Return of Exiles rep and £250k for museum on agenda at annual meeting

THE change at the top of the SRU board may currently be attracting most interest, but there are other intriguing motions being presented to the union's agm in just over a fortnight's time.

Ian McLauchlan will be elected unopposed for a second year as president and there will be three individuals - Gordon Cairns from West of Scotland, former Scotland scrum-half Alan Lawson, of Heriot's, and former SRU committee member Archie Ferguson - vying for the restored post of vice-president.

The proposal for a new league structure has been well-documented, with plans to regionalise the leagues over the next two seasons carrying the potential to revitalise the club game from the bottom to the top. There is also a motion to implement a new cup, shield and bowl format with an accent on regional qualifying sections leading to four regional winners from the Borders, Caledonia, Edinburgh and Glasgow, competing in the semi-finals of each tournament. There is then a proposal to return a Scottish Exiles representative to the Scottish Rugby Council, the body of representatives that covers the entire Scottish game.

Scottish rugby clubs dropped the exiles representative from the SRU in 2005 supposedly as part of a necessary restructuring.

London Scottish agreed to this controversial move at the time, one which led to the loss of an Exiles set-up that had produced a wealth of Scottish-qualified internationalists. In the years since there has had to be a rebuilding of the Exiles network.

London Scottish, who this season secured promotion to the English Championship, are now proposing the return of an Exiles rep from a club based outside Scotland, stating: "Historically, Scots 'exiled' in England have as players made a significant contribution to Scottish rugby. London Scottish alone has provided 138 Scottish internationalists and four captains of the British Isles; and countless other Exiles from England and further afield have represented Scotland. Exiles interests need its own voice."

There are more players of Scottish descent outside Scotland than within and the club states that it is now right to restore the exiles representative, going on to explain the purpose of the motion to be four-fold: "1. To provide proper representation for all members and Scottish rugby interests residing outwith Scotland; 2. Rebuild the talent-spotting network which formerly identified potential elite players outside Scotland; 3. Exploit the business and commercial interests and connections of exiled Scottish businessmen and women to the benefit of Scottish rugby; and 4.Develop in addition to London Scottish and Hong Kong Scottish a network of Scottish clubs abroad affiliated to the SRU, working for the interest of Scottish rugby and all to be represented by the Exiles representative."

The final motion will bring the AGM back to the thorny issue of a museum.

Chairman Munro pledged to investigate plans for a museum, but, instead, the SRU this year cut the library staff altogether, leaving thousands of artefacts, jerseys, trophies, balls and boots, and other historical collections, sealed in boxes inside a locked room.

Moray House RFC, backed by Linlithgow RFC, have called for agreement for premises in the West Stand to be identified for a Scottish Rugby Museum and 250,000 set aside to fund its development and opening by 1 January, 2012.