Coaches fighting an uphill struggle to keep their top players in Scotland

Published Date: 13 January 2011
By David Ferguson

THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
• Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat and his Glasgow counterpart Sean Lineen are trying to persuade key players to stay with them.

Heading the concern list are Edinburgh hooker Ross Ford, lock Scott MacLeod, and Glasgow's midfield pairing of Max Evans and Graeme Morrison. Tim Visser, Edinburgh's Dutch wing, who would qualify to play for Scotland in 2012 under the residency ruling, is understood to be close to signing a new deal to keep him in the capital after growing interest in the prolific try-scorer from outside the country.

Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive made it clear in an interview with The Scotsman last week that the union will not invest more money in the professional game this year despite two years of budget freezes that have partly contributed to the loss of a core of international talent from Glasgow and Edinburgh. That strategy is beginning to take effect on contract discussions and agents' efforts to find better deals for Scots in England and France.

It is understood that Glasgow and Edinburgh will only keep the likes of Ford, MacLeod, Evans and Morrison if some or all of the players accept pay freezes or reductions.

As well as internationalists seeking improved terms, the pro team squads also contain players on lower wages who are looking for salary increases after emerging from club and academy rugby and proving themselves in the pro game. The wage structure in Scottish pro rugby ranges from £20,000 per year through a large number in the £40,000-£80,000 bracket and up to a trio of top earners way out in front on around £200,000. With no extra resources available, it is difficult to see how comparatively modest increases for lower-rank players could be funded.

Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat declined to comment on contract talks yesterday - he also has players such as Fraser McKenzie, Mark Robertson, Lee Jones and Scott Newlands out of contract this summer - but did quash rumours that Ford had decided to leave the club for the English Premiership.

Asked what size and strength of squad he envisaged putting together this summer, he insisted: "We will have a very competitive squad. Obviously, you would like to keep all of your squad together and let it build and mature, but sometimes that is not possible. You have to live with that. But we're working very hard to persuade players to stay at the club and help us compete with the top regions and provinces in the Magners League. Obviously, players like Ross, Scott and others out of contract are very important to the future."

Glasgow coach Sean Lineen - who also has Richie Vernon, Peter Horne and Pat McArthur out of contract this summer - was similarly reluctant to discuss contract talks, though the prospect of not only keeping his best players but signing new quality in the summer brought a shake of the head. He said: "Like Edinburgh we want to keep players here and grow. It has been tough and it's no secret that we don't have the money that clubs like Wasps and Toulouse have, so it's harder for us to keep the talent we do develop. Players will go and others will come through, but we are working hard to persuade players that their future lies with Glasgow."

Doing that while agents are collecting offers around Europe significantly greater than those Lineen and Moffat can put on the table is a challenge. Max and Thom Evans were rumoured to be offered close to £300,000 per year to join a French club two years ago, but opted instead to stay at Glasgow for less, though still with a significant pay rise.

McKie told The Scotsman in last week's interview that he and his finance director Eamon Hegarty, with input from the director of performance rugby Graham Lowe and the executive board, were determined to hold investment in pro rugby and spend more on the international squad and club game. The pro teams cost the SRU a combined £4.6m a year and McKie insisted that he did not view the pro teams as being any more deserving of greater investment than the top and bottom tiers of the sport in Scotland.

That approach will bite hard this year as the progress made by Edinburgh and Glasgow through 2007-9, where both Lineen and Andy Robinson, when in charge at Edinburgh, enjoyed better resources, has already notably halted. New talent, such as Rob Harley, has emerged but the cumulative effect of the policy is of Glasgow and Edinburgh struggling to cope with injuries and sliding down the league table.

This article was posted on 13-Jan-2011, 08:14 by Hugh Barrow.