Rugby: Edinburgh's independent thinking

Announcing that his company was extending its six-figure sponsorship deal to 2013, Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, predicted better times ahead for a more autonomous club.

Before McKie's departure, there had been dismay inside Edinburgh Rugby at the control exerted by the Murrayfield SRU management, which culminated in the summary dismissal of coach Rob Moffat after poor results last season.

Gilbert said: "We would be looking for a chief executive at the SRU who would give Edinburgh more autonomy.

"I don't want to look backwards but forwards and I think it is key that the club gets more opportunity for an identity of its own."

Welcoming the arrival of a former colleague, Sir Moir Lockhead, as new chairman of the SRU, Gilbert said: "As chairman of First Group when he was chief executive I probably know him as well as anyone, and I think him coming in will make a significant difference to the SRU.

"I get the impression that Edinburgh should be run more as a club in its own right. Okay, it gets a subsidy from the SRU, but I think it is very important that it identifies itself as a club and raises revenue as such rather than be perceived to be just surviving on handouts from the SRU.

"We are encouraged by the fact that Edinburgh do want to raise more funding and sponsorship which they could use to improve the team."

Edinburgh Rugby's Chief Executive Craig Docherty was insistent that structural change affecting the SRU and its pro teams is coming.

Docherty said: "The status quo can't exist. Things will happen, and I can't comment on what direction they will go, but change will come. What you will find in the next wee while is that there will be a review of the working model of both pro teams in Scotland.

"What is going to come out of that, I don't know, but the status quo potentially will not exist in the next few years.

"It is very early days but Jock (interim SRU chief executive Jock Millican] is now in there and he will absorb views and put a plan in place in the foreseeable future."

Docherty wants to put the emphasis on the word 'club' in future: "The pro clubs need to look further afield than Scotland to see what models work. We are different from Wales, France and Ireland, but there is a model that will work for Scotland and we have to find it and go for it. We need to look afresh. My background is in retail and I think we have to put customers at the core of our business. We have to be more customer-focused in everything we do.""We have tended to lose sight of the fact that we are a rugby club and, first and foremost, we are the same as any rugby club - we want to win our matches.

"But we want to embrace the social aspect of being a club, and we have to be fan-focused and player-focused. Its about fans and players - simple but complex."

Both its sponsor and the club itself, plus broadcasters and the Edinburgh fans, realise that continuing to play in front of the vast cavernous stands at Murrayfield with four-figure crowds is neither good for the team, the fans or the viewers at home. Docherty said: "The problem we have got just now is that for the competitions we play in just now, the RaboDirect Pro 12 and the Heineken Cup, Murrayfield is the only ground fit for purpose."

It will remain Edinburgh's home for at least five years - the time which Docherty estimated yesterday as the period it will take to build a new stadium from scratch. He added: "We'd love to think that there was a seven to ten thousand all-seater stadium which could tick all the boxes for those competitions. But there's not. It's a simple as that."

Docherty pointed out that the "footprint" within the stadium was being changed to allow fans get close to the action at trackside and, in the meantime, Edinburgh Rugby would look at any new stadium proposals if they came in.