Scotland must start winning, admits McKie

Published on Friday 16 January 2009 21:27

WHEN Gordon McKie took over as chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, even this sports fan more aligned to football than the oval-ball game was acutely aware that he faced potentially the toughest challenge of his career to turn around the great Murrayfield ship.

The accountant with a reputation for rescuing failing businesses, who had impressed Sir David Murray with one of the Rangers chairman's former firms, was heading into notoriously choppy and, for him, uncharted sporting waters. Now in his fourth year at the helm, McKie is still involved in cost- cutting, with a number of high-profile employees leaving Murrayfield yesterday in the latest round of restructuring, and he admits that the scale of the undertaking did take him by surprise.

The latest redundancies, McKie stated, were linked to the five-year strategic plan with new targets launched just over a year ago, and delays in implementing it, and not to last year's "credit crunch" nor the autumn Test deficits.

But the accountant is intensely aware now of the direct correlation between Scotland's results and the balance sheet, which becomes clear when the monotones of accountant-speak are broken by the passion of a Scotland supporter.

It appears to make him uncomfortable, but that is when McKie is at his most interesting, and indeed at his most appreciative of the task he took on in 2005.

When we discussed what progress he felt Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, had made in 2008, for example, he steered a line between praise and impatience that many visitors to Murrayfield will identify with.

A recent review into the coach's performance remains within the boardroom, but Hadden patently missed his new Strategic Plan target of two wins from five in the RBS Six Nations Championship, and for all the excitement to emerge from Buenos Aires and against South Africa in 2008, the win, albeit comprehensive, over Canada still left Scotland with a yield of just three victories from ten Test matches over the year.

"We are all on rolling contracts now, subject to regular reviews," said McKie, "which includes Frank.

"It's fair to say we were encouraged by the win in Argentina last year and the improved performances in the autumn Tests, and we are looking forward to the Six Nations, especially with three games at home.

"But the key thing is that we have to win games. What we need in 2009 is another year of improved performance but this time with outcomes. The consequence of the national team not winning Test matches is profound on the commercial realities of Scottish rugby and so, quite simply, Frank knows that his team have to turn the improvements into victories this year.

"I will not say what would happen if that doesn't happen because I am hopeful from what we saw last June and November that it will."

McKie shared with Hadden regret at the IRB's long-awaited agreement over Regulation 9, which stipulates how and when players are released by clubs for international competition.

After farcical IRB impotence in trying to force player release, they have now devised a rule that everyone says they will abide by, and the IRB insists it can enforce, yet still England will have their Test squad for a full two weeks before the Six Nations and right through it, because the RFU has paid clubs 4.64million a year for them, while Scotland enjoy just one full week and sit with their fingers crossed watching their stars play for English and French clubs as close as six days before the first spring Tests – they also have to release them for club duty during the championship's fallow weeks.

Wales have also this week tied up a similar deal to England, ensuring that their full squad will have 13 days to Scotland's five to prepare for their opening Six Nations match.

Matt Williams, back at Murrayfield with Ulster recently, offered a solution when he was Scotland coach – follow the likes of his native Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and pick only players who play inside the country; the 'Fortress Scotland' policy.

McKie accepts that the problem has worsened with his and the board's decision to cut a third professional team, to reduce debt and strengthen Edinburgh and Glasgow – but he has no current plans for a return to three teams.

He admitted: "We certainly are not planning a 'Fortress Scotland' approach; that would be wrong. We understand that some players will always want to go away and try something new, for various reasons, though, clearly, individuals' chances of playing for Scotland might be enhanced by playing in Scotland.

"But the Reg 9 outcome is so overwhelming in favour of the richer unions, those who can and will pay to have their players available; clearly unfair if you believe in a level playing field for international teams to compete on.

"It also cuts across what we're trying to do in looking after players, developing and improving the international game. We could now have leading Scots asked to play at their best through eight weeks in February and March, back-to-back in some of the most intense rugby they can play, and win and, hopefully, prove themselves for the Lions tour."

Despite that obvious frustration, McKie insists he is more relaxed than at any time in the past three and a half years because, he stated, 2008 was the first of them in which he felt he was getting anywhere.

"When I came in I knew things were bad, but didn't appreciate the extent of the challenge I faced. Only in the past year do I really feel we've got on top of it and started moving forward.

"Now, I am very happy with where we are; it's ahead of where I thought we would be at the end of 2008. There is still room for improvement, but we're starting to get moving again.

"Community participation is growing as we announced this week, pro rugby has attracted record crowds and the teams are more competitive, despite narrow losses, and they are growing the strength in depth for the national squad.

"On the commercial side of Murrayfield, last year we secured events such as the Rugby Football League Magic Weekend, the Heineken Cup Final, IRB sevens and then Oasis for 2009, and that is vital for Scottish rugby and the wider economy."

Despite the losses incurred against budget by failing to fill Murrayfield for the autumn Tests with New Zealand and South Africa, McKie says the finances are "under control" – the 2005 debt of 23million is down to 15million presently and likely to end up this year below 2007/8's top-line of 17.6m.

Clubs are generally working more harmoniously with the SRU, though there remains questions about how revenues are being spent, and a major storm over the inability of the new president, Jim Stevenson, to sit on the executive board – bizarrely, he does attend meetings but has no input – has only been put off until this year's AGM.

Scotland's top clubs remain keen for a new, elite Premiership, and while McKie's "control freakery" is still the subject of discussion in club circles, he insists he wants clubs to take more responsibility for the development of domestic competitions, under the SRU umbrella.

McKie's reputation for being unnecessarily brusque in dealings with stakeholders in Scottish rugby is not helped by the more aggressive image many portray of his sidekick Eamon Hegarty, the SRU's finance director, and executive board chairman Allan Munro.

However, others state that their demeanour is not important alongside the serious challenge of reducing the bills and debts that have weighed Scottish rugby down in the past decade.

If the salvage operation begun in 2005 is progressing well, more convincing is required on the presence at Murrayfield of the kind of ambition and "blue-sky thinking" that is needed to move Scottish rugby into a brighter, less cash-strapped future. At the heart of that lies a reluctance to appoint a director of rugby, for example, to follow Jim Telfer (1993-2002) and Ian McGeechan (2002-5).

A wide perception remains that McKie and Hadden – two of the SRU's four trustees – hold too much and too specifically-focused power, ie: one with a sharp interest in the balance book and the other on the national team, leaving no influential figure, with less vested in any one area of the organisation, to drive the game as a whole.

McKie and Hadden have faith in a management group of coaches and department heads, chaired by the chief executive, and directors of rugby do not come cheap, so while finances and Scotland's performances remain the most acute issues on Scottish rugby's horizon, that is unlikely to change in 2009.

McKie's blood pressure may have steadied and Hadden's headaches eased with a strengthening of elite talent, but as the improvements come, so the expectations rise.

Sport is a fickle business and 2009 could prove to be as troublesome as any other for Scottish rugby if more tangible signs of progress – victories, capacity crowds and healthy bank balances – do not appear in the coming 12 months.