THE HERALD REPORTS

Resources being stretched to the limit for Scotland’s tours of duty . . .

Kevin Ferrie, 19 May 2010 22.18

NO fewer than 79 senior players will head off on tour simultaneously next month, meaning that just about every home-based Scottish qualified full-time professional who is not injured will be in international action.

This is a case of resources being stretched to the limit and perhaps slightly beyond.

Where last year Andy Robinson took a 27-strong Scotland A squad that included 14 full internationalists to Romania in bidding, successfully, to get his reign as national coach off to a winning start, Sean Lineen has only 26 players this time, just nine of whom have been capped. Among that group, Ally Hogg has almost as many caps as the other eight put together.

There are, meanwhile, six players who have not even played A international rugby so far and Lineen has had to dig into the Under-20s resources to find the requisite number of play-makers, having invited Alex Blair to join the party. Blair, then, has the chance to start as he means to go on at Edinburgh, by taking sibling rivalry to new levels as he battles for a starting spot with his big brother David.

Yet Lineen’s task is nothing compared with that confronting the Scotland Under-20 team management who head for their World Championship in Argentina with a squad whose task is not only to compete for themselves and the country, but for future generations. Promotion and relegation having now been brought in for the elite level at that age group, the Scots have to avoid finishing in the bottom two of the 12 competing teams. Once that would have been taken for granted. Not any more.

They will be up against teams based heavily on players who are already involved in senior full-time rugby with professional clubs in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.

By contrast, the attachments of the Scottish players tell their own story. Of the 26 making the trip, 17 have spent the season playing for Scottish Hydro Premiership clubs in an improving but still, at best, part-time competition; five more are playing in England at non-Premiership clubs; and just four are with English Premiership clubs.

It is the case that eight of the home-based lads are members of the Scottish National Contracted Academy while five are members of the Scottish Rugby National Academy supported by the Scottish Institute of Sport. They are, then, training pretty much full-time.

That has gone some way towards addressing the issue of the almost dangerous gulf in physical readiness that has contributed to some hideous drubbings for Scottish age-grade teams in recent seasons. In rugby terms, though, those working within elite club set-ups have a huge advantage over those who are not in terms of honing skills under pressure.

For years it has been obvious that, far from treating the national academy as a separate organisation working largely in isolation, the best of our young players should be attached to the two professional teams at Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors. That would not only be of benefit to those up-and-coming players, but would provide greater strength in depth to the pro team squads.

The good news is that is now happening, with around a dozen of the best of these players about to be attached, full-time, to the Edinburgh and Glasgow squads. The bad news is that it has taken far too long for that to happen.

That surely emphasises why Peter Wright, the Scotland Under-20s forwards coach and director of rugby at Glasgow Hawks has, along with his fellow former British & Irish Lion Ian McLauchlan, cited the need to have more people who genuinely understand the needs of top-flight rugby to be involved in the decision-making process at Murrayfield.

It is not the only example. The other week, after his Hawks team had been hammered by Currie on the day the Edinburgh club secured the Scottish Hydro Premiership title, he readily acknowledged to me that the best team had won, both that afternoon and across the season.

Even so, he had, typically, made a bee-line for the English exchange referee who had taken charge of the game and, while far from flawless, had allowed it to flow very entertainingly.

Wright’s concern was that there had not been enough injury time played at the end of the second half. The referee, quite understandably, had suggested that, with a gap of 30 points between the sides, it surely had not mattered.

When Wright pointed out that Hawks had needed one more try to secure the bonus point that would have seen them take part in the British & Irish Cup next season, the ref’s face apparently fell.

That the official was unaware of all that was at stake was, in Wright’s opinion, an example of the need to improve communications on rugby matters. One suspects that he and McLauchlan will get that message across very directly in the next few months.

This article was posted on 20-May-2010, 07:03 by Hugh Barrow.