Iain Morrison: Calder fails to unseat Stevenson as clubs give status quo the benefit of the doubt

Published on Saturday 27 June 2009 19:40

THE SRU have made great strides in recent years so that the organisation is no longer a music-hall joke but old habits die hard. Somehow, someone managed to schedule the AGM to overlap with the all-important second Test in South Africa, oh, and then the Murrayfield television feed broke down.

I suppose you have to admire the fact that so many club delegates were willing to give their time on a Saturday morning to debate and discuss the future of the game in Scotland. They seemed to like most of what they saw as the clubs re-instated Jim Stevenson as president for the second successive year. The Cambuslang man beat Finlay Calder and Jim Gracie but only after a second round of voting, with Gracie stepping aside, did Stevenson finally finish five votes ahead of the former Scottish flanker.

Stevenson has been advocating greater presidential powers and there is a danger that his election will re-open the faultlines in the game that have separated the amateurs and the executives who manage the day to day running of the game in Scotland, especially in light of the fact that the board seems to be making a decent fist of things.

Chief executive Gordon McKie painted a rosy picture of Scottish rugby in his speech to the delegates. The revenues are up (to 30 million odd) and the debt is down (14.9m on average), the playing numbers are up (to 30,000 give or take a few), as is investment in the club game (1.6m next season compared with 0.6m back in 2007).

Money has gone into improving facilities at Murrayfield, with new back pitches and big screens in the stadium while the stadium hospitality suites are next in line for tarting up.

When it came to the motions put before the clubs for their approval, Jim Fleming, on behalf of the board, proposed that the clubs play in three separate national cup competitions next season. If a club is knocked out of the senior cup they would not then drop into the next tier of competition and instead all three cups would be operated on a straight knock-out basis, which would free up several weekends in what is a congested season.

Fleming noted that a majority of clubs had expressed a belief that the season was too long and motion one was carried with nary a voice raised in protest. Junior clubs will no longer get a crack at Premier One's big dogs but then again it should also lead to fewer one-sided mis-matches.

Stirling County's eminently sensible proposal for the instigation of a single national integrated league for juniors at U-16 and U-18 levels was carried by the narrow margin of 88 to 82 despite the fact that the schools have already registered their lack of interest in any such thing. There now follows something of a panic as various bodies attempt to work out the practicalities of the matter with, or more likely without, the schools' active participation.

Motion three came from the championship committee (via Dundee HSFP) and asked the clubs to replace club "associations" with what they called "duel registration" making it easier for a player to turn out for more than one club.

At least I think that's what it did but since the motion took up two and a half pages of A4 in very small font, it seems unlikely that every delegate had ploughed through the copious small print.

Whatever it was, the clubs backed it but only after some tortuous debate which elicited a heartfelt plea from the chair: "We've got a match to watch this afternoon!"

Otherwise the women were integrated into the SRU and the lower leagues rejected an attempt by numerous premier clubs to push an extra fifth council member on to the board but the senior clubs got their way when it came to ensure that the president automatically chairs the council.

Everyone involved seemed to claim Sheriff Bill Dunlop's support for their side of the argument but the man himself was notable only by his absence.

Perhaps next year he can show up in person to prevent everyone else hijacking his legacy as their own?