done to correct a situation created by clubs who need to look more at spreading the available talent around rather than linking pros with their roots."

As for Van Niekirk, who was recommended to Heriot's by former Scotland prop Matthew Proudfoot and has arrived to experience foreign conditions, his arrival is timely.

"With Edinburgh coaches in attendance at training this week, the players upped the intensity through an anxiety to impress and this possibly contributed to three injuries," said McKillop, who has called up Cammy Goodall, Stewart Mustard and Steven Turnbull for Jim Thompson, Neil Meikle and Fraser McKenzie.

Leaders Boroughmuir add James Fish and Fergus Pringle to their squad for a visit to Edinburgh Accies who have Edinburgh's Greig Laidlaw at stand off. Currie head for Melrose with a squad including new recruits Michael Entwhistle, an Ireland under-19 squad flanker, who is at Edinburgh University and Mannie Wessels, a South African who has arrived from New Zealand to gain extra experience as he aims for the Counties provincial side on his return.

This article was posted on 9-Nov-2007, 13:44 by Hugh Barrow.