Back in 1973 the SRU were the first home union to introduce
a league system for their rugby clubs - up until then mathematicians had
laboured for weeks to come up with a winner to the “Unofficial Championship”,
for the record the last winner of the aforementioned Unofficial Championship
were Boroughmuir RFC – so, like Scotland and the 5Ns they will forever be
champions.
At the time this was heady stuff for an organisation that
was once so famously hidebound to the amateur ethos that they expected players
capped before WWII to wear the same socks in 1946. But back then there must have been some
forward thinking blazers, who took the time in between G&Ts to recognise
that if Scotland were to continue to compete at the top table they needed to
prepare their players better.
Now, younger readers might be bemused by the idea that
Scotland competed at the top table of rugby – so remorseless has our decline
been that we have been bouncing along around 10-12 in the IRB rankings for the
last couple of years – but yes, Scotland were once a well-respected and strong
team (we won’t talk about the 1950s).
Back in the 60s players with double-barrelled names and a
nice ties were still getting the odd Autumn International run out, but after
the 1971 appointment of the fearsome Bill Dickenson to the role of “Advisor to
the Captain” - blazer speak for coach – Scotland were at least well coached,
although the occasional selection anomaly still slipped through the net you got
the feeling Scotland were finally putting out their strongest side.
Dickenson shaped a pretty fearsome side together at Murrayfield and
had a record that few subsequent Scotland sides have matched – but to sustain
this he needed a cadre of players who were playing hard matches every week –
back in the pre-national league days players could play against Hawick one week
and the Old Jakeystonians the next.
Risking life and limb at Mansfield one week and the skin burns the next
as you tackled some old codger that had forgotten to remove his ciggies and
matches from his pocket. It was
essential that players were being tested week in week out and a national league
system was the solution.
So in the season 1973-74 the first national leagues in the home nations kicked off – it was an immediate success and in my opinion laid the foundation for a period of success from 1984-1991 that we old buggers still pine for.
With all of this in mind I was quite excited by the plans published
at the start of the year, the creation of an 8 team Scottish Super League (SSL)
makes enormous sense but probably the most welcome change is the SRU would be
pumping money directly into the club game – the major benefit of which would be
less money for Solomons to waste on journeymen South Africans.
For those who may have missed the plans here are the core
proposals:
Core Proposals
- Increased focus on the domestic club game, and strengthening of SRU support for the league clubs.
- Development of a semi-professional club game that bridges gap between current Premiership clubs and their counterparts elsewhere in the UK (B & I Cup) and our pro teams.
- Objectives of:
- Restoring the competitiveness of Scottish clubs with those English, Welsh and Irish clubs which play at a level just below full-time, professional rugby.
- Making better use of the investment that has been put into the SRU's two professional clubs by spreading some of the benefits they get from the SRU in ways that can raise the standard of play elsewhere in the club game.
- SRU to fund an elite game group (EGG) of clubs that will use some contracted semi-professional players, who will also provide coaching services.
- League of eight clubs, to be called the Scottish Super League (SSL), to be governed by an advisory committee made up of members of the SRU Board and representatives of the clubs.
- EGG clubs would remain self-governing and autonomous but would enter into an extended participation agreement that recognised the close relationship with the SRU and its investment in them.
- 5 tiers in the club game:
- Professional – Edinburgh Rugby & Glasgow Warriors
- Semi Professional - Scottish Super League – 8 clubs
- Senior Amateur Club Game – National League 1 – 12 clubs
- National Amateur Club Game – National Leagues 2 & 3 – Linear, 2 x 12 clubs
- Regional Amateur Club Game – all clubs below National League tiers unchanged
For the full document and details of promotion/relegation
etc visit here.
Before I go onto to argue in favour of the proposals, it’s
worth pointing out that some clubs managed to block these changes for a year to
2016/17 – not the end of the world you may think but it’s an example of the cognitive
dissonance that exists within large swathes of the Scottish club scene. When Scotland were plumbing new depths in the
test game this season, the same people who were mumping and moaning that
something must be done, were also the same people who opposed the plans. They see the correlation between the two but refuse to accept that the club game must change. Why is that you may ask? Well nobody does narrow minded parochialism
like a club rugby man, whilst they might recognise that change needs to happen
for the good of the game, they are going to fight tooth and nail to make sure
it doesn’t impact their club.
Earlier on this year on this blog I argued that one of the
biggest problems with our Youth Rugby structure is the lack of high intensity
rugby, boys can drift through whole seasons playing less than a handful of
games that really test them. Now, I am
not suggesting there is equivalence in the Scottish Premiership league, but drop
below that and the disparity between clubs in the same league is stark.
The Premiership league can be pretty ferocious at times and only last year saw about 6 clubs fighting it out on the last day of the season to avoid a relegation playoff, but the reality is there is generally 2 clubs every season who are weaker than the rest. The SRU Initiative proposes to cut the Premiership to 8 teams and in my opinion right there improves the quality, without turning semi-pro, or throwing money at it the intensity levels of the league has been increased by removing two of the weaker clubs.
The intended consequence of creating the semi-professional layer in the game is to condense the quality players into fewer clubs - it's a harsh reality, but people are fooling themselves if they don't think it exists at the moment - it's always existed, even in the amateur game. It would now be out in the open, players would now be moving for money as well as improving their career prospects. Playing numbers in our sport are so low now, one of the most immediate ways of improving quality is to condense the superior players even further into fewer sides.
Because of the delay to the plans we have no idea who these 8 teams will be, there was so many rumours circulating and to a certain extent this added to clubs fears - would they be picked on the basis of geography? Why should the North have 2 sides? Should they focus on the cities? So many questions and no answers.
One thing is sure, the 8 teams need to be the best in the country - regardless of where they come from there should be no carve up based on some fanciful notions of potential. Strangely the league as it finished this year has probably the top 8 sides, with a fair reflection on how important the sport is to each region. One part of the plans I dont like is promotion/relegation is based on a playoff - as long as this is a one match playoff then yes, but not a home and away as this will benefit the semi-pro clubs too much. We certainly dont want to get into the position of ring fencing the SSL - there are far too many big clubs outside the current 8 to leave in the amateur game.
To Be Contd.......
