THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

London Scots' dismay at SRU funding cut

Published Date: 01 May 2009
By DAVID FERGUSON
LONDON Scottish are to release their full-time academy coach after the Scottish Rugby Union withdrew funding in a move that has ignited fresh fears that the current SRU hierarchy do not appreciate the potential to Scottish rugby of the London club.
Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, stated on Wednesday that three years of "modest investment" in the Richmond-based academy had failed to unearth players the union's two-man exiles network, based in Leeds, did not already know. As a result, the SRU had decided to withdraw its funding.

However, London Scottish confirmed yesterday that Max Evans, a shining star for Scotland recently in his first RBS Six Nations, first had his head turned to the possibility of playing for Scotland when he joined the club three years ago.

Neither Max nor his brother Thom were picked up by the SRU's exiles system, which was scrapped in 2005 and then started again from scratch two years ago. In the second year of the London Scottish academy, they supplied scrum-half Matt Heeks to the Scotland under-20 squad and have had four players involved in Scottish age-grade squads this year.

Rod Lynch, the London Scottish President, told The Scotsman: "We are not going to get involved in criticising the SRU because we understand they have financial difficulties to deal with, but it is fair to say we are very disappointed with this news.

"While the SRU saw the funding as 'modest', it was the anchor for the academy. Hopefully, we will not have to close it entirely, but we'll have to let go our full-time coach, Rowly Williams, which is a very retrograde step, and scale it back now. We assume the SRU are trying to save money because shutting something down just as it's becoming effective is not the best strategic move. It had run for three years and like anything it takes time to get it working most efficiently, but we felt we were starting to get the right level of penetration.

"We had our talented young scrum-half Matt Heeks involved with Scotland two years ago and four players into the Scottish system this year, and we have more prospects coming through now. It's a pity the SRU have found it necessary to withdraw its funding but we will continue to identify Scots-qualified players and point them into good development structures for us and the Scottish rugby infrastructure."

The SRU's action at this time does suggest an ignorance to the value of the club that has produced the most Scotland internationalists.

London Scottish was a leading club in English rugby until professionalism arrived and a businessman, Tony Tiarks, took over and rattled up massive debts in trying to create a pro club to compete in the English game.

The result was an acrimonious split with Tiarks and a merger with London Irish that saw the professional side of the club disappear without trace. London Scottish returned to its amateur roots, as a club that welcomed all-comers but with a strong Scottish identity and desire to promote Scottish rugby in the south of England. But the first XV had but had to re-enter the league nine divisions down.

The club has over the past decade worked its way back up through the leagues and will next season play in National League Division One, which is effectively England's third division. The 2nd XV, under-16s and under-14s all topped their leagues as well.

It has also developed off the field, with former internationalists Chris Rea and Kenny Logan joining the board, along with Tesco chairman David Reid, and developing a wide network of investors to build on the headline-grabbing £500,000 sponsorship of Saudex Global, the business arm of a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family.

The club signed a higher quality of player last summer, including Iain Fullarton, the former Scotland lock, and ex-Wasps flanker Paul Volley, and are now looking to step up recruitment again to strengthen the squad for what will be a significantly tougher league, and pressing their case for the step-up to the new championship – the second-tier fully professional Premiership. Lynch explained that when it gets to that stage, London Scottish will be severely hampered because a club receives more funding from the RFU the more English-qualified players it develops.

"The RFU is removing funding from the National League structure to incentivise clubs to produce English-qualified players, and that will only increase, and for us, who have a strong aim to develop Scottish players as much as possible, it will get more and more difficult the higher we go.

"But, the other side of that is that the higher we go the more valuable we could be to Scottish rugby. The new 'championship' is to strengthen the English game by having better quality players involved, so better quality games. There won't be millions invested in it, but certainly hundreds of thousands, and it's going to be televised.

"I believe it will rival the lower half to middle of the Magners League in terms of quality and so if we got in there we'd be able to be a third professional team for Scottish rugby really. That's London Scottish's target – to get into that 12-team championship inside the next two years."

The club is not exclusively Scots and will continue to bring in players from across London. However, Lynch stressed the aim was still to produce as many Scottish internationalists as possible, and strengthen the club's place as a home for Scots in the south of England. Lynch added: "London Scottish is a Scottish club and has been full members of the SRU as long as the SRU has been around.

"We have now rebuilt the club and brought it up to a point where it's shaping up again to be a strong Scottish side. I know the SRU has its own difficulties, but part of our mission statement is to build the club up to support Scottish rugby.

"London Scottish is now eligible to have Premiership players on loan, but, still, if we have two players with similar ability we go for the Scottish one. That is fundamental to us and we will continue to improve and develop and hope that we can play a part in Scottish rugby."

This article was originally posted on 1-May-2009, 07:14 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 1-May-2009, 07:15.