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Scottish rugby needs a long-term plan
After the latest failure on the international stage, the SRU needs to take a serious look at the bigger picture.


By Neil Drysdale
28 February 2011 08:09 GMT


Where to from here? Scotland needs to consider fundamental change.

There's little benefit in looking for quick fixes whenever Scotland suffer another demoralising defeat in rugby. One can point the finger at various perceived culprits, be they individual players, the alleged failings of Glasgow and Edinburgh's professional teams, the contentious decisions of a referee such as Nigel Owens, or a variety of SRU panjandrums, who have been grappling with a serious debt issue at Murrayfield for the best part of the last decade.

But the reality is that rugby, as a whole, is struggling in Scotland and no one person or body is responsible for the malaise. If the solution was that simple, we wouldn't be enduring a situation where we have gone through February without Scotland, the pro clubs or the national under-20s recording a single victory in 12 matches. (Glasgow managed a draw, but that was the exception).

With this level of under-performance, it isn't surprising that Andy Robinson has distinctly limited options, ahead of the annual Calcutta Cup tussle with England on March 13. He - and several of his leading players - were quick to apologise for the display against Wales, whilst the Scottish coach has been critical of Owens, who penalised Ireland relentlessly at Murrayfield on Sunday without issuing any yellow cards, yet found a reason to send Allan Jacobsen to the sin bin. But, for all that Owens hardly covered himself in glory, he didn't miss the tackles, drop the passes, and ignore the lines of communication, which gifted the Irish a hat-trick of tries.

So the first thing that Scottish rugby has to do is avoid indulging in easy excuses. One of the defining characteristics of the sides which won the Grand Slam in 1990 and the Five Nations Championship in 1999 was that the players always took responsibility for their decisions and were painfully honest when they messed up.

The second issue which needs addressing is the future of Glasgow and Edinburgh and whether the SRU should continue to bank-roll these organisations. In plain terms, there is no way that the governing body will ever make a profit from the city teams, for as long as they are only drawing crowds of between 1500 and 3500, so it makes sense for the union to sit down with the grassroots clubs and plan a path forward.

Ayr, whose progress in the British & Irish Cup has been one of the few success stories in recent months, have prepared a discussion paper, promoting the creation of a semi-pro structure in Scotland, with the best talent filtering up to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and there has to be merit in the suggestion that the likes of Ayr, Melrose, Glasgow Hawks, Stirling County, Dundee HSFP, Currie and Boroughmuir, have a greater say in developing the next generation of players with international aspirations.

There has been suspicion and mistrust for too long, but, frankly, these are luxuries which we can't afford in the present climate.

That leads us to the third point, which is a belated appreciation that, whether people like it or not, professionalism is here to stay and we can't pretend that players aren't being paid. This means a new mindset, a willingness for Scottish players to work harder on the training ground, for Scottish administrators to admit the folly of addle-headed policies - such as not selling tickets on international match days - and for clubs in the lower Scottish leagues to stop complaining about the governing body and ask themselves: what can we do to get more people interested?

This is one of the great unwritten truths about rugby in Caledonia - that it is a minority pursuit, which bursts into the spotlight three or four times a year. If these few occasions serve up nothing but ignominy and/or embarrassment as the prelude to recriminations, it's not difficult to comprehend why so many Scots have no affinity to the sport.

And yet, despite the anti-climax of the Six Nations losses, there are still plenty of places where one will discover talented coaches, players and committee stalwarts working in their local communities to spread the gospel and preach to the unconverted. One thinks of Ayr, or Ellon, Whitecraigs, or Cartha QP, Falkirk or Greenock Wanderers....all of them cherishable institutions, where rugby is making progress and the long-term future looks bright.

Now, what we need is a serious long-term strategy to expand the game's appeal. Rugby isn't alone in this; British tennis has failed miserably to capitalise on the Andy Murray factor, while Scotland has more golf courses, per head of population, than almost anywhere else in Europe, and yet one doesn't detect too many heirs apparent to Sandy Lyle and Paul Lawrie among the current generation. Maybe, it's part of our sporting culture to be parochial, but we can't keep our heads in the sand any longer.

One final thought: let's not get carried away, positively or negatively, if the Scots respond to adversity by beating or crashing to England next month. This has always been a hard fixture for the Scots and the fact that we haven't triumphed at Twickenham since 1983 tells its own story of the disparity in resources between the two countries. Winning won't eradicate the problems, but nether will losing mean it is the end of the world.

Instead, it's surely time for all the concerned parties to talk and consign the old rivalries to the dustbin of history.

This article was posted on 28-Feb-2011, 08:31 by Hugh Barrow.