Todays excellent article in the Herald by Kevin Ferrie should make uncomfortable reading for the powers at Murrayfield and in the corridors of Glasgow City Council as they look ahead to 2014
His points are well made and hopefully will provoke action
As an avid reader of Kevin's articles over many years from his early days in rugby journalism I have noted he is a writer who makes his points in black and white and is not a writer given to greyness
He however makes mention of one area of grey -- "A grey area also emerges in historic terms, because there are those who attended schools that were state-supported but had a fee-paying element."
This particular grey area as it relates to Old Anniesland is worth exploring further for it had much colour especially the blue of Scotland and the red of The Lions
Glasgow High School pre 1975 was a local authority school that produced many Scottish caps including John M Bannerman one of the most capped in the amateur era--Wilson Shaw one of the very few Scots on the Twickenham Wall of Fame and Angus Cameron vice captain of the British Lions who took on and beat the Boks in the very citadel of South African rugby power Ellis Park

In recent years Glasgow Hawks through its development officer Grant Talbot have made considerable strides in the very areas highlighted in Kevin's peice and in fact last week helped organise a primary schools session in Victoria Park of which I am sure Mr Millar would have approved
The festival was run in partnership with the active school coordinator responsible for that area Andy Young. Around 150 - 170 boys and girls all from the primary 6 age group took part in the event which lasted for 2 hours, the children many of who have not had much rugby experience took part in tag rugby games, touch rugby games and Hawick ball. The Schools taking part were Corpus Christie, St Brendan's, St Clare's, St Patrick's and St Paul's, the children were put through their games by Ross Aitken, Culture and Sport Glasgow Rugby Development Officer, Kenny Hamilton, GHK Senior coach, Jason Carlin GHK Player and mini coach and Andy Young Active School Coordinator

So whilst Hawks and Anniesland acknowledge the past they don't live in it



Rugby can’t address its image problem if it refuses to acknowledge it Rugby can’t address its image problem if it refuses to acknowledge it


Kevin Ferrie, 2 Jun 2010 22.20

Can anyone name someone from a non-fee paying Glasgow school who has played Test rugby for Scotland?

That question was first raised with me a few years ago by Archie Ferguson, currently a member of the Scottish Rugby Union board, who told me he believed no-one who had been educated at a state school in the country’s biggest city had ever been capped.

This relates to the City of Glasgow as opposed to the Greater Glasgow area, since Al Kellock, Euan Murray and Andy Henderson, to name but three recent examples, all attended comprehensive schools in Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire.

A grey area also emerges in historic terms, because there are those who attended schools that were state-supported but had a fee-paying element.

That should not distract us from the central point about the sport’s image in the city which was brought to mind by William Miller, a passionate rugby supporter who has entered into correspondence with The Herald on this subject.

Significant numbers of development officers have been employed with very little success
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Originally from Glasgow, raised in the Gorbals, he was not introduced to rugby until he moved to Yorkshire as an adult, sparking a lifelong love of the game.

He moved back to Glasgow in October last year and described himself in a letter published in The Herald last December as “amazed at the lack of support for Glasgow rugby . . . ”

Mr Miller has now written to me directly, his message opening with the words: “I am concerned about the future of Glasgow rugby which seems to be in a very poor state, which is not surprising. Except for a few schools, Glasgow has been totally neglected by the Scottish Rugby Union establishment for the last 50 years.

“If we could tap into the raw power in the Glasgow catchment area I think we could eventually hold our own with any team in the British Isles and have the support of the public . . . ” he continues.

“Just look at the progress of Italy. As comparative newcomers and a football nation to boot, they seem to be better supported and better financed than Scotland.

“I have read about Scottish Rugby’s Street Rugby initiative and I have had a guided tour round the state of the art rugby sports ground at Scotstoun. We have some money and the venue, all we need now is some rough, tough Glaswegians to get on the park.

“There are probably quite a few people employed in this rugby initiative. If so what are they doing? Are they waiting for something to happen or will they be proactive and make things happen?”

His letter arrived last week, but was sent before my observations in this column last Thursday about the failure to address the real issues that have blighted rugby’s progress in Scotland, namely the shortage of players at all levels.

His comments prompted that memory of Archie’s stat. I will be happy for readers to identify rule-proving exceptions if they exist, but the fact that venerable figures within Glasgow rugby with whom I have consulted have been unable to come up with the name of a single Scotland player who came from a non-fee paying school in the city has been telling.

It goes a long way towards demonstrating the failure to involve huge chunks of the Scottish population in the sport and also, perhaps more importantly, to explaining why rugby still has an elitist image in many parts of the country. That has a knock-on effect when it comes to courting politicians and commercial interests.

By way of further example I have, as a Dundonian, taken considerable pride in the growing influence of my home city on Scottish rugby in recent years. Andy Nicol and Jonny Petrie captained their country. Frank Hadden coached the national side. Before them the city produced the incomparable David Leslie. More recently Ally Dickinson has regularly featured in Scotland squads.

Guess what, though? Yes, all five were products of Dundee’s only fee-paying school. There are currently nine state secondary schools in what is another of Scotland’s biggest population centres – and in the past there were rather more – none of which boast Scottish rugby internationalists among their FPs.

Ask Murrayfield administrators down the years and they would always claim the problems to which Mr Miller and I refer relate only to bygone times, that rugby is now seen very differently and that their latest initiative – “street rugby” at this moment in time – is solving all these problems.

Significant numbers of development officers have been employed to promote the sport over the past two decades without producing anything like the growth in playing numbers that Ireland has had in the same period. The failure to recognise the root of such issues as on-going seems itself to be a major factor.

Quite recently, a senior figure at the SRU told me he simply did not accept that rugby is still seen as an elitist sport by large sections of the population. Those who cannot acknowledge that they have a problem have absolutely no chance of properly addressing it.

This article was originally posted on 3-Jun-2010, 10:16 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 3-Jun-2010, 10:17.