Return of district matches on the agenda as clubs freshen up season

NEW district league competitions have been agreed across Scottish rugby for the coming season that will ultimately pit clubs against each other for the semi-final slots in the new RBS Cup.

Agreement on the new competitions has also led to fresh discussions over reviving district representative matches with players being handed the opportunity to represent Caledonia, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the South once again.

Since the motion for league and cup reconstruction was passed at the SRU AGM just over three weeks ago, clubs in the four traditional districts have grasped the union's offer to create their own qualifying events and drawn up a new league competition in each of their districts that will produce a qualifier for the national cup semi-finals.

The main aim of the change was to lessen the congestion from club seasons that have been running on too long, but it was also hoped that the increase in derbies would help to attract more supporters and revenue streams to clubs struggling to maintain interest.

The Border League will be made up of two pools of five teams, but the seven clubs in Premier One, Two or Three that can qualify for the RBS Cup later stages will play each other, home or away, with some clashes doubling-up as league and cup games. The non-Premier clubs Langholm, Berwick and Haddington - a recent addition to the Borders' historic competition - join in to complete the Border League format.

Melrose, Gala, Peebles, Kelso and Langholm form 'Pool A' while Hawick, Selkirk, Jed-Forest, Haddington and Berwick are in 'Pool B'. The league kicks off with Jed facing Haddington on 20 August, but the double-up matches will be played through November to the first weekend in February.

The Caledonia Cup competition will split the eight Premier clubs into two pools of four - Dundee GSFP, Aberdeen GSFP, Kirkcaldy and Morgan in 'Group A' and Stirling County, Howe of Fife, Falkirk and Perthshire into 'Group B'. They will play pool matches on 10 and 17 December, and 7 January, and then hold semi-finals involving the top two in each pool on 25 February and a Caledonia Cup final on 10 March, which will determine who goes forward to the last four of the RBS Cup, scheduled for 31 March.

The Caley clubs have also agreed to cut entry prices to 5 for all cup ties, and that the gate revenues will be split 50-50 between each club to ease the fact that some will have just one home game.

In Edinburgh, the clubs have voted for three groups of three, Heriot's, Edinburgh Accies and Haddington in the first pot, Boroughmuir, Currie and Lasswade the second, and Watsonians, Stewart's Melville and Biggar in the third. Those games will be played from 19 November until 4 February with semi-finals on 25 February - featuring pools winners and the best runner-up - and a first Edinburgh Cup final on 10 March.

It is more complicated with 12 teams in Glasgow district but club officials were last night finalising a knock-out approach, with a possible double-legged cup final, with plans to replicate the new competitions through the regional league system.

Ian Rankin, the Dundee and former Edinburgh and Scotland A coach, said: "It's great to see how quickly the clubs have come together. The Borders clubs have kept their identity with the Border League, but in the other districts we've lost that district connection a bit and this could help bring it back.

"I detect excitement about the derby games as an extra in the season on top of the league championships. I know that when we played Morgan Academy FPs in the cup a few years ago we had the biggest crowd we'd had for some time. And there has been a bit of talk again about trying to find space in the calendar for reviving district representative games, which may be more likely next year when the leagues go down to ten teams."