THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON ([email protected])
THE challenge of leading Scottish rugby waits for no-one. Barely had the rain settled on Scotland's close encounter with Italy in the World Cup than the squad were heading home as quarter-final losers and Gordon McKie was sliding back behind his Murrayfield desk to face another mountain of business marked 'urgent'.

To the wider world, this weekend means just one thing: the launch of Scotland's involvement in the 13th Heineken Cup. The union's chief executive is hopeful that it will not prove unlucky to Scottish involvement, but is acutely aware all the same of the difficulties facing Glasgow and Edinburgh in competing with sides boasting up to ten times their budgets.


McKie has sought shelter from a painful rugby storm in 2007, provoked largely by his board's savage cuts of Scotland's professional base effected by scrapping the Borders professional side for a second time and a long-running feud with Edinburgh's former owners. His handling of both issues was heavily criticised, his own mental strength severely tested, but he remained in place and has emerged from a World Cup that came within inches of witnessing a first-ever pool exit for Scotland relieved and now optimistically looking forward.

Even on a good news day for Scottish sport, as Commonwealth Games fever swept the nation, the difficult questions remain for rugby's chief. Why did Scotland get it wrong with home games in the World Cup? Who will lead Scotland forward, and for how long? And, crucially, where is the money to sustain professional rugby coming from?

McKie has concluded a World Cup review, with the executive board, and is soon to disseminate his findings to the union's member clubs. It is to be kept from wider public scrutiny until that is complete, but McKie did admit that he had wished the World Cup had never come to Scotland.

Critical of the SRU regime in 2004 who agreed to hosting pool games with Romania and New Zealand, the chartered accountant said: "We were reimbursed our costs in hosting games, but we received absolutely no revenue from tickets, hospitality, merchandise etc. so I truthfully don't know why they were ever hosted at Murrayfield.

"Obviously, some back-scratching took place with the voting for France to be hosts, but from a commercial perspective it didn't make any sense and from the supporters' point of view, many of whom had to travel twice or thrice to France and back, it didn't make any sense. Admittedly, Frank [Hadden] was keen on home advantage, and giving the squad the chance to recharge batteries.

"The [second] team picked against New Zealand was an issue for people, but the same team would have been selected had we been playing in France. It wasn't that; I just don't know why we ended up with this split venue and have no idea why we took on two games with no commercial return. Had there been a return which Wales seem to have got out of it, then it might have been different, but we didn't."

Money, the lack of, looms as large in the Scottish game as Murrayfield Stadium, which is why many inside the halls of power view McKie, with his fiscal prudence and reducing overdraft, as a convincing leader, away from rugby matters at least. A recent Six Nations deal with the BBC was a welcome boost, but McKie laughs off suggestions that the World Cup profits of £90 million should boost the Scottish game.

Through a new deal with the IRB and RWC organisers, the leading nations have benefited from a pay-out to compensate for the loss of an autumn Test series for the first time, though McKie refused to confirm rumours that it was close to £3 million, or if Scotland lost some money through hosting games. He stated that it was still less than the SRU would have earned from three autumn Test matches, even with the "minimal" bonus paid to quarter-finalists.

Other areas are being looked into for new streams of money, but sale of land at Murrayfield remains in abeyance until a new flood barrier and proposed tram network is built, and McKie has still to see signed the European accord which firms up the unions' future revenues. He hopes the SRU will continue to receive over £2 million despite closing the Borders, and retain both teams in the lucrative Heineken Cup event without recourse to qualification. Others have doubts.

The international tier, and performance of the Scotland rugby team, remains the biggest earner, however, and, to that end, McKie hopes to nail down the coaching team in the next few weeks. Hadden remains the No 1 choice within Murrayfield but there is unlikely to be a repeat, McKie hinted, of the four-year deal handed to Matt Williams after the 2003 World Cup, after which results blew up and provoked an expensive pay-off.

"Four years is an extremely long period to commit to, for a union and a coach," said McKie. "I would have thought there were shorter periods to measure progress, particularly as national coach. The discussions haven't really begun and won't until Frank is back, but my view is that there are some deliverables sooner than 2011."

Still, Scottish rugby needs long-term planning. A new five-year plan is now being finalised and due to be issued to clubs for thoughts in the lead-up to Christmas. Unlike PM Gordon Brown, perhaps, McKie has a vision and, thankfully, plans to share it.

Our discussion wends inevitably to the Commonwealth Games' success and whether it might fuel the bid, currently at feasibility study stage, to bring the Rugby World Cup to Scotland in 2015. The tournament heads to New Zealand in 2011, but with much criticism ringing around the IRB for shunning Japan the Far East is a major challenger for the following event. This would go against the regular switching from northern to southern hemisphere, but could Scotland hold it in any case? McKie is realistic.

"The Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cup are quite different events," he said, "and my own personal feeling is that we would struggle to host a World Cup ourselves.

"There are the stadiums, but it would require the willingness of football clubs and if the tournament remained in the August-September-October period would we get Celtic and Rangers to give up their grounds for a Rugby World Cup? For us to go it alone is a pretty tall order, but my personal feeling is that a bit of the cake is better than none, so hosting it in partnership with another UK nation may be a sensible way forward. That's not contradicting what I said about this year's event, because we would only take it on if we were to benefit financially.

"But we have not engaged anyone on that yet; we wanted to wait until after the Commonwealth Games decision before examining the feasibility study and deciding on the next stage. We'll do that now."

And so to today, and the professional teams who fly the Saltire in the Heineken Cup; what can Edinburgh and Glasgow supporters expect after two years of great change? McKie may be more confident about the union's cash flow, but knows it remains lightweight and so retains his natural reluctance to spout promises. There does appear at last, however, to be some semblance of recognition that the pro teams have to strive to be entities in their own right, with ambitions to grow crowds and finance themselves.

"The teams are not cannon fodder with the sole aim of producing guys to play for Scotland," said McKie. "We do own them and it's important that the weekend before an international game we don't have our best players battered before playing France, but they have to be competitive, to get people to watch them, to make them commercially viable.

"Glasgow has been given a serious squad this year because they were ahead of the game on Edinburgh; Edinburgh have a serious coaching team that demonstrates ambition on our part to bring players to Edinburgh. We want our pro teams to compete more vigorously rather than being used as simple development teams for Scotland, but we also have to get the balance yet, and our revenue is derived from having a successful national team.

"We are still looking at a third team in London, where the population and financial backing could support it, but I have to say discussions with the RFU and PRL [Premier Rugby Ltd, the English premiership umbrella] are very difficult. They are ongoing and we have not given up, but some of the resistance is disappointing when this could enhance the game as a whole."

Scottish rugby has endured years of turmoil locked in a seemingly perpetual struggle with professional sport, the familiar refrain of a lack of finance and facilities at the heart of subsequent crises. But as the curtain goes up on the showpiece event of European club rugby, the SRU's chief executive is keen for the Games' announcement to spread good news and open doors to more uplifting messages across Scottish sport.

He concluded: "The opportunity this decision affords everyone involved in sport in Scotland is huge. The Commonwealth Games probably ranks only behind the Olympics in terms of scale for a global multi-sport event and it's important that the excitement the Games will generate is used to capture the imagination of the population, increasing participation and having a positive impact on long-term health.

"Rugby 7s will be one of the showpiece events of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and [the SRU] looks forward to working with Glasgow 2014 to put our sport, the city of Glasgow and our country on the international map.

"Our congratulations go to everyone involved in bringing the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Scotland. Now the hard work really begins to ensure that as a country we deliver a Games to remember. For rugby, the answer right now is for us to make the most of what we have, and build on it, but it definitely helps when there is a positive mood around Scottish sport."

This article was posted on 10-Nov-2007, 08:45 by Hugh Barrow.