New draft offers pros game time at top club level

THE merry-go-round of professional players continues this week with a new draft that ensures all players released by Edinburgh and Glasgow for game-time at clubs will still feature at the top level.

All 12 clubs in Premier One were able to select players from the professional teams at the start of the season, some with a view to simply helping with coaching and club promotion activity, such as Chris Paterson, who recently took some coaching at Hawick, and other young or fringe pros who genuinely did play in the club game, like David Denton.

Now, however, with the split in the league the players attached to the bottom four clubs - West of Scotland, Stirling County, Selkirk and Watsonians - have been re-drafted to the top eight.

Again, coaches have sifted through the names available to come up with some they hope could play a part in pushing their teams to the Premier One title or, at least, a spot in the British and Irish Cup.

There are some intriguing moves. Simon Webster, the Edinburgh and Scotland winger, could line up for his fourth team in a matter of months, having finished last season with Dundee HSFP, started this season with Watsonians and now be re-drafted to Boroughmuir, while still striving to win back a wing slot at Edinburgh.

By contrast, Lee Jones, who has supplanted him at the pro team, experiences his first move, having never been associated with any club other than Selkirk before now.

• Rugby draft, club-by-club

However, Craig Chalmers has moved to bring him to Border rivals Melrose, which will make for some interesting talk at Philiphaugh in the coming days.

Last season's Scotland under-20 captain, Stuart McInally shone in Watsonians 39-30 defeat to Dundee before their demotion to Premier B, giving Dundee head coach, Ian Rankin, no doubts about securing the services of Scotland's most capped under-20 internationalist with his first pick.

Rankin said: "Stuart was the stand-out performer when he played against us and has been a prominent player throughout the age-grades so we're delighted to have him on board.

"We're all trying to raise the standard of Premier 1 and create a more professional environment for the players and these guys make that job that bit easier. They bring a professional attitude and lift the standard at training as well as when they're on the pitch. I think the pro players see it as worthwhile - we're helping them get game time and be ready for a call up - it's mutually beneficial.

"The new league set-up has been really exciting and the players have enjoyed it more.Every week so far has been a big game and we now look forward to four massive games in the league so it'll be full on for the next couple of months."

Colin Thomson, Scottish Rugby head of community rugby, said: "With the split divisions decided and the fixtures drawn, we have redrafted the available pro-players to raise the intensity of the top eight.

"We will continue to work with the Premier clubs to raise the standards of the domestic game for the benefit of Scotland's club and professional players in both the short and long term."