Scots making progress but Samoa are snapping at their heels
Published on 16 Dec 2010

The Herald reports

Kevin Ferrie on Thursday

Scotland’s brief rise to an all time high of sixth place in the world rankings during the recent autumn Test series offered a much needed boost for the sport.

Though they slipped back to seventh a week later courtesy of Ireland’s win over Argentina, it turns out that, had Ruaridh Jackson’s last-gasp penalty against Samoa not found the target, Scotland would have slipped behind both those countries to eighth place.

That is not to suggest anything other than the fact that Scotland are making real progress in terms of competitiveness against the best, or at least all bar the very best.

As noted in this column a couple of weeks ago, there is real cause for optimism and, with three home matches to look forward to this season, Scotland should consider themselves as serious contenders for the RBS 6 Nations title. However, they also need to be wary about the progress also being made by the so-called Tier 2 countries, which include Samoa.

Jackson’s kick was also significant because it denied Samoa a place in the top 10, keeping them just behind South Sea neighbours Fiji.

It may not remain that way for long. The International Rugby Board this week announced that construction work is getting underway on a high performance facility in Samoa.

While it is claimed, with considerable justification, that Scotland are the poor relations within European elite rugby, human and fiscal resources here are far superior to those in Samoa which boasts a population of less than 180,000, fewer than the city of Aberdeen, in which that recent Test took place.

The strides they have made at Test level in the past 20 years – they had previously been over-shadowed by the Fijians in terms of perception within the rugby world – have been remarkable in that regard.

As part of overall support amounting to £2.2m, the IRB have contributed £1m to a project featuring state-of-the-art playing, training, rehabilitation and administrative facilities. Construction is expected to be completed well ahead of Samoa’s Rugby World Cup preparation camp in August 2011.

This is great news for most of world rugby but disturbing for the Welsh, who were beaten by the Samoans at the 1991 and 1999 tournaments and are in their pool again next year, along with defending champions South Africa and Fiji who, like Samoa, will have huge local backing.

Yet the Welsh, who claim rugby as their national sport as Samoans do, ought to be able to put their own short-term interests aside in favour of the greater good of the sport.

This is exactly the kind of targeted investment the IRB must make in order to broaden interest.

There has been some comment recently about there being too much international rugby and, while growing interest in world rankings has gone some way to making them more meaningful, spectators seem to be growing bored with the autumn Test format.

The only way for that to change is if there are more teams capable of being genuinely competitive, thereby allowing the administrators to cut down on the number of visits by the Southern Hemisphere big three, in turn restoring their novelty value when they do visit.

To that end there have been real signs that other countries are poised to do an Argentina by breaking up the old established order of IRB founder members – Australia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales – and Samoa are by no means certain to be next in line.

Last weekend’s win by Aironi over the two-times Heineken Cup finalists Biarritz may have been their first competitive success, but it was real evidence of what being involved in the Magners League can do for Italian rugby. Having made their famous entrance into RBS 6 Nations rugby when Scotland visited Rome a decade ago, the Italians have backed it up with relatively few successes and are currently 12th in the rankings.

Yet history tells us that even France took time to adjust at that level. They, too, won their first home championship match against Scotland, but that was an even more isolated victory, standing alone against 19 championship defeats in their first five seasons, either side of The Great War.

Nor were the French disadvantaged as the Italians have been in having to prepare their homegrown players in a semi-professional league while their rivals all comprised teams competing full-time in the Magners League, French Championship and English Premiership.

With the Romanian side Bucharest having claimed a win in Europe this season too, while Georgia is to host next year’s Junior World Cup, they too are beginning to get the support they need.

While it could be argued that it is overdue, sound strategic decisions are being made in bidding to encourage the growth of the global game, making it just as well for Scotland that the national team has made the progress it has this past year or so.

This article was originally posted on 16-Dec-2010, 07:50 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 16-Dec-2010, 08:29.