THE HERALD REPORTS TODAY

SRU continue to jeopardise very existence of the Scottish Cup
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer May 14 2009
The wife of a colleague turned up at Murrayfield for Sunday's Scottish Hydro Electric Cup final willing to pay her way in rather than join the freeloaders in the press box, who generally number many more than genuine members of the media these days.

Knowing that all those attending would be confined to the West Stand, she made her way there, onlyto be told she would have to head all the way round the stadium to the ticket office at the empty East Stand.

A fly young lad who had witnessed her irritation seized his moment and offered her the chance to buy a ticket there and then. Hecharged her £10 and doubtless thought he had made the coup of the day since the ticket in question was a complimentary one issued to the University of Aberdeen

Far from feeling ripped off, though, she was pleased with the deal, saying: "I'd rather give the money to a student than the SRU anyway."

Rugby's powers that be really need to be aware that this sort of feeling is growing because of the treatment of clubs and customers, but they do not seem to get it.

In particular, the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup seems to have been a focal point for bad practice ever since a move by some officials to have it abandoned for this year to avoid thefixture congestion with which they struggle to cope.

The decision, at the outset of the tournament, to shift finals day to a Sunday, was a strange one and surely contributed to the record low attendance of 3979; that's fewer than 1000 spectators per match on a day when four trophies were handed out.

That decision slipped by pretty much unnoticed at the start of the season. When I asked on Sunday why it had been moved away from its traditional Saturday slot, a spokesman explained: "The championship committee said it was to avert fixture congestion."

When it was pointed out that the only other rugby event of any consequence that weekend was a sevens tournament, the observation was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a knowing smile.

There is growing unease among the wider rugby community about the priority offered to sevens tournaments that are, we must remind ourselves, essentially fundraising events for clubs.

As much as Craig Chalmers, theMelrose coach, is among my all-time favourite Scotland players, it cannot be a coincidence that, on Sunday, hisbeaten team contained five players born in the Antipodes.

It might be argued that Melrose is so small that it needs to spend to compete, but that does not seem to apply at the exemplary club just along the road in the admittedly larger town of Selkirk.

The new cup holders Heriot's, incidentally, are by no means averse to recruiting heavily but, for those of us who believe that the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership and National Leagues should be competitions for teams grown in their communities, it was good to see this piece of silverware claimed by a team of Scottish lads.

Switching the finals day to a Sunday obviously paled into insignificance against the decision to eject a couple of teams because their third-round fixtures had been postponed.

Throwing Cumbernauld and StBoswells out because their league status was lower than that of the sides they were scheduled to play - all because officials could find no more creative a solution to some fixture congestion - was among the SRU's worst decisions of all time.

In the official justification offered to Cumbernauld for being unable to juggle the fixture list more than they were prepared to, there was reference to the need to respect theofficial season's end of May 10, cup finals day.

Funny, then, that on Tuesday May 12 Iwas out watching Heriot's in action again, playing a crucial rearranged league fixture from which they earned qualification for the new British & Irish Cup.

More pertinent, though, is the fixture card for National League 1, the division in which Cumbernauld play and in which they might still have had fixtures to fulfil had anyone had the nous to rearrange a league match or two to accommodate postponed cup ties.

When sending out fixture updates of late, the SRU have changed their previous practice of putting out the full list of matches remaining to be played.

Anyone would think they might not want it noticed that Langholm still have two fixtures outstanding. They did not play a single league match on a Saturday in April, but did compete in several sevens tournaments.

It gives the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the SRU view these club fundraisers as sacrosanct while being willing to jeopardise the very existence, never mind the competitive integrity, of the ailing national cup. It is something that should concern all clubs.

This article was posted on 14-May-2009, 07:01 by Hugh Barrow.