The Herald reports

Glasgow keen to take sevens from Murrayfield ahead of 2014 Games
Published on 26 May 2011


Exclusive kevin ferrie chief rugby writer

IAN McLAUCHLAN, the president of the Scottish Rugby Union, is backing moves to take the Scottish leg of the IRB World Sevens Series from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

Officials from Glasgow City Council are to attend Murrayfield on a fact-finding mission this weekend as they build a proposal to take the competition to Scotstoun Stadium, while McLauchlan views their bid to take over the hosting of the event from Murrayfield as imperative in the interests of the event.

“There are moves afoot and I’m very excited about the prospect,” he told Herald Sport. “The series has got to be in Glasgow before the Commonwealth Games.”

Glasgow 2014 organisers and the council are working closely together in their attempts to build the profile of seven-a-side rugby in the city. That was demonstrated recently in the launch of the Legacy Sevens Series, which was held over four successive weekends across the central belt, culminating in the Glasgow City Sevens at Cartha Queen’s Park’s Dumbreck ground earlier this month, where Stirling County were crowned series winners.

The latest move would take that process to a new level, though, while it also has the potential to inject new life into an event that should be one of the showpieces of the Scottish rugby season.

While Murrayfield is the national rugby stadium and has, for the past four years, hosted the grand finale of the international sevens circuit – it is currently billed as the Emirates Airlines Edinburgh Sevens – the event pales into insignificance as a spectacle alongside the Twickenham leg which, last weekend, attracted record attendances adding up to more than 100,000 spectators.

The contrast is a clear cause for concern for organisers of the series at a time when interest in sevens is burgeoning following its acceptance as an Olympic sport. There is, though, no desire to take it away from Scotland, the country in which sevens was born, and the aim is now to improve the product.

While Murrayfield is within five minutes of his own home, McLauchlan, a former Glasgow district captain who also led Scotland on a then record number of occasions as well as taking part in the two greatest British and Irish Lions tours in 1971 and 1974, is in no doubt that the switch is the right thing to do.

“We need another stadium for rugby and, having played two or three matches for Glasgow there, I always thought that Scotstoun was a great place to play. It was flat, so that gave it an advantage over Hughenden for a start,” joked McLauchlan before adding, more seriously, “Scotstoun is now even better than it was in those days and, while people talk about the athletics track being a problem, I really don’t think it is.

“There are two excellent stands and, with temporary seating, it would be perfect for the sevens. If we can only attract 15,000 people there’s no point in using a 70,000-seater stadium.”

He noted that, in terms of increasing the level of interest, the natural rivalry that currently exists between Edinburgh and Glasgow could also be a factor.

“There will be a lot of work to be done to persuade everyone that this is the right move but, depending on your loyalties, whether you call it Scotland’s first or second city, I think Glasgow is the type of place where people would get right behind it,” he said. “They would look at the event in Edinburgh and say ‘We can put on a better party.’ ”

He also believes that such a move represented a great opportunity for the SRU to live up to their repeated promises to broaden interest in rugby. “We’re always talking about spreading the game about and this is an opportunity to do that,” he said.

Herald Sport understands that the sevens could be moved to Scotstoun as early as next year, which would provide three years of major sevens competition in the city ahead of the staging of the Commonwealth Games.

There have also been discussions among council officials and Glasgow 2014 about preparing Scotstoun as an alternative venue for the sevens competition during the Commonwealth Games.

Ibrox is scheduled to stage the sevens competition but there is some concern about the possibility of a clash with early-season Champions or Europa League qualifiers.

This article was originally posted on 26-May-2011, 07:05 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-May-2011, 07:06.