The Academy of excellence

Published on Thursday 29 August 2002 01:00

WITH a coaching team consisting of Ian Barnes and Jim Renwick, backed up Finlay Calder and with David Sole to call on if needed, the revolution at Raeburn Place gets well and truly underway when the club rugby season kicks off on Saturday.

One of the masterminds behind the plan to drive Edinburgh Accies back into Premier Division 1 is Vince O’Donoghue, just starting his second year as president of one of Scotland’s oldest clubs, who slipped down into Division 3 a couple of years ago.

"It’s been a topsy-turvy period over the past few years but we’re determined to get back to where we belong and that’s in the top tier of Scottish club rugby," stressed the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, now 53, who joined Accies 28 years ago on his arrival from Dublin.

While Barnes, who coached Hawick to the Scottish title two years ago, has been at Raeburn Place before, it will be a new experience for his sidekick, Renwick, and also two other former Hawick stalwarts, Kenny McCartney and Terence Froud, who will alternate between the 1st and 2nds, looking at potential top-team players, and also sizing up future opponents.

"You can’t get a much better coaching set up than that and we’ve also got the likes of Finlay Calder, Peter Drennan and Stuart Howgate helping out, while David Sole and Jeremy Richardson will also lend a hand, as they did last season, if they’re asked."

Now the new coaching structure is in place, O’Donoghue hopes that the other major development will soon go ahead, namely the construction of a spanking new clubhouse, as part of a huge development by Festival Inns, owners of the adjacent Raeburn House Hotel.

"We hope planning permission will soon be granted and our reward will be the most modern rugby clubhouse in Scotland, which will be tied closely to the local community, whose various clubs and societies can use our facilities for meetings, functions etc.

"We’re looking at a five-year plan to re-establish Accies at the forefront of Scottish rugby and we expect to be playing in Division 1 in two years’ time," stressed O’Donoghue. "We should have been in Division 2 this season, but for some very poor goalkicking. Unlike Scotland we did not discover a Brendan Laney. Our success ratio was only 35 per cent, and even 50 per cent would have been good enough to win promotion."

Of course, it might also have helped if they had retained the services of the new Edinburgh scrum-half Mike Blair, but O’Donoghue states he "had no axe to grind with Mike moving to Boroughmuir, to play at a higher standard. We accept that, he moved with our blessings, just as David Callam, now with Hawick, has done.

"What I strongly object to is some of the district coaches talking up young players and grossly misleading them as to their prospects. There was a case of a prop being told if he did not make it by 23, he never would. That’s ridiculous."

Accies, admits O’Donoghue, have recruited pretty well, while insisting no coach or player gets paid. "The coaches get legitimate expenses and, in fact, our refusal to pay players was partly responsible for our recent demise."

Among those arriving at Raeburn Place are winger Richard Wire, Australian back-row forward Matt Rogers - "he paid his own fare, too," added O’Donoghue - two scrum-halfs Matthew Cooper and Johnny Ells, and the very talented full-back David Robertson (ex-Dollar and Scottish Schools), while lock Malcolm McVie is making a comeback after a couple of years out, as is Barnes’ son David, another very tall lock.

O’Donoghue accepts Accies are fortunate in having the Academy providing a procession of talents to Raeburn Place and one player he expects to make an impact this term is back-row forward James Rennie.

Accies have also formed an association with both Perthshire and Broughton, and O’Donoghue hopes it will work both ways. "Any Perthshire player coming to Edinburgh will be welcomed at Raeburn Place, while Broughton will train alongside us on Tuesdays, getting the experience of top-class coaches, and then going back to their own club on Thursdays."

The aim is to turn out five teams but while that may be possible, there may be trouble finding opposition for the likes of the 4ths and 5ths. "I certainly don’t go along with the SRU’s claims that there are more people playing rugby. They should try getting regular fixtures for teams below 2nd XV level."

O’Donoghue reveals that Accies voted against the expansion of the Premier Division 1 to 12 teams, "because we don’t think it’s in the best interests of Scottish rugby. We sent a paper to Murrayfield suggesting an eight-team Division 1, but it must have got lost!"

The first test for Accies’ new set-up comes on Saturday when they travel to play Haddington. "We are very positive, we know where we want to take the club, and are confident of getting there."

Even a heavy loss to Bradford in their final warm-up match last Saturday won’t change O’Donoghue’s view that Accies are on the march upwards.