SIR DAVID Murray has called on the wider sporting community in Scotland to take steps to eradicate what he termed a "them and us" barrier between sports after he stepped in to help the Glasgow rugby team.
The Rangers chairman is a passionate supporter of various sports, most notably football and rugby, and when he took over last year as the Scotland rugby team's new sponsor, at the conclusion of The Famous Grouse partnership, he agreed to look at w
ays where his football interests could further help rugby.
The first clear sign of that came this week when he was asked by Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, whether Rangers' Murray Park training facilities would be available to Glasgow, as they struggled to find any grounds not waterlogged in preparation for tonight's Heineken Cup pool decider with Saracens.
Murray stated: "I was delighted to be able to help this week, and if there are opportunities to do it again we will try to help. With my interest in rugby and football we were asked when we did the sponsorship deal whether it was possible to utilise some of Rangers' facilities when they weren't being otherwise used, and of course we agreed.
"Murray Park is not simply a Rangers facility exclusively for Rangers. We built it and run it to suit the football club, of course, but we have around 2,000-3,000 children coming in there every week for training. Every night there are local kids training at Murray Park."
Murray Park, a £14m training venue at Milngavie, boasts indoor and outdoor 3G pitches. Glasgow players, who train on grass at Whitecraigs RFC and occasionally use the outdoor all-weather pitch at Nethercraigs were impressed by the complex.
Because of the significant cost implications, the secret to such facilities, however, lies in sporting clubs and local authorities working together. Murray insisted that this should be much more achievable than is currently the case.
"There must be scope for clubs and different sports to work together much more in the future. We have a terrible 'them and us' attitude in this country, which creates divisions that shouldn't be there. Murray Park received a small grant from the council to help with its creation, so why shouldn't there be a wider community use to it?
"I was pleased to help this week and not just with the facilities, but also help promote what is a huge game for Glasgow. There's not enough interest shown in rugby. When you think about it, nearly 70,000 people watch Scotland play at Murrayfield, yet we're expecting around 4,000 maybe to watch Glasgow in the biggest game of their history, with a chance to reach the last eight of the major European tournament.
"How do we expect top-quality rugby to thrive if the populace don't support it? Unfortunately, I'm away on business Friday and Saturday, but I hope Glasgow achieve something special."
