Time to protect the international game

NEIL DRYSDALE October 11 2008

STARK WARNING: McKie wants release row settled.
Gordon McKie, the chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, has issued the stark message that unless the IRB can resolve the current player-release row between England's leading clubs and some of the sport's smaller countries, including Scotland, Italy and Argentina, the game could face a schism in the next three years.

Even as he and his SRU colleagues are seeking clarity from the world governing body over a matter which threatens to provoke a fresh outbreak of internecine warfare, McKie described the issue as a "time bomb" and was brutally honest in his assessment of where rugby will stand if the English clubs win the debate.

"We have made a very robust case to the IRB about the importance of international rugby in the grand scheme of things and this affects everybody, not just the Scots, the Italians, the Argentinians and even the Welsh, but the English clubs as well, because I would ask them this: where would the English and French Premiership be if there was nowhere for their leading players to aspire to and no revenue from international matches, the money from which filters all through the game?" said McKie, who confirmed that he expects an imminent response from the IRB.

"The international game feeds the club game," he went on. "Okay, the RFU have done a deal with Premier Rugby Ltd, and we wish them well, but not everybody can afford £110m to sign these type of accords and this is an absolutely fundamental issue - our English and French-based players are Scottish, they want to play for Scotland, and the IRB rules are clear that international fixtures take precedence over club ones.

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"We have been on common ground with our Argentine counterparts on Regulation 9, and while I accept that things have changed since the arrival of professionalism, and there is now a greater degree of self-interest than there used to be, we have to get this business resolved in our favour. If we don't, then it could have massively damaging repercussions for everybody in world rugby."

McKie is also concerned about the increasingly congested fixture list for British teams, and is seeking clarification on the future of the EDF Cup, the tournament which features English and Welsh sides, and which appeared to be facing the scrapheap at the end of this season.

It now seems that this may not be the case and with 2009 heralding play-offs in the Magners League for the first time and a British and Irish Lions tour in the summer, McKie believes that player burn-out could become ever more prevalent.

He said: "I have recently heard that the EDF Cup will continue next season, when we originally thought it wouldn't, and the whole calendar is in danger of getting clogged up, unless we can all sit down together and work out a sensible fixture schedule "It definitely has an impact on the sport, because the Six Nations Championship should be one of the shining jewels in the crown, but how many free weekends are there going to be during the championship? We should be focusing on promoting the Magners League, the Guinness Premiership and the Heineken Cup, and then organise a break so that the competing countries can concentrate on the Six Nations, but if you also have the EDF Cup in the equation, then I am not sure where you can fit all these games into the season."

In the course of a wide-ranging interview, McKie admitted that he was slightly disappointed with the starts made by Glasgow and Edinburgh in the Magners competition and ruled out, for the foreseeable future, any prospect of a third pro team being established, either inside or outside of Scotland. He also stated that his own preference was for the four Home Nations to bid for the 2015 World Cup, rather than wait until the 2019 tournament, and while expressing some sympathy for Japan's claims to the event, added that he felt Britain would be a better option in terms of stadia and the timing of matches.

McKie also confirmed his delight at the fact that the SRU has struck a broadcasting deal with the newly-established BBC Alba channel, which will see today's Premiership derby between Boroughmuir and Heriot's at Meggetland being shown live.

"It's no secret that the lack of continuous coverage of Scottish rugby has been our Achilles Heel, and we are excited about this new partnership," he said. "Clearly, we will be able to screen club matches live on a regular basis, and with large-scale resources, and that should be excellent for all the country's leading clubs in the future. S4C the Welsh language channel started off in pretty much the same way and look at them now."

This article was posted on 11-Oct-2008, 07:41 by Hugh Barrow.