Neil Drysdale in the Herald


The Scottish Rugby Union have been urged to consider appointing John Steele, dismissed by England’s Rugby Football Union as chief executive on Friday, as successor to Gordon McKie who left the same post at Murrayfield on Tuesday.

Rod Lynch, the president of London Scottish, says that Steele, who lost his job as a result of a labyrinthine row over the appointment of a new performance director at Twickenham, has an otherwise stainless record and all the right credentials to succeed at Murrayfield.

“John’s a straightforward guy, who loves rugby, has great organisational experience, and, whether as a player, a coach, or a chief executive, has done excellent things in rugby for the last 20 years and more,” said Lynch, who was impressed by the way Steele carried out the job as director of rugby at London Scottish from 1995 to 1999.

“Gordon was a money man – he was brought in to help reduce the SRU’s debt and he did that – but, with a World Cup on the horizon, you need someone who can inspire people, bring a bit of pizazz to the grassroots and attract youngsters to rugby again.

“People shouldn’t judge John on what happened at the RFU, because the politics of that were murky, and he has done enough to prove that he has the qualities you need in a ceo, whether with us, or at Northampton Saints, or during his time at UK Sport.”

Steele, a former stand-off and England A cap, led Northampton to Heineken Cup success over Munster in 2000, before becoming an executive director at Franklin’s Gardens. He then became ceo of UK Sport and played a key role in developing Britain’s high-performance structure, which yielded so much success for Team GB at the Beijing Olympics.

This article was originally posted on 16-Jun-2011, 06:24 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 16-Jun-2011, 06:25.