It has been a long and winding road for London Scottish since a Glasgow Accie R H Hedderwick helped found them in 1878 and Accies became the first Scottish club to play them in 1882

The Scotsman reveals

The famous Scottish club, based in Richmond, claimed a stunning 17-13 victory away to National One title rivals Barking after trailing for most of the game, thanks to an injury-time interception try by winger David Howells, so capping a decade of promotions from the depths of English rugby to one step from the Premiership.

They could face Melrose, Ayr or Currie in next season's British and Irish Cup, but could also offer a new platform to aspiring internationalists.

The SRU is mindful of the pressure to help clubs in Scotland with greater funding and is looking to revamp the domestic league structure to ease financial worries and improve the quality of club rugby. The Scottish clubs have appealed for more young professionals at Edinburgh and Glasgow to be released to help ease the bottleneck of talent in the Scottish pro game. That relationship is improving but there remain issues with full-time players moving between pro and draft clubs, which remain semi-professional.

With the World Cup ripping out the core of Edinburgh and Glasgow early next season, more youngsters will have the opportunity to play in the Magners League but there remain individuals with the potential to be internationalists who are still a step below that who might benefit from regular game-time and game-learning with and against experienced players in the Championship.

Edinburgh youngsters Alex Blair, Gregor Hunter, Matt Scott, Harry Leonard, Fraser Brown and Robin Hislop are names that spring to mind, while James Fleming, James Johnstone, Alex Dunbar and Murray McConnell at Glasgow are similar examples of talent now needing regular exposure at a higher level.

London Scottish employed 15 full-time players and nine Scottish-qualified academy players this season and are looking to put several more on full-time deals this summer in a squad of 35. They are also aiming to double their £1 million-plus turnover as their pool of around 100 investors continues to grow. That would still be way short of what is required to compete in the Aviva Premiership - though probably around ten times that of a leading Scottish club - hence why Scottish are aiming simply to remain in the Championship over the next few seasons.

A central figure in the revival has been club president Rod Lynch, a former Perth Accies 2nd XV prop who is currently executive chairman of Global Supply Systems, which supplies Boeing 747s to British Airways and other airlines. He stepped up to lead the club in 2001 after its collapse in the hands of millionaire entrepreneur Tony Tiarks, and was ecstatic on Saturday.

"I felt elated," he said. "I feel very privileged to be the man at the top, but there have been many people involved in this club's return, notably the chairman David Reid, who has made a massive contribution, and we all enjoyed the weekend immensely.

"When the RFU dropped us nine divisions - which has never happened since; you get fined now - it was with the intention of absolutely flattening us, hoping that we'd fold and go away. But we didn't and it's been great to march back up that hill. I remember vividly the muddy public parks with one man and a dog watching us, the leagues and rugby pitches all over the country we travelled to, but it has all been worth it to get London Scottish back where the club belongs. In truth, we weren't in the Premiership that much in the 1990s, so reaching the second division/Championship feels like we're home."

Now, he added, the work begins to stay there. There has been much talk about the SRU's hands-off approach - the union withdrew £40,000 funding to help the academy develop exiles - but there is great pride at the Athletic Ground that the club has achieved the feat without their help.

Communication has continued between Murrayfield and Richmond and Graham Lowe, the SRU's Director of Performance Rugby, is to meet London Scottish. He said: "It's great news that London Scottish has secured promotion to the Championship. Everyone at Scottish Rugby (the SRU] is delighted for them. 

"We're meeting them in the coming weeks to discuss ways in which we can further develop our established relationship for the benefit of both organisations. It's particularly pleasing to now have an additional 'Scottish' team qualified for the B&I Cup and we look forward to working with the Exiles and further supporting our own Scottish teams of Ayr, Currie and Melrose in the season ahead."

Clearly, the SRU's priority is to aid Scottish clubs and more improvements are needed to improve the elite level of the game but, while that takes time, it seems foolish to continue to ignore the opportunity at an enthusiastic 'Scottish' professional club with a potential Scottish fan base in London of over 100,000, and one with the record of producing the most Scotland internationalists.

Scottish will need to name at least 14 English-qualified players in every matchday 22 next season, to qualify for vital RFU and Sky funding but have no concerns as virtually all the Scots at the club not yet capped by Scotland at sevens or full international level are 'English-qualified', and there remain eight places for any nationalities.

"We are a Scottish club, that is our history and a key part of our raison d'etre," added Lynch.

"We are very proud of the fact that we have paddled our own canoe back up, that we're not reliant on the SRU for anything, but we have an outlet here for what could be a third pro team for Scottish rugby.

"We're not amateur, we have full-time coaches, players and fitness and medical staff, and are growing all the time."

Reiterating a simple message, Lynch concluded: "We can give game-time to young Scots on their way up, as we always did, rather than them sitting on benches in Scotland or elsewhere.

"The British and Irish Cup will be good next season, but we will also be playing the full-strength Worcester or Cornish Pirates, Bedford, London Welsh, Bristol etc week in week out over a whole season and, with every respect to great Scottish clubs like Melrose, Ayr and Currie, that quality of competition is a quantum leap to Premier One in Scotland at present. That's where the difference is now, and where we could really help Scottish rugby, after Saturday's result."

This article was originally posted on 12-May-2011, 06:07 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 12-May-2011, 06:09.