Club furore frustrates chief executive but he won't get involved unless he's asked to

CLUB rugby has debated its structures for years, but there is a growing sense that the grass-roots tier that underpins the sport in Scotland is at a crossroads again.

Clubs have grown to accept the divide that the advent of professionalism created in Scottish rugby and, like it or not, that it is here to stay. The rancour that marred the first decade of pro rugby has largely disappeared and been replaced by a greater willingness by clubs to work with the SRU leadership to plot a way forward. But, still, crowds are poor, sponsorship remains a scarce commodity, traditional revenue-generating broadcasting a thing of the past, and so mere survival is a genuine challenge for many. The attraction of what is loosely termed 'amateur' rugby has dropped against the growing feast of televised professional rugby, and rugby like many sports is experiencing the problem of maintaining interest and enthusiasm among players, not to mention supporters.

With input from the new SRU director of rugby Graham Lowe, leading clubs devised a new season split to improve interest at the top end this term. Up until the split after 11 games, clubs welcomed healthy crowds and increased revenue from hospitality, but since the split both areas have dropped off again, the autumn internationals and winter weather adding to the uncertainty.

The efforts of a working party to ease the debilitating costs incurred by clubs lower down the leagues by regionalising them, thus reducing travel expense and increasing interest with more local derbies, has been tossed out by clubs who insist that they prefer a national competition.

Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, wants clarity, but stated that he will not attempt to force decisions on clubs in 2011.

"It is for the clubs to decide how they want the leagues to be structured," he said. "Clubs know what works and what doesn't from years of experience, and I think they're best-placed to work out the changes we need to move the game forward.

"The overwhelming reaction from clubs on the regionalisation, when we did roadshows in November, was for the status quo to remain, with national leagues and no move to regionalisation, so John Davidson (working party chairman] and his group have gone away to work with clubs further with a view to either bringing something to the agm again in June, or not.

"You'll never please everybody; that's the nature of human beings. But ultimately we can't dictate. It's a club matter so it's down to them to decide what route they take forward."

While the clubs are essentially the union, the revolutionary governance split that brought McKie into Scottish rugby does ensure a clear split from the club representative arm and the executive and officials running the sport.Critics argue that McKie's management team should do more to take a lead in coming up with a new club structure, but McKie himself insists that this is not within his jurisdiction - at the moment.

He added: "If the clubs want to give us greater empowerment to exercise a greater lead on the matter then I'm happy to look at that, but for the time being it's for the clubs to vote upon and for them, through the existing devolved league structures we have, to determine what shape of season they want, and what type of leagues, regional or national, that they want.

"I don't think we can kid ourselves on that we are immune to the economic situation, where people are more selective about how they spend money and that has affected crowds at club level as it has done at other levels recently.

"But I'm not standing back. Ultimately, we want our clubs to be stable, settled, happy and growing the game and if there are issues preventing those things happening then clearly it's going to fall on my ears.

"So I would like to see it resolved. The continuing furore and unhappiness that we have experienced this season and in previous seasons at the agms is not good for the game, but for any change to work clubs have to work together and make it happen."