David Ferguson: Siblings’ homecoming shows SRU finally getting a grip of pro game

THERE is more to the decisions of Sean and Rory Lamont to return to Scottish rugby than merely the delight of the Glasgow coach Sean Lineen to have experienced internationalists strengthening his back division.

Both players view Scottish rugby as a place where they can improve and taste success, which lies at the heart of sport’s appeal to all performers.

But why did they move away in the first place? There were various reasons, one of which players feel uncomfortable talking about publicly.

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It is that the SRU refused to respond to news that they were being offered substantial increases on their salaries to leave the country and join clubs in England. Over the past decade, the SRU was about as secure dealing with professional sportsmen, agents and the whole circus of pro sport as Europe is with the Euro.

Of course, some players were always destined to leave, but one has lost count of the number who revealed privately that they had wanted to stay and only looked elsewhere when repeated requests to the SRU to discuss a contract extension were rebuffed.

Agents and coaches back that up. Most were surprised to discover the lucrative deals that were out there, and left furious when the SRU came in with late deals to persuade them, in vain, to stay. The SRU will bemoan a lack of money, and players rightly talk about the appeal of better facilities, bigger clubs and crowds, and more chance of success.

Some undoubtedly benefit from playing elsewhere and there is the argument of freeing up space for youngsters when our pro game is so ridiculously small, one used often by the last regime while they were spending £500,000 refurbishing Murrayfield’s President’s Suite. But one of the key reasons professional rugby has not taken off in 15 years in Scotland is because far too many good players left the country through a simple but poor grasp by the SRU of the pro environment and contract negotiations.

The sign that that has come to an end is perhaps the most encouraging aspect of a recent period in which a welter of Scottish youngsters have been re-signed and top players begun to see Scottish rugby as attractive again.

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