SUNDAY TIMES TODAY

Flying Hawks feel frustrated
Glasgow Hawks rule the roost among the clubs, but fear a system that prevents them from soaring higher will spell the end for Scottish rugby. By Neil Drysdale



BRIAN GILBERT, one of Scotland’s most experienced rugby figures, once remarked about his Glasgow-based players: “When the going gets tough, our guys go skiing.” Yet, a decade later, the slopes are empty of any of the Glasgow Hawks personnel, who have gradually transformed the club into a domestic powerhouse.
Such is their domination that, after last week’s typically hard-fought but merited win at Hawick, Jim Hay, the losing coach, described Hawks as “Scotland’s fourth professional side”. The remark was doubly ironic because, while several Premiership teams have parachuted in expensive Southern Hemisphere recruits, the Anniesland outfit, who won the league in 2003 and 2004 and have a commanding lead this season, offer neither contracts nor cash.



What they do have is an unrivalled youth development programme, a chairman in Brian Simmers who knows that his leading lights will be tempted away to the pro ranks, and a detestation of defeat. Since being established in 1997, the consequences have been obvious: the list of Hawks who have graduated to the international ranks, from Tom Philip and Rory Lamont to Gordon McIlwham and Euan Murray, and the number of their products in Scotland’s under-19 and under-21 ranks.

Peter Wright, a pivotal figure in that hegemony, is unrepentant about instilling that steeliness in his former charges. “The message was: if you want to miss training or skip Saturdays for holidays, go elsewhere, because you are not simply letting yourself down, but 21 others as well. We upped the ante and the guys who joined recognised that life wouldn’t be easy, but we could offer the most ambitious and talented a pathway to a professional future,” says the former Scotland prop.

“It was frustrating to know you were going to have your best assets signed by Glasgow or Edinburgh — around 30 of our players have been given pro contracts since 1997 — but the other side of the coin is in nurturing young potential. Many of the squad rose through the system together, and will put their bodies on the line for their colleagues. You can’t import that. David (Wilson, the coach) and John (Roxburgh, the director of rugby) are already looking ahead, and that is admirable.”

For Simmers, a passionate critic of the previous SRU administration, there is pride in his club’s achievements — they have never finished lower than sixth in the Premiership since 2000 and collected the League and Cup double in 2004 — and injustice at the dearth of opportunities for expansion. A devotee of cross-border competition and increased Scots participation in a second-tier European contest featuring teams from Spain, Portugal, Italy and the old Eastern Bloc, he is rightly pessimistic about the scale of the slump in his homeland.

“Scottish rugby is like a company in its death throes — we are on our knees and in need of urgent action. Visit any clubhouse and the proof is there, in reduced spectator numbers, in an ageing audience, in the absence of youngsters, that the game is withering at the grassroots. Unless we can get it back into the heart of the community, we are forever going to be struggling just to break even.

“Hawks are playing good rugby but our crowds are in the hundreds and most of our competitors are the same. Even Glasgow and Edinburgh are performing in front of less than 3000 and there were fewer than 1000 at a Borders match last month. It cannot go on. Clubs need strengthening and encouragement, which contradicts the disastrous policies of the old regime. We should only have two pro sides — we can’t afford any more when the SRU is £23m in debt — and we have to give fans something to be excited about. Why not a cross-border championship, with us against the likes of Neath, Shannon, Montpellier and Lansdowne? Why not have four Scottish teams in the tournament? But sadly, whilst we at Hawks are aiming to develop youngsters, others are panicking about relegation and resorting to flinging cash at foreigners.”

It must be galling to have nowhere to advance to when the rest of the field is languishing so badly behind. Wilson said: “Jim Hay’s comments were disappointing. He seems to reckon we have a special relationship with Glasgow, when the tie-up is tenuous at best, and assists them but not us. Ultimately, though, there’s nothing we can do but to raise our standards and play our part in a rebirth of Scottish rugby. We can’t stand still, and I’m determined to guide us to the next level.”

This article was originally posted on 9-Oct-2005, 12:30 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Oct-2005, 12:31.