THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Perthshire ask SRU to introduce transfer fees



Published Date: 21 February 2009
By David Ferguson
TWO of the greatest adverts for Scottish rugby go head to head in the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup this afternoon at North Inch in Perth, with the home president calling on the Scottish Rugby Union to force clubs to pay a transfer fee for young players signed from a rival.
Selkirk have attracted a myriad of headlines this season for their ability to return to Division 1 and go on to contest the championship with a team of local players.

Perthshire, their opponents today, have a similar approach to shunning foreign signings and developing their own. The Division 3 side will today field an entire team that has come through their youth system.

Typical of the various match-ups across today's cup calendar, it is a great day for the lower-league hosts. Their fifth-round tie will be preceded by national cup semi-finals featuring their under-18 and under-15 sides, and the local pipe band will lead the teams out.

Lawson Doe is a president hugely excited at his club's development, but he also insisted that without financial recompense his and many others would struggle to maintain the flow of talent into the sport.

He said: "We are looking forward to our 'Super Saturday' with a great lunch for around 130 people and then some of the best young players from Perthshire on the field before the main event. But, it is a bone of contention of mine that clubs like ourselves and Selkirk – who we have enormous respect for and are delighted to have here – invest a lot of time and money in young players only for the city clubs, who don't have youth policies, to come and pick them off for their 1st XVs.

"It's difficult when you don't have a university around you, and people at Perthshire put in a lot of voluntary hours to raise funds to pay for cars to bring guys back to us, but still half a dozen have gone to city clubs recently because they get paid there.

"We have a great development officer in Andy Cummin, five NVQ/SVQ coaches who get to 4,000-6,000 youngsters in local schools, and we work hard to encourage them to come along to the club.

"The SRU use us a model to others, but they could do more if they were to allow us to put boys on 'S' forms ensuring that senior clubs would have to pay us a fee, relevant to the investment made, if they wanted to sign them. That would at least help us to develop the next ones coming through."

As for the big match itself, played at a ground that has witnessed rugby for over 130 years, Doe added: "This is a huge day for the club and while we would like to emulate a club like Selkirk, this weekend we're up for beating them."

This article was posted on 21-Feb-2009, 09:04 by Hugh Barrow.