Scotland on Sunday


Scottish veterans joining the club

IAIN MORRISON

THE announcement last week that the former Scotland winger Kenny Logan was to look out his boots from the bottom of the broom cupboard, dust them off and turn out in the famous navy blue shirt of London Scottish was given a warm welcome.

Some have commented that it was strange timing so soon after the birth of twins to his wife Gabby but more than one father with recent experience of very young babies will have understood Logan's decision to take any opportunity to get out of the house.

Club rugby will probably provide some much-needed rest and recuperation after the rigours of raising two little ones.

Logan is not the only former Scotland wing to make the move. Two other former Scotland flyers whose paths seem inextricably linked will go head to head once again in the BT Premiership this season. Craig Joiner won 25 caps for Scotland from 1994-2001 and, while his Test career was shorter, Cammy Murray went one better than his erstwhile rival with 26 appearances for Scotland, making his last one four years ago.

The similarities between those two players don't end there. The pair both played for Border clubs, Melrose in the case of Joiner and Murray at Hawick, while they both had the dubious honour of marking Jonah Lomu in the quarter- finals of a Rugby World Cup. Joiner stood between the giant Kiwi and the Scotland try line in South Africa in 1995 and Murray had the same thankless task under lights at Murrayfield four years later.

Scotland lost on both occasions but at least Murray had the consolation of cutting inside Lomu to score one of his seven Test tries.

His contract with the Borders was not renewed last season and he took a sabbatical from the sport, helping to raise his new son, Glen, which helped rekindle his enthusiasm for he game. Both veterans started their careers in club rugby and both will end there so they are in an unique position to judge the difference that a decade and the onset of professionalism have made to Scottish club rugby.

"I think the whole game has changed since rugby went professional," says Murray who missed yesterday's border derby with his old team due to a hamstring injury.

"I started at Hawick in 1993 and we had a forwards and a backs coach. Now clubs have a director of rugby and a whole team of coaches, forwards, backs, defence and conditioning. Clubs have had to step up a level or two.

"I have been very impressed with the set-up at Melrose because there are a lot of people working behind the scenes to make things happen. In this day and age, the clubs have to be organised if they want to stay at the top."

Murray admits to being slightly disappointed at the skill levels in the current club scene but he argues that conditioning is better and most clubs are keen to play as much rugby as the weather allows.

"I watched Melrose versus Hawks the other week," he says, "and there was plenty of attractive rugby on offer with the ball going through the hands. Clubs have to get punters through the gates and they realise that they have to play attractive rugby to do that. Pre-season training was a shock because I had been quite idle but conditioning is all-important. Former professionals filter back ideas to the clubs. Everyone else lifts the level of their performance and they get to see where they need to be if they want to make the step up."

His sentiments about the current club scene are echoed by Joiner, although the Stewart's Melville man sees the main issue separating it from the pro-teams is the range of skills and ambition on offer.

"There is a real mix of people at clubs," he says. "There are some who are clearly very good players, others are competitive and some just make the grade. The whole spectrum is there and everyone has their own agenda.

"But there is no question that the shape of rugby players has changed over the years. There are not too many beanpoles around now, and that change has been driven by the ambitious young players coming into the game.

"The junior set-up has been in place for a couple of years now. Because players may have been with Bob Easson [at the Scottish Institute of Sport] for a couple of years, they make the change from school to club rugby very much easier now than happened when I left school. When I started playing, you could get away with training twice a week."

When asked about his input in what is sure to be a challenging season for Stewart's Melville, Joiner is adamant that his priorities lie with his new financial career rather than Inverleith's attempts to beat the drop.

"I don't want to finish with rugby just yet, "he says, "but I have said to the club that I can't fully commit this year so I am wary of saying too much too early. I haven't been training too often but over the next month or so I'll probably have more to say.

"Certainly, the pro game requires more communication and organisation than the clubs have and that is something I have spoken about from time to time."

Joiner and Murray are not alone in their battle to raise standards. These former rivals are just two of many who are improving the club game because the Union are now allowing up to a maximum of four full-time professional players to turn out for their club sides when not required for the pro teams. With the recruitment of Duncan Hodge, Edinburgh now have some strength in depth at fly-half so Ander Munro will probably play more club than pro team rugby this year which will disappoint the little playmaker but delight those who want to see the title returned to Goldenacre.

In addition to Munro, Frank Hadden released another ten of his pro team squad to the Edinburgh clubs yesterday although in fairness some of those are operating on part-time contracts.

The clubs can also call upon players from the Scotland Sevens squad, all of whom are members of the Scottish Institute of Sport, and standards will only improve further when the top league is reduced to ten clubs next year. These elite athletes help raise the bar in club rugby whose standards are regularly ridiculed despite dramatic improvements in recent years since they were first denuded by the professional clubs almost a decade ago.

Professionalism has very obviously raised standards at the elite end of the game but what it has also done is raise standards at the amateur end of the scale whose poor players now have to work like never before with precious little by way of compensation.

If more former international players can be coaxed back into the club game when their professional careers are over, the Premier 1 clubs might even start to attract the sort of crowds that the entertainment on show often deserves.

FORMER PROS GOING BACK TO BASICS

CRAIG JOINER

DOB: 21/04/74; Born: Edinburgh; Test debut: v Argentina, 1994; Final match: v USA, 2000; Caps: 25; Tries: 3; Current Employment: Cornelian Asset Management; Current club: Stewart's-Melville FP.

CAMMY MURRAY

DOB: 31.03.75; Born: Hawick; Test debut: v England, 1998; Final match: v Argentina, 2001; Caps: 26; Tries: 7; Current employment: PE teacher; Current club: Melrose.

SOME FORMER PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS IN THE CLUB GAME: Premier 1 - Cammy Murray (Melrose); Craig Joiner and Graham Shiel (both Stewart's-Melville); Andrew Dall (Heriot's); Nick Cox, Kenny Sinclair and Steve Begley (all Glasgow Hawks); David Officer (Currie); Andrew Kelly (Ayr); Cammy Mather (Watsonians). Premier 2 - Kevin Utterson and Adam Roxburghe (Kelso). Premier 3 - Guy Perrett (West of Scotland), Ally Dickson (Selkirk).

This article was originally posted on 11-Sep-2005, 08:02 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 11-Sep-2005, 08:03.