Allan Massie: Pro teams still suffering from talent drain and lack of direction

Published on Friday 22 April 2011 16:24

There may still be questions about a few positions, but Andy Robinson has, one assumes, more or less finalised his World Cup squad. Some of those on his list may be injured, in matches or training, between now and the date for departure to New Zealand. Nevertheless I suppose that most of us could write down the names of those likely to be on the plane.

Almost half of them will be attached to clubs outwith Scotland; among these a couple, Max Evans and Richie Vernon, who have not yet moved to their new club. Still they will be in the squad along with the two Lamonts, Simon Danielli, Joe Ansbro, Nikki Walker, Dan Parks, Rory Lawson, Scott Lawson, Nathan Hines, Jim Hamilton, Alastair Strokosch and Kelly Brown. Alastair Dickinson may also be in the party, fitness permitting. Alex Grove is another who may get Robinson's nod.

Edinburgh will probably supply seven or eight players, and Glasgow nine, the Glasgow figure rising to 11 if you include Evans and Vernon. With the exception of Joe Ansbro, all the exiles - to use the convenient shorthand description - have at some time played for either Edinburgh or Glasgow, or, in the case of Nikki Walker, for the defunct Border Reivers, though the Lamonts, Danielli and Hamilton all began their professional careers in England.

The likely composition of the party not only emphasizes the comparative weakness of the professional game here; it also puts a slant on the frequently-made assertion that the men at the top of the SRU regard or treat Edinburgh and Glasgow as development teams, whose own performance and results are subordinate to the perceived function of developing Scotland players.

Evidently they have a subsidiary function: to develop players for clubs in England, Wales, Ireland and France. This is very generous of us. Vernon and Edinburgh's promising flanker/lock Fraser Mackenzie are both off to strengthen Sale, even though their departure will weaken the clubs they leave. There can't be many who think this satisfactory.

The opening weeks of next season look like being miserable ones for Glasgow and Edinburgh, weakened by departures and the absence of players on World Cup duty, and without adequate reserves to replace them. Sean Lineen has some experience of making bricks without straw, but Glasgow's sorry position, languishing near the foot of the Magners League, shows that this is a tough demand, even for one of his invincible optimism.

He will have to piece together a side lacking Graeme Morrison, Ruaridh Jackson, Chris Cusiter, Moray Low, Dougie Hall (or Fraser Thomson), Alistair Kellock, Richie Gray, Johnnie Beattie and John Barclay. Just to cheer him up, Bernardo Stortoni is off to herd cattle on the pampas, Aly Muldowney is departing for Exeter and Kevin Tkachuk is retiring.Enjoy the challenge, Sean.

Glasgow at least have a coach in place. Edinburgh don't, though we are told one will be appointed next month. Good luck to him whoever he is. He will arrive at Murrayfield to find that a dozen of the 19 or 20 forwards available at the start of the season range in age from 24 to 19. The new coach will find that there is no money to sign experienced players with a record of achievement and, even if there was the cash, most of his rival clubs will already have had their pick from those currently available.

He will have to make do and mend with what he inherits, and with anyone he can find going cheap. Coach and players will doubtless give of their best, but this is no way to build for success. Frankly it's amazing that anyone should want the Edinburgh job. The only thing in favour of taking it is that any success will be remarkable, achieved against very heavy odds.

It's really not good enough. The SRU hierarchy seems comfortable with the regular departure of players to pursue their careers elsewhere. It cuts the wage bill and it prevents a logjam which would thwart the development of the next generation.

There is, of course, something to be said for this argument. Undoubtedly young players get an early opportunity when established ones move on or are absent on international duty. Yet it is noticeable that Leinster and Munster don't seem to worry about any logjam. They do all they can to keep their best players, while gradually introducing youngsters into a successful side. They realize that success breeds success. Here the assumption seems to be that success will grow out of failure. It rarely does.

We hope that, by letting players move on and develop their careers elsewhere, we can patch together a successful Scotland side - and it should be said that Andy Robinson is giving it a fair go. But Robinson himself will move on, and when he does, none of the fundamental problems of professional rugby in Scotland will have been addressed, let alone solved. Quite the contrary: despite the best efforts of coaches and players, these problems continue to get worse.

We are even further from making a success of professional rugby than we were two World Cups ago. In season 2003/4, Edinburgh reached the quarter-final of the Heineken where unfortunately the draw pitched them against Toulouse away. Since then there have of course been some good results, but never a sustained period of success, either in the Heineken or in the Magners League. But Murrayfield seems unperturbed by this record of failure.