Revitalised Hawks have one eye on a Super League

Published on Wednesday 27 August 2008 22:44

BORN to professionalism as an amalgam designed to take club rugby into a new era, Glasgow Hawks are bidding to re-launch their ambition a decade on.

The early promise drawn from Glasgow Accies and GHK in 1997 hit the buffers as the SRU progressed pro rugby in Scotland through district teams. They still became a potent force in the club game, distilling talent around Anniesland with some foreign imports, and finished six of the past ten seasons with either the Scottish Cup or Division One championship, or, in 2004, both.

But after a recent slide, the club is stepping up a gear again with a raft of full-time, professional appointments and a new plan. Former player Kenny Baillie is the club's new chief executive, Peter Wright, a successful former coach, now the director of rugby and Grant Talbot the club's development officer.

Wright, who stepped down as Scotland Under-19 coach to take the Hawks job, explained the intention to help inspire Scottish clubs into a new, more vibrant era for the club game.

"Some clubs are happy simply to be parts of their community," he said, "which is fine, but some want to be stronger and play a bigger role in Scottish and cross-border rugby. Our vision at Hawks is to move towards the latter, where we have a 'Super League' at some point with eight-to-ten teams who fulfil strong criteria on their facilities and development of players.

"We wouldn't fulfil stringent criteria yet, but more and more people are talking about that and are enthusiastic about something in that direction so we want to be pushing to be ready when that comes along.

"Brian Simmers, who was a leading light in the formation of Hawks, put together a paper and he and Kenny (Baillie] met with the SRU in the summer, and whereas Brian said he has regularly had the door slammed in his face when he's tried to propose something a bit different for club rugby this time there was not quite a 'yes' or a 'no', but some encouraging interest.

"So we've decided to see if it can work. We want to improve the whole club environment, invest in people who are accountable to drive different parts of the club, challenge others and maybe look at cross-border games. If we become successful perhaps it could form a template for other clubs to join us and maybe the SRU will invest in it."

We have to get one thing clear here. Hawks made no secret of the fact they were paying players at the onset of the professional age, yet have insisted for years they no longer pay wages. Yet, Baillie, Wright and Talbot are indeed full-time which suggests that some of Glasgow's vast city funds are starting to find a way back into Anniesland. Are the opposition to prepare to face a super-club?

With the same explicit manner he displayed as a prop with Scotland and the British and Irish Lions, Wright insisted: "No way – it's very different this time to 1997.

"The ultimate aim is to be semi-professional at some point, but whether people believe it or not we don't pay players to play for Hawks. This season we've got a lot of very young lads – we'll start a 17-year-old lad against West at Burnbrae on Saturday for example – and I expect our plans to take at least 12-18 months to have any sort of effect.

"There was a lot of money paid out to players in 1997, but the players themselves sat down and decided that wasn't what they wanted – they wanted players to come to the club for reasons other than cash.

"We have a flat with four rooms in it in which there are four players; we have no car deals these days, but guys travelling get 20p per mile and that's it. I'm not naive enough to say it will never happen again, but right now we're going down a different route.

"Kenny, myself and Grant are paid and we have responsibilities, and if this three-year plan doesn't work we'll lose our jobs – surely that's better than spending money on players and having no accountability?

"There is good work going on at a lot of clubs, and we're not thinking just about Hawks, but what might help all ambitious clubs in Scotland."

He added: "We want guys to come and enjoy their rugby, the social side and the playing side, at Hawks, but we are serious about improving Scottish rugby and developing the new generation of players.

"I've been enjoying reading coaches in recent Scotsman articles talking of winning the league, rather than just surviving, because that suggests everyone is looking to be ambitious and I think that will make for some great rugby this season and, hopefully, a competition that goes right to the wire for a change."