Graham’s crop are ripe for more gala days at Murrayfield

AFTER a weekend where club rugby returned fleetingly to the Murrayfield stage, winning coach George Graham insisted that a handful of his cup stars have the ability to make a more lasting return if given the opportunity.

Lee Millar was awarded the man of the match prize for his ability to control the final match with Ayr and guide Gala to a 24-10 victory, but Graham pointed to the development of hooker Russell Anderson, who just turned 18 at the end of last year, and others as evidence of a continuing growth of rugby talent.

In a season that has witnessed the emergence of Stuart Hogg, Lee Jones, Greig Laidlaw and Matt Scott, it is both vital for morale after poor Test results and encouraging for the professional and international coaches. But will they be brave enough to act on that?

Of the Gala squad, Graham, who coached the forwards at the Border Reivers and Scotland, stated: “There are loads of guys in this club who have the ability to step up. It’s not about ‘can they’ in Scottish rugby; it’s about whether there is an opportunity. Of course they can step up. You put anybody into a pro set-up they will get better. It’s about how long you’re willing to give them.

“But I look through this squad and I see players that have the same attributes that players I played alongside as pros or internationalists had. Lee Millar could definitely be a pro; George Graham [scrum-half] definitely; Ewan McQuillin definitely; Russell Anderson definitely; Euan Dods definitely.

“Alan Emond has been outstanding in the past few weeks, and Craig Robertson and Gavin Young, the wingers, Luke Pettie … put them in a professional set-up and they will thrive, become better players and I have no doubt that they could be good professionals.

“But the problem in Scottish rugby is them getting the opportunity in the first place. It’s not a matter of ‘can they make it?’ but the biggest disadvantage in Scotland is that we have just two professional sides, and we’re always going to be at the coo’s backside for picking players up and developing enough talent, when we don’t have enough spaces in the pro game.

“We’ve got a great academy system developing but even then you can only filter so many from that to the pro ranks when they have a limit on what they can spend.”

Edinburgh and Glasgow face a fine balance between developing young talent and strengthening with some foreign buys, but now handed an extra £1m for players next season, which one imagines will remain at least at the same level in coming years, there is greater onus on the coaches to get it right.

There are good arguments in Scottish football around the way the top two clubs in the country, Rangers and Celtic, have failed to bring through enough young talent, having hived off the best of the teenage promise.

Intriguingly, at the weekend, Andrew Little and Tony Watt showed their potential with two goals each for Rangers and Celtic respectively. Little has only been handed his chance because Rangers are in financial peril while Watt was the only Scot in the Celtic striking ranks on Sunday.

Millar moved from his home town of Elgin to Gala as a 17-year-old in an effort to attract more attention and he has certainly achieved that in helping to push Gala back to Premier One, into a title race and the British and Irish Cup and to a first Scottish Cup in 13 years.

“It was the rugby that pulled me to Gala - I’ve always wanted to be a professional rugby player,” he acknowledged. “I knew that Bob Cunningham and Gary Isaac had gone to Gala from Elgin and they were friendly with my dad so I was always aware of Gala and the club’s history, and the way rugby was seen there.

“I have always had the ambition to go as far as I can in rugby. If Gala is as far as I can go then that’s fine, but I’ll try to get better and better and see what happens.

“There are always heaps of rumours about pro rugby offers, but nobody’s ever spoken to me so I’m just trying to keep playing my game and playing well each week and hope that’s something might come up.

“The cup final was brilliant; we were a bit nervous in the first half but we got into our stride after half-time and it was a great feeling to win the cup. And playing on a stage like Murrayfield definitely puts you in the shop window and I think next season will as well, especially with the British and Irish cup. I’m looking forward to next season already.”

Gala and the Borders College, with its Borders Academy of Sporting Excellence [BASE], have played their parts in developing Millar, but now 20 he is on the radar of clubs outside Scotland and so, if not signed this summer, exposure to the British and Irish Cup is likely to mean a pro contract is only a year away.

Graham added: “I want to keep this squad together, but if teams come in interested in Lee or anyone else I would take pride in that because I’ll believe I had a part to play in helping develop that player.

“But we are building something at Gala and, being selfish, I’d love to keep this team for another two seasons and add some strength in depth, and bring more success to this great club.”