THE SUNDAY HERALD LOOKS AHEAD
Hopes & Dreams
Stability is needed in the coming year if the Scottish game is to continue to grow, writes Lewis Stuart. However, a look into the future suggests that a boring 2008 might not be on the cards
Comment
IF I was any good at telling the future, you would not be reading this. Instead of writing for a living, I'd be down the bookies making a fortune. Yet having the psychic abilities of a brick does have its compensations: for one thing it saves on tea leaves, crystal balls and tarot cards, and it does not have to block the irresistible urge to take a peek at the future, even if the technique is more Hercule Poirot than a psychic sidekick.

In the chaotic world of Scottish rugby, it's a dangerous game to play. A year ago, who would have predicted the summer trauma as the SRU and the new owners of Edinburgh Rugby fought out a public spat that ended with Bob Carruthers, the Edinburgh money man, handing the club back to the cash-strapped union to run on its own terms again? Who could have seen the vital Rugby World Cup game against Italy in the south of France being played in the kind of downpour that makes real rugby nigh-on impossible or Argentina defeating France to become Scotland's quarter-final opponents?

Yet Janus, who gives his name to the month we are about to enter, suggests even if the future is tricky, it is worth having a peek. And while, had it not been for the political diversions, 2007 would have been all about 80 minutes in St Etienne, 2008 will spread the key points more evenly across the year.

advertisement
Yet, for all the home games against France, England, South Africa and New Zealand, and the prospect of revenge of a sort against Argentina, the mega, mega, mega, overpoweringly huge hope for all in Scottish rugby in 2008 is that Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, gets his golf handicap down somewhere towards the low single figures it was when he took the job. That on the way he wins the midweek medal regularly, and collects enough trophies to seriously annoy whoever has to polish them.

It is not that anybody is that worried about who buys the drinks when the head of Scottish Rugby hits the clubhouse, but if he has enough time to sort out his driving, chipping, pitching and putting, then he is not sorting out another crisis in administration of the game.

Scottish rugby desperately needs a period of boredom. Because boredom means stability and stability means that things have a chance to settle and grow. Which is the only way rugby this side of the border is to have a future that is better than playing four games a year against the likes of Portugal, Spain and Russia with Georgia and Romania out of our league.

The fear is McKie ends up firefighting another crisis, the obvious candidate being a return of the financial woes, particularly should something go wrong with the long-term project to slash the debt by selling land around the Murrayfield stadium. The tram project, which involves selling a strip of land along the south edge, seems safe but there are still plenty of hurdles when it comes to the flood prevention scheme and whatever building project follows that. The new administration at the City of Edinburgh Council has not shown itself to be rugby-friendly, despite the millions of pounds the sport pumps into the local economy.

The other major hope is that after McKie has secured his final medal of the golfing season, he can sit down with Frank Hadden for a review of the year that will take no more than five minutes before the national coach is invited to take a short holiday and then return to lead the team into 2009.

Again, this is not a particular concern for the fizzy water consumption at Murrayfield, merely another example of laissez-faire no-crisis management. If they can settle the national issues that quickly, things must have gone well on the field and the probability is that if the national team is doing OK, then so are Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The crunch for Hadden comes early; Sunday February 3 to be precise. That's when France arrive at Murrayfield with a new-look management panel in Marc Lievremont and Emile Ntamack, neither with any pedigree as coaches, trying to pick up the pieces of their country's World Cup campaign.

Scotland are targeting the game as one they can win, and the performance and result of that match will set the tone for the whole season.

Which rather limits Hadden's ability to experiment; the result is so important he needs stability but also has to make changes. It is another example of the tricky tightrope that separates loyalty to players who have served well over 30, 40, 50 caps or more from rewarding current form. Though he cannot look too far ahead he has to start the evolutionary process that will finish in 2011 with the World Cup in New Zealand.

That means finding immediate places for the likes of John Barclay as a specialist openside flanker, and Nick De Luca as the kind of centre who can add some creativity to a midfield unit that has relied too much on crash-bang-wallop rugby while manufacturing chances for the likes of Moray Low over the course of the season.

To achieve international success, Glasgow and Edinburgh will have to be going well and another hope for 2008 is that one or both start to emerge as serious challengers for the Magners League titles and that this time next season one or both is looking comfortable for qualification in the Heineken Cup. The fear is that they will continue to bumble along with the minnows.

Naturally, you would expect that if they can manage the results, crowds will start to pick up, particularly after Edinburgh move to Meggetland and the big games start to attract "sold out" notices. The fear is Scotland remains the only country with a professional game that cannot win the public over - again Portugal, Spain and Russia beckon.

In an ideal world they would already be on the fixture card for the club international side, a wonderful innovation, which has a tricky year ahead with games in Ireland and Wales but no home matches to feel the warmth of a loyal support. With luck that will be put right in 2008 as the fixture list expands.

At the clubs they come from, it is all about numbers, more players, more supporters, more helpers all recognising that there is a lot of more-than-decent rugby being played at that level and it needs all the backing it can get.

So here's to a boring 2008, where all the issues are confined to the playing field, where the only conflicts have a ball in the middle and where there is no need to bitch about coaches, slag off players or groan at the latest bout of infighting. I don't know if that counts as a prediction, but it is certainly the hope for the year ahead. The fear is the exact inverse.

This article was posted on 30-Dec-2007, 09:48 by Hugh Barrow.