David Ferguson: Hay exit looks to be symptom of deep-set Hawick malaise

Published on Friday 5 December 2008 21:29

HAWICK rugby has severe problems, but as the leading club again faces the spectre of relegation there are concerns that the town that has bred more rugby internationalists than any other is dangerously papering over cracks.

This week Hawick RFC sacked the coach Jim Hay, with the club's president Donald McLeod and Doug Jackson, the director of rugby, making it clear in a brief visit to Hay's estate agent's office that they were not about to accept the club losing its Division 1 status for the first time in Scottish rugby history without some action.

Hay had only stayed on for a fifth season after persuasion, the club having failed to find anyone else willing to take on the role, and due to the fact his heart is embedded somewhere in Mansfield Park. He had informed the committee that it was a final one-year deal, but with a record of just two wins in 13 league games there was little surprise at this week's move.

Hay accepted the inevitable, but was upset that his long affiliation with the club, as player, captain and coach, ended with a brief "you're sacked" statement from McLeod in front of customers in his estate agent's shop, and no word of thanks.

He worries also that his sacking is merely the latest in a line of knee-jerk reactions and that the promotion of his assistants, Derek Armstrong and Stephen Cranston, with no new, wider plan on how the club can be moved forward, will merely put new figures in the firing line.

McLeod disagrees and has no regrets about the manner in which the head coach was fired. He points, with some validity, to the success bubbling below in Hawick, a structure that boasts three more adult clubs, two under-18 sides, four operating out of an under-16 club and schools teams, as reasons why the current decline will be turned around. He also speaks of the national age-grade caps and former Hawick players such as Nikki Walker, Scott MacLeod and John Houston doing well at pro and international levels.

Cranston and Jim Renwick, the former player and coach, yesterday strived to rally the troops, calling for support for the team in the local newspaper, and for the team to uncover the Greens' trademark passion.

But there remains concern in the middle ground that the current malaise goes further than passion; that the leadership at Mansfield Park is not able to drive the club forward, and the warring between clubs, against a backdrop of falling numbers, is the root of the decline. Hawick has suffered like most clubs with more sporting choices, increasing technological distractions and the loss of the appeal of internationalists playing locally to aspiring players and supporters, and an exodus of talent to the central belt shop window – an inevitable result of the SRU's decision to shut the Borders.

The 1st XV performances only exacerbate the problems. The club reports that 28 players have left in the past 18 months, for example, so Hawick now face a former player in opposition virtually every week. The club lacks the money to pay players anything more than petrol expenses for the few that still agree to drive 90 minutes south from Edinburgh three times a week.

One of the few things the 'junior' clubs see eye-to-eye on is their fury at Hawick RFC for running a 2ndXV/Academy side that, contrary to rumours, is still very much part of Hawick's future.

In the good times, Hawick merely had to pick up a phone and a leading star from Hawick Trades, Linden, YM or Harlequins would be swiftly despatched to Mansfield Park.

The 'Trades' are now gone, the others reduced to one team where some fielded three in the 1990s. Then, they broke out of their Border league, into the national leagues, offered Hawick third or fourth-choice players, sometimes none, and so Hawick created their own 2nd XV.

If Hawick YM win promotion this year and Hawick are relegated they will be separated by just one division next year, so is it any wonder some YM players view Hawick as a rival rather than a team to aspire to? Changing times indeed.

There are no black-and-white solutions; no quick-fix. However, McLeod remains confident that the club can not only to stave off relegation again, but compete with the best in the Scottish game. McLeod, who played No 8 for Hawick in their five successive championship-winning years from 1973-78, said: "We have the talent to keep Hawick in the first division, but we had to act to get the passion back.

"If our game goes ahead this weekend and we beat West at Mansfield, then go to Selkirk and play like we did when we took six tries off them here, and then beat a wobbling Boroughmuir back at Mansfield, the whole thing will change. But if I do end up being the first president to have a Hawick team going down I'm bloody sure I'll be the first president to bring them up again. It's tough for us, but the Hawick rugby fraternity will not let this get to them."

The demographics for Hawick may make it tougher than for many leading Scottish clubs, but they are far from insurmountable for a town that still boasts more rugby players than any in the Borders and more innate passion for the sport than most towns.

Scottish rugby would be worse off without a vibrant Hawick, but all clubs have serious issues to contend with and yet there is exciting new ambition sprouting from Ayr to Cupar, Annan to Ellon, and even on the doorstep, in Selkirk, 12 miles up the A7. Will a change of coach make the difference?

"I've not been sacked because of my coaching ability," added Hay. "A new person (McLeod] came in to run the club and the results were an excuse to get rid of me.

" I'm a realist and the person at the top of the tree takes the rap, but you have to ask why a club like Hawick couldn't find anyone to take the job when I wanted to step down last year or this year.

"There is too much politics in Hawick rugby and that makes it very difficult for this club. I am not bitter with Hawick rugby at all. It has been my life and it's a wonderful rugby club, and I've done the best I can to help move us forward. Now, I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family, and watching my son playing in the local park."

Hay was given a good crack at it; coaches come and go. But the past week in Hawick rugby leaves one with a lingering feeling that for all the Borderers' enviable resources there remains a lack of inspiration, if not all- encompassing desire, to create a new successful arena for the 21st century that was taken for granted just over two decades ago.