David Ferguson: 'Rugby's moved on and left the Borders behind'

Published on Thursday 19 November 2009 23:02

THE RAIN turning fields and roads into lakes around the Borders in the last 24 hours may sadly provide the biggest impact on attendance for Scotland A's return to the south after a seven-year absence, but what also comes under the microscope in Galashiels tonight is the appetite that remains for rugby in the old heartland.

Rugby has moved on hugely in the past decade and in many ways has left the Borders behind. The SRU, squeezed between a rock and a hard place by huge debt, emanating from poor income generation, ambition, marketing and financial acumen between 1995 and 2005, only accelerated that by deciding that the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow would become the focus of pro rugby.

There remains a burning passion for the oval-ball game in the Borders, but there are real concerns that those harbouring it are dwindling in number. Football has been growing year on year in the Borders and countless young sporting talents now leave the area on a weekly basis for better facilities and competition, across Scotland and south of the border. Rugby is not the attraction it was.

A microscosm of Scotland on the world map, the Borders is a small, but productive sporting area. It may house just 105,000 people but the region has produced countless Olympians, including Ian Stark, Janet Jack, Dougie Welsh, Rosemary Chrimes (nee Payne) and Ken Laidlaw, motorsport champions Jim Clark, Steve Hislop and Louise Aitken-Walker, sailor Chay Blyth, athlete John Robson, Scotland footballers Bobby Johnstone and John Collins, recent Commonwealth Games swimmer Euan Dale, and the 30-plus British and Irish Lions and many more Scotland rugby stars we all know about.

Rugby has been No1, but sport is the overriding passion. The arrival of a touring rugby team in the past was guaranteed to ignite interest and there is a detectable desire among many Borderers to show support for the SRU's decision to finally bring a senior representative fixture, featuring the current role models and stellar talents of Scottish rugby, back to the area.

Backed by the enthusiasm of more widespread rugby supporters, one would hope for a good crowd and fine atmosphere at Netherdale tonight. The rain may put paid to that, but, more worryingly, there are rugby supporters who are losing heart in the area. Some of it stems from a lack of support for the area from the SRU, where perhaps prior to 1995 there was more support than was fair, while rugby's laws and the move towards a more defence-orientated, kicking style of game has switched off many others.

Rugby remains a talking point on the streets of Borders towns, but not in the way it was. There are born and bred Borderers who have little interest in Scotland's game this weekend with Australia – the numbers who travel north to Murrayfield from the Borders are impossible to gauge, but are undoubtedly down hugely on a decade ago – and freely admit they know none of the current internationals. Some will instead attend Border League games this weekend, believing there to be more excitement and passion there.

The selection of one of the strongest A sides for years must help tonight, as will the presence of locally-bred players such as Kelly Brown, Geoff Cross, Nikki Walker, Scott MacLeod, Greig Laidlaw and Mark Robertson that many local supporters have not seen since they last graced the Netherdale pitch some years back – they have all improved significantly since. Free entry should persuade some more.

It may prove too simplistic to read much into one crowd figure after the recent deluge, but the return of a senior fixture to the Borders is long overdue and welcome.

Is the worst strip in history of Scots game?

WHAT on earth is that? Surely, that will be tripping off the tongue when people see the new Edinburgh third strip in the Murrayfield shop next week.

Believe it or not, the team will wear this brightly-coloured design, that even forced Nick De Luca, a colourful character, to don sunglasses at yesterday's launch, in the 1872 Cup matches with Glasgow in December and January.

They term it the "brightest and loudest jersey in the history of Scottish rugby" and hope it becomes a collector's piece. It could also be the worst strip ever designed in the history of Scottish rugby. Email us your thoughts at [e-mail].

Unions are failing Fijians

THE IRB's stance this week on Fiji's lack of players for their autumn tour was predictable and pathetic. The IRB officials I have no issue with; it's the unions that hold the power. The officials issued a statement on Wednesday that said because Fiji had not made a "formal request" to them for help before the Scotland Test match they could not intervene to try and ensure release of leading Fijians from Leinster, Saracens, Sale, Montauban and others.

Fiji were hardly the most organised outfit, and clearly it would have been better had they produced their complaints in triplicate, but they do not have the resources. For example, Mike Brewer, Fiji's new technical director was still counting in players, putting together a game-plan with coaches Glen Ella and Sam Domoni, introducing himself to the forwards and working on set-piece drills, and making calls to others who had not turned up and their clubs, when we pitched up for media interviews three days before last week's Test.

When asked whether he had called the IRB, he said: "The clubs are not letting the players go and that is pretty clear. We have a meeting with the IRB in Dublin next week (yesterday] before we play Ireland and we will take up the issue then. It has been an eye-opener for me how clubs will release a player to a country like Scotland no problem, but know they won't be chased for holding back a Fijian." The IRB have worked hard to help fund the island nations, but that is made to look like tokenism when their member unions – particularly the home unions and France – remain so self-serving on the player release issue.