THE HERALD REPORTS

McKie urges talks with clubs after thrashing
KEVIN FERRIE June 12 2008
Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, has promised urgent and blunt talks with Premier One clubs to produce a way forward. After the latest batch of Scottish youngsters suffered a demoralising thrashing in a World Cup clash It was only two years ago when, newly in the job, McKie said he had contemplated withdrawing Scotland's under-19s from a World Cup following a 78-3 hiding from Australia while Andy Irvine, the then SRU president, said he felt the Scottish youngsters had been let down by the system.

Tuesday's 73-20 defeat by South Africa during the Under- 20 World Cup in Wales brought memories flooding back as well as raising questions about what, if anything, has been done to resolve those issues.

"I couldn't believe the result," admitted Murrayfield's top official before he flew out of Edinburgh last night to Buenos Aires for Scotland's second Test with Argentina.

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"I said two years ago I wouldn't want my son exposed to that and I feel very responsible for this, as does Henry Edwards (the SRU's head of rugby development)."

While admitting to having been shocked, he said he believes progress has been made in the areas where the players were most at risk, before acknowledging that it is in competitive terms that the reaction has been minimal.

"Our strength and conditioning definitely has moved forward so we weren't in awe of the South Africans physically but, in terms of game time, the situation has stagnated," said McKie.

"Twelve of that South African team have played Super 14 rugby so, once again in rugby terms, it's men against boys. Should we withdraw . . . this is the World Cup.

"This year, we've got a few full-time academy players but even fewer of our players are getting game-time at the right level. The intensity of the competition is the issue.

"In many ways, the under-20s are where the sevens squad were a couple of years ago. Now, the sevens squad are all full-time players and while some of the under-20s are not."

He stressed that it was not a case of apportioning blame, but of encouraging all concerned to take full responsibility for the part they must play in that situation, which is why discussions with the leading Scottish clubs are crucial.

In the past, there have been all sorts of mixed messages from Premier One clubs with some saying they want to have a full-time pro team and national academy players allocated to them while others do not, preferring to concentrate on players they can control. That has resulted in players being attached to clubs but then not being selected for first XVs when available.

The alternative to that would be for the SRU to take more players out of clubs than is currently the case to form full-time back-up teams to the professional teams, something that would also be likely to spark an outcry among the Premier One clubs.

"We need a very serious, straight conversation with the Premier One clubs," said McKie.

"I have said to Henry that if our Premier One and Premier Two clubs are not prepared to take these players then we need to find some other way of getting them exposure to the level of rugby they need."

This article was posted on 12-Jun-2008, 06:53 by Hugh Barrow.