Scottish rugby’s image is in tatters, it’s time for McKie to earn his corn.

KEVIN FERRIE ON THURSDAY

His reputation was as a troubleshooter who took on crisis-hit organisations, sorted them out, then moved on, but Gordon McKie, chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, seems to have come to enjoy life at Murrayfield.

Moving and shaking with sport's powerbrokers, eating at rugby union's top table and with a grandstand view of some of the best sporting occasions in the world...what's not to like?

Well, perhaps McKie is finding out. Now settled in and having done his standard job of getting the books in order, he has a different role to perform: that of long-term strategist capable of giving a lead to his staff rather than merely fire-fighting. It seems he may be finding that a bit tougher.

Things may not yet have reached the crisis proportions of 2005, but recent weeks have been grim for the chief executive and his fellow administrators, and the word 'arrogant' is being bandied about by many of those with whom they are dealing.

The SRU's relations with its clubs and the general public has produced nothing short of a litany of complaints. They have stemmed from:

 The clubs shocked at being told by the SRU's championship committee that there was no flexibility within the rules which stated they could not kick off within a couple of hours of the start of the Scotland-Canada Test in Aberdeen in November because of a possible conflict.

Those included Annan, who were playing some 200 miles away.

 The Baggy Pipers team that raised money for charity at a Golden Oldies tournament but were told they could not present a cheque at Murrayfield on the day of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Warriors match.

 The disabled spectator dismayed to find out mid-season and, just a couple of days before a match, that he was not allowed to have a picnic at the back of his car as he has done at Murrayfield since 1951. The SRU maintained that all supporters had been informed of the change of arrangement at the start of the season.

 The two clubs thrown out of the Scottish Cup without being allowed to play their matches and without any right of appeal, leading one of their local MSPs to lodge a motion condemning the decision with the Scottish Parliament which attracted cross-party support from MSPs the length and breadth of the country.

 The spectator who revealed he had told the SRU some 18 months ago that they had created an artificial black market for tickets by refusing to sell them on the day of Test matches.

 A fall out between senior executives and the board with their own president over his view on how the role should be performed.

 Calls from a supporters forum for the SRU to introduce a new and transparent system of assessing and employing senior rugby personnel, including the Scotland coach.

In almost every case, as much concern has been registered about how matters have been handled as anything else. Meanwhile, the SRU's public affairs department spends too much time trying to influence press coverage of their affairs and not enough time considering the damage being done to the sport and addressing the internal problems.

Scottish Rugby's finances may now be in decent shape but otherwise the sport is again at a desperately low ebb. Since the start of this season's RBS 6 Nations, Scottish professional teams - the national team, Scotland A, Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors - have played 11 matches, and won just one.

There are huge issues to be addressed, not least the need to overhaul the development process. Yet even the comments of Frank Hadden, Scotland's head coach who earned his spurs coaching at school and youth level, about the need to intensify youth competition by having a single tournament were dismissed by those who think they know better.

Hadden's future will apparently be decided by McKie, even though nothing in the chief executive's cv qualifies him to assess the performance of a rugby coach.

Indeed, as The Herald noted earlier this week, if, as Hadden has repeatedly claimed, Scotland's problems are down to lack of preparation time compared with Ireland and Wales, the chief executive himself has as much of a case to answer. He axed the Border Reivers - justifiably - in order to finance Scotland's professional teams properly, yet they remain unable to challenge for trophies while many top players still play outwith Scotland.

McKie's only involvement in addressing those issues should be finding the money. Just as he expects the likes of SRU Council members and the president to leave him to get on with business matters, he should then be leaving rugby matters to rugby experts.

His principal task is to provide the finance to enable Scotland to be more competitive. If he believes that it cannot be done then he, like Hadden, should be encouraged to step aside.

This article was originally posted on 26-Mar-2009, 08:10 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by on 26-Mar-2009, 12:31.