Allan Massie: Pro teams need more financial and physical clout to make progress

Published on Friday 1 April 2011 13:50

START with something good to which perhaps not enough attention has been paid: Scotland Under-18s' win against England last weekend. We are accustomed to struggle at age-group level, partly because competition for places in these teams is less intense than it is in England, or indeed Wales and Ireland, too, nowadays.

So natural ability is often enough to secure selection, but too often it is natural ability that hasn't be sufficiently tested by stiff competition. Consequently, any victory at age-group level is rare. Beating what was England's full first-choice under-18 team was a notable achievement which suggests that we are getting some things right - even if the old adage about one swallow not making a summer still holds good.

Likewise, the club game is in fairly robust health; better health probably than since the advent of professionalism took international players away from the clubs. The evident improvement is due principally to the determination of individual clubs to organise their rugby better and to go out and secure sponsorship. There is a buzz about club rugby. It is largely self-generated, and this is good.

Things are very different with our two pro teams. They are struggling. During periods when they are without their internationalists, they are at a severe disadvantage because they lack experienced players. At Glasgow, Sean Lineen has had to field starting XVs with an average age in the low 20s. Edinburgh have, more than once, had four members of their pack under the age of 23.

Alan Hansen once famously said: "You win nothing with kids." As it happens he was wrong on that occasion because he was speaking about Alex Ferguson's very young Manchester United side. Nevertheless, the judgment is right more often than not. England did win the Six Nations with the youngest side (average age 25) in the tournament, but they fell heavily at the final hurdle and failed against Ireland because the kids proved flaky when faced with a tough, experienced and streetwise opposition.

Edinburgh and Glasgow need to be bolstered by the recruitment of a couple of battle-hardened players each from the southern hemisphere. All their rivals have such players. Ulster's Springbok star Rudi Pienaar beat Glasgow almost by himself last week. The time when Edinburgh came closest to matching the best was when they had Todd Blackadder and Brendan Laney in their team. Somehow the SRU must find the cash to secure comparable recruits. Aren't there businesses or rich individuals who might be ready to pay for them?

Without money there will be no consistent success. Occasionally big matches will be won, but defeat will be more common. Success in professional team sports generally goes to the big and rich battalions. The two teams at the bottom of this season's French top 14 - La Rochelle and Bourgoin - are the two with the smallest budgets. Toulouse at the top have a budget of €29 million. The pattern is the same in every major footballing country. Without investment you will never win consistently.

The national side has improved even if results don't reflect this. Sustained improvement will only come about if Edinburgh and Glasgow get stronger. We should take a look at Ireland. The success of the national team, winning a Grand Slam and several Triple Crowns, followed the success of Munster and then, a little later, Leinster.

Ireland started to win matches consistently because their players were accustomed to winning league and cup games with their provinces. Moreover, they were able to keep their best players in Ireland. Over the past five or six years, almost a full international XV has departed from Scotland to play their club rugby elsewhere. Some have doubtless improved as a result, but the teams they left behind have been weakened.

Gordon McKie puts the question: "Do we want to keep all our top players in Scotland to make our pro teams better which is potentially to the detriment of Scotland because the pool becomes narrower and we want as deep a pool as we can get?" One is inclined to answer: "yes and no", which is doubtless of little help.

However, there is no evidence that keeping almost all their top players in Ireland has been "to the detriment" of the national side; nor that it has prevented young players from coming through. Ireland have, of course, four pro teams, but Connacht contribute little to the national side, and Ulster not much more.

Mr McKie says it is "hugely important" to qualify for the quarter-final of the Heineken. Only a bit of luck and some freak results would make that possible this season. Moreover, the seeding system will require sustained improvement for probably three seasons before either Edinburgh or Glasgow finds itself in one of the weaker pools from which it is possible to qualify by coming second. As things stand, either team which wins three of its six games has done well - but that is not good enough to get through to the knock-out stage. If it is "hugely important" to do this, more investment in the pro teams is needed to make it possible. Money isn't everything - Mr McKie is right there - but it is very important, and without more money we may cry out for success - but we would be as well crying to the moon.