Clubs take their pick of Scotland's best talents

THE PROFESSIONAL players clubs have chosen to augment their squads this season were revealed by the SRU yesterday and again the 'draft' has shown coaches to be shrewd in their estimation of which leading lights might be available.

Melrose coach Craig Chalmers has signed up two of Edinburgh's stand-offs, Phil Godman and Alex Blair, the former Edinburgh Accies youngster who has joined Edinburgh full-time and who worked under Chalmers with the Scotland under-20s last season. The Greenyards coach is hopeful that Blair may be available this term as he vies with Godman, his brother David and fellow teenager Gregor Hunter for the Edinburgh No10 jersey, and that he can continue to develop the young talent.

There was a mix among clubs keen to draft 'their own' players such as Selkirk in snapping up Lee Jones and Watsonians taking Stuart McInally, and simply studying who they believed would be available, hence Stirling County claiming Melrose's new Edinburgh centre James King and Heriot's drafting former West of Scotland lock Rob Harley. Coaches also looked at the opportunity to have leading lights such as Chris Paterson (Hawick) and Alex Grove and Netani Talei (both Selkirk) perhaps unavailable to play but available for some coaching or club ambassadorial work. Marcus Di Rollo, the former Scotland internationalist and now Watsonians head coach, believes the draft to be a good innovation.

"It's important for the future of Scottish rugby that we continue to improve the quality and intensity of our leagues," he said. "Through the draft, the pro players not selected for Glasgow or Edinburgh will benefit from regular rugby while Premier clubs and club players will play in an increasingly competitive league. We have secured the services of Stuart McInally once more and while he's made it clear that his primary objective is to gain selection for Edinburgh he played a key role for us last season and we were keen to get hold of him."

The draft was launched two seasons ago for those two key reasons - to allow clubs a fair crack at sharing out players on the fringes of the pro game and needing club rugby regularly, and to integrate the pros from Edinburgh and Glasgow better into the club game.The 76 players from the two pro team squads, including the newly-promoted academy players such as Blair, but not the new academy intake who are remaining with their clubs, were split into categories of player which reflects, in their coaches' view, who is likely to be more available to the club game throughout the season.

First pick went to the lowest-ranked club, in this case the promoted clubs Hawick and Stirling County, and continued up through the teams linked to their finishing position in Premier One last season.

The SRU's head of community rugby Colin Thomson said: "Scottish Rugby (the SRU] has worked hard to strengthen the links between the premier clubs and the professional games to offer a playing outlet for new and established professional players in the top tier of Scotland's club rugby leagues.

This season's league restructure and the continued drafting of the professional players will see Premier and professional clubs working closer together than ever before."

Thomson was alluding to the introduction of a second draft after the new league championship split. The plan drawn up by the Premier One and Two clubs in tandem with the SRU's Elite Performance Director Graham Lowe will bring an end to the standard league run after the first 11 games.

The 24 Premier One and Two teams will then break into three pools of eight, to contest the championships, promotion and relegation.

While a clear attempt to raise excitement levels around the second half of the season, there has already been some criticism in club circles as supporters digest the possibility of no club being promoted from the second division and none being relegated from the top flight. It also means that players will be redrafted to the top eight teams only after the November split. This, the SRU stated, was "with the aim of further boosting the intensity and standard of Scotland's top club tier", but it also means that what occurs in the first 11 games could be wholly re-written in the final round of seven matches.

The clubs that fall into the bottom four in Premier One will lose their draft picks as they face the top four in Premier Two in a fight for survival, but teams who perhaps struggled over the first 11 matches but squeezed into the top eight could suddenly have their championship prospects enlivened by an injection of fresh pro talent for the run-in.