Allan Massie: Warm glow is cooled by SRU's budget freeze

Published on Friday 1 May 2009 22:28

EDINBURGH'S 32-30 away win over the Ospreys was not perhaps in the class of Glasgow's win in Toulouse and Edinburgh's own Heineken victory in Castres, but it was still a mighty fine achievement, not least because the Ospreys were fielding five of their new Lions.

EDINBURGH'S 32-30 away win over the Ospreys was not perhaps in the class of Glasgow's win in Toulouse and Edinburgh's own Heineken victory in Castres, but it was still a mighty fine achievement, not least because the Ospreys were fielding five of their new Lions.

What was especially pleasing was Edinburgh's refusal to be rattled by their opponents' brilliant start which saw them scoring two tries in the first ten or so minutes.

It's not so long since any Scottish team finding itself in that position down in Wales would almost certainly have suffered an embarrassingly heavy defeat, Instead, Edinburgh dug in, and rallied.

Even when they went behind again with only a few minutes to go they still came back to snatch a thoroughly deserved victory.

This owed much to the cool heads, resolution and leadership of the senior players, notably Mike Blair, Chris Paterson and Ally Hogg. But Phil Godman had one of the best games I have seen him play, Ben Cairns took his two tries splendidly, Ross Ford showed he is back to his best, and, of the uncapped players, Allan Macdonald was outstanding. All in all, a very satisfying evening.

Less satisfying was the news this week that the budgets of both Edinburgh and Glasgow are to be frozen, and that both will probably have to shed a couple of players as a result of having had to offer some of their stars improved terms in their new contracts.

Both teams already suffer from having smaller squads and weaker reserve strength than their rivals in the Magners League and Heineken Cup. Now the situation can only get worse. Munster are able to leave out most of their Irish internationalists and still field a team capable of beating any other in the Magners, and even of coming close to beating the All Blacks' second XV. Edinburgh and Glasgow each have a smaller players' budget than even Connacht, by some way the poor relation among the Irish provinces.

The Gordon McKie regime at Murrayfield has been successful in reducing the SRU's debt, and it is important that it has done so. Things are clearly done more efficiently, but until means are found to invest more in the professional game, the academies. and at least the upper reaches of the amateur club game, Scottish rugby will continue to struggle, any achievement being against the odds.

Meanwhile, those who were sceptical of the justice of Frank Hadden's complaints about the lack of preparation time for the international team – or who became weary of their repetition – might look at the tough line now being taken by the RFU with regard to the exodus of English players to French clubs.

"We will never again," the RFU chief executive Francis Baron said this week, "send out a Test team into a match without a two-week preparation period." The implication is that any player who still hopes to play for England after moving to France must have a clause ensuring such release written into his contract.

Likewise, he must be available for a week-long training camp in August. If not, then he can forget about playing for England.

In contrast, Frank Hadden had to plead with clubs in England, France and Wales to release Scottish players before and during the Six Nations and the autumn internationals – and his requests were as often as not ignored. His successor is going to find himself in the same position, at the same disadvantage.

One can't blame the clubs in other countries. They sign players to do a job for them, not for Scotland. The troubles Hadden experienced over the unavailability of players and the truncated training sessions were the consequence of the SRU's inability to put the professional game here on as sound a footing as it is elsewhere, notably in Ireland and Wales, the two countries that most resemble Scotland. There is sadly no reason to think this is going to change in the near future. But, until it does so, we are more likely most years to vie with Italy for the Wooden Spoon than to challenge for the Six Nations title.

Meanwhile, the withdrawal of the comparatively small sum the SRU provided to help fund the London Scottish Academy seems another of these short-sighted decisions of which there have been too many at Murrayfield.

McKie's explanation that this investment had failed to unearth any players that the Union's "two-man exiles network based in Leeds" didn't already know about seems bizarre. Surely the purpose of an Academy is not only to "unearth" young players, but to develop them. The fact is that there are many young players the SRU "knows about" who are ignored once they have moved out of age-group representative rugby.

Moreover, one must ask whether London Scottish will be more or less able to develop any "unearthed" youngsters without the modest sums the SRU was providing. The answer seems sadly obvious.