THE HERALD REPORTS

Playing numbers highlight magnitude of Scotland’s task to stay competitive

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer March 13 2008
In going about your business today take a good look at the pimply adolescents you encounter and consider how many look like they could leap over tall buildings or outrun a speeding bullet.

I don't suspect you will see that many, but if the critics of Scottish rugby are to be believed then some of them really should be capable of such feats because to achieve what is expected of the national rugby team we would have to be a race of super human beings. Apparently it is not enough to be competitive, Scottish players fail in their responsibilities, it would seem, if they do not win with style.

Yet the International Rugby Board statistics on playing numbers indicate the scale of the challenge that faces Scotland's coaches. Among their immediate peer group - the other members of the Six Nations - Scotland has no right whatsoever to be competitive with fewer than 25,000 registered players. More than two and a half times as many women (58,871) play the game in England. The number of male players in England is 716,505.


No wonder Brian Ashton, England's coach, is under pressure. For every Scottish player at every level of the sport England should, by definition, have 28. It ought to be a source of national shame that Scotland can ever beat them at rugby.

Playing numbers in France are registered as 212,059, in Ireland as 100,974, in Italy as 45,376 and in Wales as 42,000. My own view is that the Welsh number is rather conservative but even if accurate their rugby culture is such that the majority of young men with sporting talent target rugby as their first-choice sport.

For argument's sake the official figures are sufficient anyway because the comparison is powerful enough. They show that far from failing, as so many constantly claim, the elite end of the Scottish game is as effective as any professional sport set-up anywhere in terms of maximising the effectiveness of what is available to it.

That is not to say that Scottish coaches are not fallible and Frank Hadden has made plenty mistakes. Yet since taking over as national coach he has managed to find a combination of structures and strategies that, in less than three years, have produced wins over all of Scotland's Six Nations rivals.

He spoke with typical passion on that subject this week when I asked him about the importance of using victories over higher-ranked teams to promote the sport.

"It's been tough in Scotland for a long time," he said. "Since professionalism started it's been a real battle and I think we can be incredibly proud of what we've done.

"One of the measures of what we've achieved since professionalism is the result on Friday night where the Under-20s lost 44-12 to England. That is not an unusual result for our age group teams, but our job in professional rugby is to do something about that.

"At Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 level the track record is not great.

I don't think our Under-20s have won a match since they started that age group was introduced last year and it's not unusual for them to be well beaten. However, we know that some of these guys will be playing against England at a senior level in a few years time and we've got to try to get them in a position where we can beat them.

"It's not always been a bed of roses, it's not always been a smooth ride, but that really is a testament to a lot of good work in professional rugby in Scotland that we've closed that gap."

This article was posted on 13-Mar-2008, 08:20 by Hugh Barrow.