TALKING down the phone to the right people has paid dividends for Scottish Rugby who yesterday announced that part of the money from the deal with telephone giant, BT, will support rugby clubs across Scotland.
The largest-ever cash injection in club rugby follows a dismal Six Nations Championship for Scotland that culminated in collecting the Wooden Spoon. Now it appears that Murrayfield bosses are recognising that the only way to address Scotland's faltering position in world rugby is by building from the grass roots and re-establishing a strong club base.
Part of that process is recognising that clubs must have attractive facilities, that they must embrace the local community and that they must have good management. Scottish Rugby already contributes to coach wages in the Premiership but now it wants to back posts such as directors of rugby and business managers within clubs.
Clubs were invited to apply for funding to help improve facilities and to generate new revenues. In the event, 14 of the 25 clubs who bid were successful and will share a £400,000 cash injection in the first round of payouts from the Club Sustainability Fund in addition to receiving parallel funding from Sport Scotland amounting to over £600,000.
Scottish Rugby have pledged to invest £1.6 million over a four-year period, and the expectation is that many more clubs will benefit from awards in this time. The successful clubs will use the twin investment from Scottish Rugby and Sport Scotland to improve or create facilities such as changing rooms, strength and conditioning suites and all-weather pitches and to increase their income streams with the appointment of business development officers.
"Improving facilities will bring in more adults, youngsters and boys and girls," said Scottish Rugby's current president, Ian Rankin. "With the 2015 Rugby World Cup on the horizon we are encouraging clubs to open their doors and engage with their communities to showcase our sport with a long-term view they can become the players, volunteers and supporters of the future."
Yesterday's announcement of the first tranche of successful applicants was made at Philiphaugh, the home of National League One champions Selkirk. The Borders club has made massive improvements to their facilities despite having to repair damage wreaked by two major floods, but palpably still in their original state are the changing rooms, in use when the club won the unofficial championship back in 1953.
"Our club rooms are used by all kinds of sports clubs and the all-weather floodlit area is used by everyone in the town," stated Selkirk's president, John Rutherford, the 42-times capped former Scotland and Lions stand-off. "The one piece missing was the changing rooms. I believe facilities are very important to keep youngsters interested."
Selkirk have been awarded a total of £75,000 to transform their changing rooms, an improvement the club thinks will increase its income by attracting even more groups to use their facilities at Philphaugh.
Rutherford has more than changing rooms on his mind and is currently focusing on the challenge facing Selkirk as a result of promotion. "Next season will be all about keeping our position in the Premiership. We're trying to recruit but it's very hard. So we'll be going largely with the same group of players. But these players have been fantastic. They've played some great rugby. I think skills-wise we'll be as good as any team but physically it will be hard.
"The boys will be in the gym all summer. Peter [Wright] and the rest of the coaching team will still be in place, so we'll have a good go and try to make a positive contribution to the Premiership. We don't want to be a door mat for all the other teams," suggested Rutherford, who despite a fierce loyalty to his home-grown players concedes that several newcomers may have to be imported.
"A massive prop and a massive second row would be just the ticket. We've got some good contacts overseas. We don't want to bring in too many because it changes the chemistry. We're realistic and know that we need a couple of good players. But the good thing is that the players themselves are coming to the management and saying we need to strengthen the squad.
"We're lucky in Selkirk in that we run rugby through a rugby board. We have reps from mini rugby, school rugby, youth rugby and senior rugby. So we pretty much know all the players coming through. For a wee town I think we've done pretty well and to win the national league with a 100 per cent record is something we never ever imagined would happen."
Among the other beneficiaries are Howe of Fife who have a project to build a new pavilion and changing room with fitness and conditioning suites and a community cafe. At Falkirk, a business development officer post will be funded to improve the club's revenue stream while at Stirling a new strength and conditioning facility will be created to help the Bridgehaugh club realise its ambitions.
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