Pro game failure not down to funding, says Gordon McKie

Published on Thursday 31 March 2011 18:30

GORDON McKie turned the spotlight firmly on the merits of professional rugby in Scotland yesterday, and insisted that he could only guarantee the future of Edinburgh and Glasgow up to 2014 unless changes resulted in success.

The SRU chief executive insisted that to suggest there was no security for the teams beyond that date would be alarmist and sensationalist, but at no time in the media briefing held at Murrayfield did McKie offer the belief that the professional teams were a central tenet of Scottish rugby's future.

What was clear in yesterday's briefing was that McKie and Scotland head coach Andy Robinson view the national team as the priority in Scottish rugby.

It is into it that the rest of the game feeds, with the failure of the professional teams to compete with the best in the Magners League consistently, and qualify for the Heineken Cup quarter- finals, against teams with double, and in some leading European cases quadruple the funding Edinburgh and Glasgow receive, root causes of Scottish rugby's wider financial problems, such as disappointing crowds and struggles to secure broadcast and sponsorship revenue.

McKie said: "Winning teams breeds interest in the game, and in supporters, and the last three months does feel as if we've fallen off a mountain because until December we felt we'd had a good year. There are so many comments that the pro teams are the poor relations of world rugby, never mind European rugby, and money is a key ingredient to success, but it is not the only one. Compared to our rivals in Wales, and England and Ireland, we don't have what they have. We don't have what Ospreys have got, a nice stadium, lucrative, indigenous broadcasting deals, millionaire benefactors who pump money in to supplement the subsidy given by the union. We don't have any of these things.

"But we (Edinburgh] beat the Ospreys last week. Just because their player budget is 6m or whatever it is, and ours is 3.6m doesn't mean we can't beat them. They (Magners League opponents] have access to broadcasters, sponsors and much bigger populations that want to go out and watch rugby on a Friday night rather than stay in and watch it on increasingly television, because BBC Alba, as great as that is, is probably getting an audience that previously came along and watched games.

"We invest in both teams, 5m gross (each], and part of that includes an allocation for player budget, and both teams get the same budget - 3.6m (strict wages alone are under 3m] - which is a lot for 36 athletes. I accept there have been difficulties. The pro teams are not development teams, but form a critical part of the pathway into Scotland, and allow us to prepare players ultimately for international rugby. But we can only afford to do what we can afford to do."He added: "It is written that it's all down to money and that's not the case. There is a balance. Do we want to keep all our top players in Scotland to make our pro teams better which is potentially to the detriment of Scotland, because the pool becomes narrower and we want as deep a pool as we can get."

The key is the financing of the professional game. Questioning of McKie's ability to improve the picture was rebuffed, with the chief executive insisting Scottish rugby was in much better health now than when we took over. He dismissed a question on why he had turned away a handful of offers from Scottish millionaire benefactors in 2006-7 because "I never saw the colour of their money". Those potential investors insist it was because he demanded too much control over their running of the teams.

Another query on why the SRU were asking more of players and teams, but seemed to lack ambition commercially, by not improving marketing or investing in the Scottish teams notably when they were competing at the top of the Magners League - as Ireland did in 1999 when Ulster and Munster started to improve - brought similar claims that it was impossible with the finance available.

While McKie is demanding improvement and giving things "a good shake", a month or two from finalising the SRU's new strategic review he is piloting with Robinson and Graham Lowe, the SRU Director of Performance Rugby, he still appears uncertain on how to achieve that in professional rugby.

"We are committed to professional rugby if Celtic rugby continues in its present shape until 2013-14, because at that time the new 'Heineken Cup Accord' comes in as does the Celtic rugby agreement, so we have three years of certainty," he said.

"But I'll say again the results are not good enough and so do they justify the investment we are making in these areas? Currently, no. We need to do things differently or better and I feel personally committed to giving it a good shake, because it's unacceptable. I don't have the authority to give any guarantees beyond three years because these decisions are made by the board. My job is to deliver the wishes of the board.

"At this point in time they serve a purpose to the Scotland team. Last season they were doing better than they are this season, as was the Scotland team. But we don't own the Celtic League. But we are in the midst of a review of performance rugby. That is to do with Scotland rugby and pro team rugby, but for me it has to go deeper.

"There has to be room for improvement here because the results are unacceptable. We have to look at the linkage between the professional teams, the sevens team, the age-grade teams, and the pathways and I don't overlook the role of the domestic game relative to what's going on with players from 17 to 20."I don't have answers today, but what I do know is that they are all going to be subjected to some scrutiny. Scottish rugby is too small to have too many factions and the better and closer that we can work, and align all these activities, then surely it's to the betterment of Scottish rugby as a whole. We have to do things better. We have 35m a year to spend give or take, which has increased every year for the last four years, and how do we spend that to deliver our strategic objectives, which are primarily to grow the game in a thriving club environment, having more regularly winning teams - particularly the pro teams and Scotland - and be seen as a credible and well-run governing body, which is contributing to a healthier and safer Scotland."

Robinson, who joined McKie at the media briefing, was quick to insist that the professional teams would remain at the heart of any new plans. "The plan is that we want to keep Edinburgh and Glasgow going and keep moving forward," said the Scotland coach. "It's important that the players see that there is potential and I am here because I see that potential with Scotland and Edinburgh and Glasgow to do something that is special. The one thing we want is to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup. That is hugely important for us.

"I was buoyed by some of the performances that Edinburgh put in this year, but we need consistency. The plan moving forward, which will shake things up a bit, will be beneficial for Edinburgh and Glasgow, but it will take a couple of years in order for that to filter through.

"For us it's about being strategic and that's about the planning over the next couple of years. The loss of some players has occurred because players have improved their performance and people have wanted to sign them. That's because of the good work done in the pro teams and the players developing.

"We want these teams to be successful and will be working hard, and Gordon's working hard, for that to happen."

McKie added: "I am first and foremost a supporter of rugby and I'm disappointed with what's happened. I'm uptight about it as you can see and am determined to do something about it. I need Andy's support and I know I will get it to try and make things better, because it's unacceptable what's happened.

"I don't shirk my responsibility and if those that be decide I've failed then I'm a big boy. I can't push water upstream; I can't get a broadcaster to televise Scottish rugby.

"I believe in Andy we have a world-class coach and I'm totally supportive of what he's trying to achieve. It's my job to try and help him achieve a winning Scotland team."