THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
By David Ferguson

AS HE trotted on to the field for the last five minutes of the recent Lanarkshire Cup final, running for the try line was more at the front of Jim Stevenson\'s mind than running for presidency.
The 51-year-old did not quite emulate the feat of earlier in the season, when he dropped his touch judge\'s flag and replaced a stricken front row in the Cambuslang 1st XV, and duly took a quick tap-penalty and scored, but even though his club lost ADVERTISEMENTto Hamilton he relished the moments back in the thick of the action.

Stevenson is hoping to be more at the centre of Scottish rugby next season, however, after a second bid to become SRU president. He lost narrowly to George Jack last June, after the pair had edged out Peter Brown, and this year it is a straight fight between Stevenson from Glasgow and Leith/Biggar man Jack.

The change in governance to a new \'ambassadorial role\', from the old buggin\'s turn of presidential elections, suggested that a person hold office for two years only in exceptional circumstances, which Andy Irvine suggested he fitted as it was still early in a fractious change-over to the new leadership. Jack clearly believes he deserves a second term to take what information he has gathered from clubs in his first year and drive a new club structure, including the controversial move to put the Scottish Cup in abeyance for a year.

Stevenson\'s decision to stand is founded on his disagreement with that, and he has campaigned against the cup motion. His club Cambuslang are also seconding a motion by Perthshire to move future AGMs from early Friday evenings to Saturdays, \"to enable more clubs, particularly from the islands, to be properly represented and to question the SRU more\".

He is an intriguing character and is certain to again give Jack, another of the front row brethren, a run for his money. He subscribes to a message of fun, in that Scottish rugby has lost it and needs it back, and regularly punctuating our discussion with laughter clearly practices what he preaches.

Cambuslang president for the past seven years, Stevenson was delighted when players agreed with the committee to stop paying foreign imports and focus more intently on bringing through their own youth players. The club has done so in the last two seasons and fallen from Premiership, Division Three to the National League, Division One, and just fought off another relegation.

\"But, the youngsters are getting their chance to learn and develop, and will make the club stronger in time,\" he insisted. \"By saving money on imports, we pooled what we brought in for the players and that enabled us to part-fund their kit, take them paintballing in January and fund an U18s tour to Brittany � all things that help bring the club closer together and foster team spirit.

\"But it also puts the emphasis back on fun. We seem to have lost a lot of that from rugby. We had 14 1st XV players who walked away when we went down from Premier One to National One; guys who had been with us from P4 right the way through. They said they walked away because it stopped being fun. Some went to football or other sports and some, for heaven\'s sake, preferred to go shopping on Saturday afternoons with their missus! I don\'t think that is a problem exclusive to Cambuslang.\"

Stevenson spoke at length last year about how he felt the SRU were making good strides into virgin rugby territory, but not going far enough and he remains convinced that the secret to growing Scottish rugby lies in \"getting your hands dirty and really working the communities; not just \"a quick hit and run\".

It would be unfair, therefore, to portray Stevenson as simply a \'Mr Happy\' character. Clear in the passionate way he discusses the professional teams, and how he would like to see more integration between them and their rugby club communities, he evidently has enthusiasm for the more intense aspects of life at Murrayfield\'s sharp end.

He speaks of great work at Greenock Wanderers, involving local authority, police, the club and development officers, and Crownpoint in Glasgow\'s east end as examples of where rugby can make a difference to lives and attract new players, and insists there is scope for much more effective liaison between schools and clubs across Scotland.

While he disagrees with Jack\'s proposal to stop the cup for a year, he does like the idea of more local competitions. He explained: \"We resurrected the Lanarkshire Cup recently and as well as raising money for Ciaran Pryce, the young lad who suffered a spinal injury, it brought clubs across Lanarkshire together.

\"There is a real appetite for local cups and rivalries being renewed and we had great chats with people who remember playing in the old county competitions and the districts Glasgow, Edinburgh, the South and North and Midlands.

\"They remembered fantastic times, stepping up and representing your district but still remaining loyal to your club. They didn\'t have to go to a club higher up the leagues to get noticed, to develop, or for a better quality of rugby.

\"There are flaws in the cup that have to be addressed, but most clubs want it and it seems absurd to me that we could not have come up with a proposal by this AGM for clubs to look at, rather than mothball it for a year while we decide what to do.

\"To play at Murrayfield must be everyone\'s ambition � it is a dream come true. Talking to the eight clubs at finals day, I found that that day alone had converted many people not only to the cup competitions, but to rugby. So, the cup finals day is helping to build a new generation of people who want to be involved in club rugby, to watch the pro teams and go to Murrayfield to see Scotland.

\"So,\" he said, intently, \"let\'s keep the cup, and while, yes, we need direction, we also need the SRU to listen to and work more with clubs.\"

And then bang, the seriousness stops and laughter returns as he looked ahead to a local junior dinner and the recent Lagavulin Islay Beach Fives. There is a common thread of fun that might seem incongruous for Glasgow City Council\'s \'Parking Enforcement Officer\', but Stevenson clearly has a genuine passion for a sport he took to relatively later in life.

\"I grew up as a football kid in Glasgow and stumbled into rugby by accident. But I loved it when I had a game, and I adore it now.

\"It totally changed preconceptions I had of rugby as an elitist sport. Now, I suppose, I feel it\'s my duty to help change that attitude in more people and open eyes to what a great sociable, fun and inclusive game rugby is. If I can do that as president of the SRU then all the better.\"

This article was posted on 21-Jun-2008, 07:48 by Hugh Barrow.