Club rugby fails taste test in search for the real thing

HOWEVER hard you try, it’s a fact of life that you just can’t beat the real thing. At the Scottish Rugby Union, this inescapable truth should not be hard to grasp. After all, when Phil Anderton’s name crops up it’s never long before we are reminded that he worked for "it’s-the-real-thing" Coca-Cola before taking on his current role of commercial and marketing director at the SRU.

I would suggest that "the real thing" becomes a motto for the organisation at every level. For instance, one of the best developments we could hope for in Scottish rugby would be a real domestic league competition. One which accurately reflects the strengths of the teams and the depth of their "amateur" squads. And that’s our problem - the current premier club league isn’t what it seems.

At the weekend, two Glasgow professionals, Kenny Sinclair and Jon Steel, helped Ayr overhaul Peebles down at the Gytes and while you have to congratulate Ayr on a fine win you have to ask: was it real? You see, it’s a pretty sure-fire thing that Martin Johnson would give any club team in Scotland a real boost, as would Jonny Wilkinson. Sinclair and Steel are good enough to give a Scottish club team an advantage too.

I watched a pretty good match at Stirling, where big Rory McKay was an unseen match-winner with his lineout presence and general loose play for Aberdeen Grammar, Andrew Wilson was the most physical player on the park until he retired with a head knock, and despite a very shaky start Roland Reid had one storming run for a very young Stirling side. Those players were the professionals on display, and it was clear that full-time training makes one heck of a difference, as it should.

I am totally against the cramming of our lower leagues with Kiwis and Aussies to bolster teams, and although I remember the stance the clubs made once upon a time where they told the SRU "you can stick your professionals", I am in favour of some professionals getting the chance to play for clubs. At the Glasgow v Edinburgh match last month, Rory McKay wore a yellow bib declaring him to be an official water carrier and it is nonsense to have talent like that not playing rugby. Splinters in the backside must be very sore.

IT’S a two-way system and the clubs benefit from the professionals, and the professionals get to play. But there is no way on this earth that a lucky team should find itself able to call on two professionals and play against a team with none. That’s not fair, and it’s just not real. A system that isn’t fair can’t be sorted overnight, but if you fancy a quick fix then why not ensure that the number of professionals on display is equal on both sides? Take the game between Peebles and Ayr - if Peebles don’t have any of their allocated professionals available, why should Ayr be allowed to field any? If Peebles had been able to find one pro then wouldn’t it have been fair to allow one pro to take the field for Ayr? And so on up to a maximum of two?

The SRU must not underestimate the ambition of clubs as they try to climb the leagues, or stay in a league, and when one organisation leaves the scene thinking they have suffered in an unfair arrangement, then you have unrest.

And while Glasgow Hawks, Aberdeen Grammar and Boroughmuir might be the darlings of the press, the much more concerning part of the league is at the bottom. Stirling County, Ayr, GHA, Currie and Peebles are involved in vital games every week which will define their prospects and could have a direct effect on their funding, and continued viability. We all know that the fielding of professional players must make a massive difference down at the foot of the league where the players must be considered to be of a lower standard given their league positions. It’s a hard thing to say but it must be true - otherwise they wouldn’t be at the foot of the league table.

A good professional in an average team will make a big difference and the clubs have to come up with a formula for fielding professional players that is fair, one that does not make a mockery of the competition these teams are playing in. At the moment, it is a sham.