Scotland on Sunday

MARTIN HANNAN

IN HIS heyday he was a will o' the wisp full-back, capable of sending opponents the wrong way with a dip of his shoulder while his electric pace took him away from defences at a rate of knots.

On Friday night, Scotland's greatest-ever rugby player - as voted for by the fans - became president of the Scottish Rugby Union. Andy Irvine's dazzling sidestep on the field of play must now be evidenced in the boardroom at Murrayfield as he tries to heal the deep divisions within the sport and take Scottish rugby forward.

"The hatchets have been well and truly buried," said Irvine, "and we want to start with a completely clean slate. There was an awful lot written about the so-called Old Guard which was completely over the top. Most of them were there for the right intentions and though I think one or two were interested in self-preservation and were in rugby administration for the wrong reasons, the majority were ordinary decent club guys who spent a huge amount of their time who were sucked in by a system that was wrong. The system has now changed.

"It is important that we have new people with ideas and enthusiasm, but also that we have people who have been around for a while, though the most important thing is that we all need to work together and make the right decisions."

Irvine took over as president at Friday night's SRU annual general meeting after the most turbulent year in the history of the Union. The departure of chairman David Mackay, the consequent resignation of chief executive Phil Anderton, the sacking of national coach Matt Williams, the redundancies of the three professional team chief executives and more bile and blether paraded in public than you'll ever see in the Holyrood Parliament - it was, as outgoing president Gordon Dixon admitted, not an enjoyable year.

But the Dunlop Report after the strategic review has brought in a new corporate governance structure which at last meets expectations. Tomorrow we will find out the names of the four members of the new SRU council who will join the all-powerful executive board which will run the Union. A chairman and non-executive directors will be appointed, then a chief executive, director of rugby and national coach. It's a lot to do in a short time.

"We would like to do it all as soon as possible," said Irvine "but there's quite a few people involved in the Lions' tour who come into the reckoning.

"I'm not quite sure of the timescale because until last night I really didn't have any involvement and I'm still not quite sure about procedures and finances, but I'll be working to take that on board in the next couple of weeks."

Irvine, 53, won 51 caps for Scotland between 1972 and 1982 and toured three times with the British and Irish Lions in 1974, 1977 and 1980. A member of Heriot's, where he coaches the midi section, he has been very successful in business and is executive chairman (Scotland) of property agents Jones Lang LaSalle, who fully support his desire to help the sport he graced on the field.

"I am under no illusions about the time commitment I will have to make, so it is goodbye to a social life and golf for a year.

"And it will take an awful lot longer than a year to turn things round, I'm afraid. But at least we now have the structures in place. We are many years behind our competitors, and initially we have got to go out and increase the revenues as much as we possibly can, but we also have to be an awful lot smarter in the way we spend our hard-earned money.

"We have made expensive mistakes, and, unlike England and other countries, which are gushing with finance, we are running on meagre rations. There are very difficult decisions ahead because we can't keep running a business year after year on a deficit."

The respect in which Irvine is held will be his greatest asset. He also genuinely wants to get everyone in Scottish rugby working together. It should be noted that the first person to walk forward from the floor of the AGM and congratulate him with great dignity was George Blackie, the Glasgow representative who stood against Irvine for the presidency and who, having lost that vote 107 to 64, is no longer even a member of the new SRU council. Irvine was genuine in his hope that Blackie will not be lost to rugby administration.

Even at an unusually sombre yet positive AGM, controversial matters from the days of the Old Guard still reared their head. George Jack, a member of the former committee and now Edinburgh district delegate to the new council, asked two potentially devastating questions about the terms of Anderton's contract. As Scotland on Sunday revealed last week, David Mackay made no apologies for including severance payments of £250,000 in Anderton's contract and not telling the general committee.

No minutes of the contract were recorded, so Jack asked if company law been broken and if so what was the legal advice to the Union? The implications were understood by all - it was either a last swipe at Mackay and Anderton, or more likely the board which took over Murrayfield in January was covering its collective back.

For a moment it looked as though the whole Mackay and Anderton row was about to boil over again, but in a neat evasive move of which Irvine the player would have been proud, outgoing chairman and interim chief executive Freddie MacLeod simply said the union's lawyers had advised "no comment" to be made. And he made none.

Expect that matter to go away now, because if it does not do so there are other questions which could be asked. Like why was legal advice on the contractual issue costing £24,000 sought by the replacement board when the Union's own lawyers had already given their advice that the pay-off was sound? And who exactly sanctioned the payments of £450,000 in total to sacked national coach Matt Williams and his colleagues as well the three sacked chief executives of the professional teams? And exactly who approved the soaring expenses bills run up by the old committee in the last days if its empire? And was the strategic review good value at £127,000?

It would be best all round if all of these issues were put to bed and Irvine and the new board, council and chief executive were allowed to go forward.

"We had a really positive meeting with the former committee members and they know that the new council's role is to monitor and help the strategy but not to interfere," said Irvine.

"The board now runs things and has a massive responsibility and they can't afford to make mistakes, which is why it is so important to get the right people.

"I also want to see greater openness and communication and liaison and no more of this spin that we have seen over the years.

"That's why I will be asking the board and the council to sign up to a code of conduct which will be published so that people can see how we are going to run the business."

Ultimately Irvine and the new regime will be judged by success for Scotland and our professional teams and clubs on the pitch, and by the numbers who play the game, and as a crowd-pleaser par excellence in his day, Irvine wants to see Scottish rugby's supporters come out in numbers to help get the finances back on track, particularly in the autumn Tests against New Zealand, Samoa and Argentina.

"I feel sorry for the fans because there is now so much rugby and it is not exactly cheap to go along, but it is such a massive part of our revenue that it would be tremendous to get as much support as we can behind the lads, not just in the autumn tests but for the pro teams next season."

Expect much more of this ambassadorial approach from Irvine, and if he is half as good a president as he was a player, Scottish rugby might at last savour some good times ahead.

This article was posted on 26-Jun-2005, 08:23 by Hugh Barrow.