SRU presidential hopeful aims to keep cup

Published on Tuesday 13 May 2008 10:52

SCOTTISH rugby presidential candidate Jim Stevenson today admitted retaining a national knockout cup would be a main plank of his bid to unseat sitting tenant George Jack in an election at next month's annual meeting.

Jack, along with SRU board chairman Allan Munro, wants to scrap the cup for a season in order to re-assess fixture priorities in grass roots rugby – as revealed by the Evening News on April 24.

But Mr Stevenson, from Cambuslang, is keen to cultivate widespread support, including in the Edinburgh area, partly by arguing that the Cup must stay.

"I can understand for some bigger clubs this is not the most important issue but for a lot of smaller clubs the Scottish Cup offers very important opportunities.

"This competition offers players a chance of a once-in-a-lifetime appearance at Murrayfield if they reach finals day?

"For many the Scottish Cup represents their rugby day in the sun and surely all the interested parties can sit down and work out a structure that retains the Cup?"

According to Stevenson there are many practical reasons for keeping the Cup.

"Many clubs, including my own, are bobbing along.

"There is a real need to grow the game from the bottom up and the Cup, which can bring bigger clubs to the smaller outfits, is a real way of doing that.

On March 14 Scotland face Ireland with a tea-time start. He added: "At present the competition enjoys sponsorship (from Scottish Hydro Electric) and that has to be taken into consideration although I would hope they have been consulted on this."

And Mr Stevenson made clear that knockout rugby has not seen Murrayfield administration at its most effective in the past year by referring to how some clubs were thrown out for fulfilling long-standing cross border fixtures on an away international weekend.

Also, he alluded to the plight of Howe of Fife Colts who were expelled from the youth cup for being unwilling to fulfil a tie at Hawick in midweek.

"Who wants to be associated with situations like that and there must be better ways of doing things that can be addressed?"

In a statement, SRU President Jack said: "This is a matter for clubs but clearly everyone wants to bring more cohesion to the season and, where possible, reduce fixture congestion and conflicts."