Ten key areas for SRU's new regime to address

THE SCOTTISH Rugby Board got down to the business of looking forward yesterday and, while much focus of the last meeting before the agm was on launching the process to find a new chief executive, minds are turning to the opportunity to take a fresh look at Scottish rugby.

The imminent arrival of highly-respected businessman Sir Moir Lockhead as chairman has created excitement and the prospect of a new chief executive will also raise optimism, as change inevitably does.

There were and remain aspects of Scottish rugby that have been flailing for longer than Gordon McKie was in charge as chief executive of the SRU, most notably the professional game. Those challenges remain as daunting as before, despite the change in leadership.

Here we examine ten key areas which need to be put back on the table and studied again. There are many more, but this provides a starting point covering issues affecting Scottish rugby which require serious examination change of leadership.

Professional club future

More autonomy is the first step. The board have made it clear that they are throwing open the doors to investors and people with ideas, so want any interested parties to meet with them and discuss potential investment, whether it is a five-figures deal or a serious stake in the professional teams. As SRU president Ian McLauchlan said recently: "There is plenty we can do to promote the clubs and the first thing is to make them independent of the Union."

In the short-term, however, the SRU has to allow Edinburgh and Glasgow to create their own identities. Kenny Baillie, Ian Riddoch and Nic Cartwright have all been talented chief executives, but they all quit for similar reasons - they were held in check by the SRU executive. McKie was not convinced that the clubs should even have chief executives. Riddoch and Cartwright had their salaries cut by a third and were simply told that commercial responsibility would be taken "in-house" and headed by McKie and SRU finance director Eamon Hegarty.

Edinburgh's current chief executive Craig Docherty has good ideas for integrating Edinburgh with the area's clubs and business community, but has spent much of his first year fire-fighting.

He opposed supporters being pushed out of a newly-refurbished SRU President's Suite but was over-ruled and, when supporters complained, he was landed with the responsibility to "sort it out".

Consideration should also be given to appointing a marketing manager to each club to promote them properly and liaise with their communities, and with the SRU marketing team, but reporting to the club CEO.Edinburgh's home ground

Playing in front of 2-3,000 people in a 67,000-stadium is not attractive to players, supporters or broadcasters. Former internationalists liken it to the lunar atmosphere of old trials, which they hated. The facilities are good, young players love running out at and young supporters like visiting the national stadium, but the lack of atmosphere is not what club rugby is about. It may appear the best of what is available, but it cannot be the future. The SRU have to be at the heart of talks with Sportscotland, the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council, Sir David Murray and Hearts FC on plans for a new shared stadium.

In the meantime, and while the crowds remain low, the SRU and Edinburgh should consider working with Watsonians and playing the core of the season's games at Myreside, for example. Meggetland might also be a possibility with temporary stands and a better pitch with the SRU biting the bullet by making an investment. Heineken Cup matches could remain at Murrayfield, and a handful of other games, pre-season or league, used to attract new supporters by being staged in Fife, Stirling, Perth or the Borders.

Edinburgh clubhouse

A simple route to improving morale among supporters in Edinburgh would be to re-open the President's Suite to season-ticket holders. The argument that around 500 supporters using the suite around 14 times a season, for a maximum of three hours at a time will cause damage is spurious, especially when the area was let out as an office Christmas party venue last year. Supporters have been offended, and the goodwill and income that would come from re-opening it would be significant.

Glasgow's home ground

Glasgow enjoy a better atmosphere in the 9,000-capacity Firhill, and have a six-figure rental agreement with Partick Thistle FC, but the SRU missed a trick in failing to employ more imagination in working with Glasgow City Council on the Scotstoun redevelopment. The squad is now based there, with good training and office facilities and a "home", and traditionally draw a lot of supporters from the city's west end.

It makes sense to again explore whether it could become a home for Glasgow Warriors, at least for league games, with Firhill a possibility for the Heineken Cup, to generate a better match-day atmosphere and a return to the crowds of 5,000-plus that attended Hughenden in the past.

Murrayfield car park

The SRU had little choice through the twin projects of a new Water of Leith flood prevention barrier and the arrival of a tram line than to hand over a chunk of their back pitch estate. They also agreed to use money generated by those deals to upgrade the quality of the pitches and with that came a guarantee for insurance purposes that the pitches would be maintained to a high level - which meant no cars on them.

However, the closure of the back-pitch car park was handled poorly and a complete lack of understanding of its importance in the Murrayfield matchday experience for more supporters than the Union realises. Much work has gone on around the stadium to improve the corporate hospitality experience, where the big bucks roll in, but the board should look at the experience for the bedrock of thousands upon thousands of international supporters.

Matchday ticket sales

It is expected that one of the first changes made by the board in the wake of McKie's departure will be to reinstate matchday sales of tickets. McKie and Hegarty decided, backed by the board, that employing staff to handle 2-3,000 ticket sales on match day was counter-productive, and that closing sales at midnight would encourage supporters to buy early. This was another decision that may have made strict financial sense in the short-term, but backfired when applied to the real world and upset supporters.

Player drain

Players will always leave the country for the lure of better challenges or more money. But the problem here is more about the strength of message than the actions in truth. McKie was also honest in stating that he was happy for players to leave as it could help the Scottish game, but there is little evidence of this - while there is plenty of evidence of the domestic game declining. The importance of the market appeal of watching top players in Scotland was lost. No one is saying that every top player must be retained, but there has to be a clear message that Scottish rugby does wish to hold on to its leading players, instead of celebrating the chance for a youngster to fill the void. If supporters understand that it takes time to build teams and so tend to sign up for the long-term - if they know that the best players will be allowed to leave every second year, why bother?

Marketing

Scottish rugby needs a strong marketing presence at the top in an age where sports are having to become masters at selling themselves, and re-selling themselves in an increasingly fickle world of entertainment. And good marketing need not cost a fortune. Nathan Bombrys was brought in as Head of Commercial.

He had a good track record in selling Sale Sharks and, with marketing manager James Kennedy, should be given the opportunity to develop new strategies to market Scottish rugby through all departments from the grassroots up, which would include liaising with clubs and providing them with advice on marketing and media awareness. It requires a head with the expertise and authority to lead, strategise and co-ordinate.National team

The national squad set-up is in good health with strong relations between coaches across the game. Andy Robinson is employed by the SRU as Scotland head coach, but he has evolved into a virtual director of rugby with a wider control than was necessarily intended. The SRU cannot function efficiently without a director of rugby independent of particular sections in the sport, and Graham Lowe, the director of performance rugby needs to be allowed to develop that role.

Robinson's wealth of experience, expertise and ideas are invaluable, but his priority is to get the best out of the national squads and improve on-field results, and be accountable for that, while decisions on priorities at Edinburgh and Glasgow can involve a number of rugby people including Robinson, but should ultimately rest with the clubs themselves and director of rugby.

London Scottish

The London club has worked incredibly hard to climb from the depths of English rugby back to the second tier and provide Scottish rugby with an outstanding new opportunity to develop Scottish talent. The club does not expect financial help, but has been left bemused by a disinterested attitude from Murrayfield executives.

But as well as playing talent on the field, the Richmond club also attracts Scots with significant means, business experience and influence globally, whose passion for rugby pulls them to the club. In short, it is both a great, free advert and a magnet in the UK's largest city for Scottish rugby. An improved relationship would lead to mutual benefits on and off the field, while the opportunity to send a handful of promising young talents south for valuable match exposure in the Championship, with daily full-time training, has to be considered by the new regime.

The SRU should also restore the Exiles representative to its structure at next weekend's agm, after the shocking decision to dump it five years ago, as the start of a wider recognition of and support for the work being done already by SRU staff, Scottish and volunteers to grow contacts across the British Isles and further afield from Scottish-qualified families.