The strange on-off relationship between Scottish rugby’s governing body and the club that has produced more Scotland players than any other was put back in place yesterday when Scottish Rugby and London Scottish announced that they have found a way to work together.
It was the second u-turn in a matter of weeks as the SRU reversed last month’s decision to reverse their previous decision, announced only in February, that in their bid to find a more effective way of developing players who are on the fringes at Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, they were effectively to treat the London club as their third professional team.
The announcement that the deal had been scrapped was widely criticised with David Sole, the former Scotland captain who splits his business life between the English and Scottish capitals particularly outspoken as he told ‘HeraldSport’ that the SRU’s decision was “bizarre” and that “it doesn’t make sense on any level.”
Following news of its revival it will fall to Sole’s 1990 Grand Slam team-mate Sean Lineen, Scotland’s head of age grade rugby whose already considerable reputation is currently being enhanced by the performance of the national under-20s at their World Championships, is to have a central liaison role as up to eight players are seconded from the domestic game.
He is to continue in his part-time role as director of rugby at London Scottish which will now have ‘up to eight players seconded from Scotland’ operating on what was described as ‘a more modest and achievable scale better suited to the support available from London Scottish…’
Having protested vigorously about the Scottish Rugby Union’s decision to tear up the agreement with them just four months after it had been put in place amidst what now appears to have been posturing on both sides, officials of London Scottish were forced yesterday to swallow humble pie as chairman David Reid revisited the assessment published on the club’s website last month when he was quoted as saying: “The SRU can have no concern whatsoever about our finances.”
By contrast the former chairman of Tesco now seems to be acknowledging that the opposite was true.
“We fully recognise that the concerns expressed by Scottish Rugby’s Board over the financial commitment and infrastructure needed from London Scottish under the previous arrangements were entirely legitimate,” Reid said yesterday.
“London Scottish will now take full financial responsibility for its areas identified in the partnership, which are designed to enhance the performance environment in which London Scottish players can train and prepare,” he went on.
Those sentiments were echoed by club president Rod Lynch who said: “We regret that our recent statements and media coverage of them may have cast a cloud over such an exciting opportunity and are grateful that Scottish Rugby was still willing to continue a dialogue with us.
“We acknowledge that the concerns Scottish Rugby’s Board voiced were valid. I am delighted we have now been able to address these.”
Mark Dodson, the SRU’s chief executive, meanwhile indicated that what seems to amount to a probationary element to the revised agreement is now in place, describing it as “a 12-month relationship at this time.”
“We want to move this initiative forward to continue to give identified Scottish players the opportunity to develop into international players of the future,” he went on.
“We had to satisfy ourselves that the club could deliver a performance environment suitable to enable talented young players to develop, before we committed further. We are pleased that the club has addressed our concerns and are now satisfied that the reduced scale of the programme matches the support the club can provide.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel