SCOTT Hastings yesterday painted a vivid picture of growth in professional rugby for a multitude of players, coaches and dignitaries from around Europe who descended on Murrayfield for the glitzy launch of the 14th Heineken Cup.
The tournament was born in 1995-96, but with only 12 teams sent by Wales, Ireland, France, Italy and Romania. Scotland and England opted out as they pondered how to embrace this sudden new arrival of professional rugby. Hastings was captain of Edin
burgh District when they, along with the Borders and Caledonia, were handed the task of leading Scotland into the fledgling European event the following year.
Yesterday, Hastings produced the letter he received in July, 1996, outlining the new challenge of a pan-European competition, from team manager Rob Flockhart. Hastings, now a Heineken Cup final ambassador and Sky TV commentator, admitted he was a bit of an anorak for keeping personal memorabilia, and the letter attracted laughs and gasps at the "dark age" feel to European rugby only 12 years ago.
Flockhart spoke of how serious English and French clubs were taking this tournament and that Scotland had to be ready ... so training would commence the week before the first match with Bath, on 12 October, and sessions would be held every night of that week.
Hastings explained: "All the players in Scotland then were still amateur, and it was agreed that we would all stay with our clubs for August and September, with sessions then held after work. But one week?
"We were brought together on the 6th and the first game was away to Bath on the 12th, and we got stuffed (55-26]. We were lining up against the likes of Henry Paul, Jason Robinson – who was on a sabbatical from Rugby League – Mike Catt, Matt Perry and Andy Robinson, now Edinburgh coach, was Bath captain.
"We had some decent players, quite a few internationals, but we were totally amateur whereas they were a fully-fledged, full-time professional club. We then hosted Pontypridd four days later and had chances but still lost 32-10, and then went to Dax for the next game, three days later, and were ripped to shreds (losing 69-12].
"I remember pulling the lads together at half-time – we were losing by about 40 points – and saying 'this could be 80 points.' We dug in and it wasn't, quite, but we came off feeling 'we can't live with that'.
"We lost to Treviso at home (43-23] and that was our first taste of Heineken Cup rugby. I knew then that we had a hell of a lot of catching-up to do."
Scotland's catching-up remains a work in progress, but there is no doubting the transformation of a tournament that, at the very least, rivals the Super 14 and, for many, surpasses it as the world's best club competition. Munster won the title for the second time by beating Toulouse at the Millennium Stadium last season and though the final itself was not the most entertaining on the field, it pulled the colour, passion and excitement of the tournament into an incredible fever around it.
Already, with the first matches approaching this weekend, and still another seven months until the final, 17,350 tickets were reported yesterday to have been sold for the 2008-9 Murrayfield climax.
A total of 15,000 tickets are held back for the finalists, so the stadium is, in effect, already half-full. The last time the final was in Edinburgh, in 2005, an all-France affair attracted 51,000 supporters, just short of the average, but Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, is confident of attracting a full house this time.
"Clearly, it would be helpful if our teams do well in their pool stages in terms of attendances and their competitiveness in the competition – this coming weekend is very important for that."
The chances of Edinburgh or Glasgow featuring in the final are decidedly slim, largely because of relatively paltry resources – with budgets ten times less than top sides Toulouse or Leicester – and continuing inconsistency.
Edinburgh's quarter-final appearance in 2004 remains the sole Scottish involvement beyond the pools to date, and Hastings admitted he still viewed the Scots as being too far off the hectic pace being set by Europe's leading sides.
"We were playing catch-up big-style in 1996 and while we definitely have improved, and are making ground in some areas, we are still playing catch-up in many other areas.
"It is not just one thing that will make Edinburgh or Glasgow reach the quarter-finals, and threaten the last four, but a number of things – good coaching, good strength in depth, budgets that allow them to go out and sign a Dan Carter or Rocky Elsom, a real brand that supporters can latch onto and quality facilities that bring the corporate clients in and draw fans closer to the games; sitting behind an eight-lane track in a three-quarters empty national stadium doesn't do that."
The full article contains 851 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
