THE prospect of Chris Paterson and Dan Parks running out at Mansfield Park in the green of Hawick this season might seem laughably incongruous to most in Scottish rugby, but Jim Hay insisted yesterday that the draft 'signing' of the Scotland internationalists was a very positive move for his club and the game in general.
The Premier One Forum, which represents the views of the 12 Premiership Division One clubs, came up with the idea of a US-style draft system in an effort to end the annual squabbling about which clubs released professionals could play for. Unusually
for club rugby, it seems to have won fairly widespread support, at least before the season starts.
The skills of most of Scotland's current 74 professional players will not be seen in club colours again, at least until they retire from the top level, but only 44 can play on any weekend. Allowing for the fact that some will be injured or resting there remains scope for a healthy contingent of around 20 of the country's most talented players to be closely involved with club rugby this season.
With Andy Robinson and Sean Lineen at the helm, the pro teams are more enthusiastic than ever to embrace clubs and build bridges between the pro and amateur ranks, while Geoff Cross is one player, and a born-and-bred Gala man, who speaks passionately about how good it was for him to play for Hawick last season. He duly finished 2007-8 touring Argentina with Scotland.
Hay is another admirer of the tie-up and the Hawick coach is confident that Paterson and Parks, alongside his other draft picks Matt Dey, Opeta Palepoi (who plays for Glasgow, but lives in Galashiels still], Calum MacRae and Matt Mustchin, will appear at Mansfield Park this season. "We might not see them all in the famous green jersey, although that might be good PR," he said, with a wry smile, "but I think we'll see them all here at some point or other.
"Some of the guys might not play as much as they'd like for the pro teams so they could be a huge benefit to us in passing on their experience in training and games, but even with guys very unlikely to be available just a few appearances at the club could be a huge bonus.
"Dan, for example, is a very skilful rugby player and having him at Mansfield for a few sessions in the season, working especially with Rory Hutton, who has the talent to go a long way, could be huge for our guys and the club. Chris is the same. With his importance to Edinburgh he is never going to be turning out in a Hawick jersey, is he? But he will be welcomed with open arms at Hawick because he is a quality player.
"Chris is a Gala man but times have moved on since the days when players would be cast out for going to another Borders club – I coached Gala remember. He is also a proud Borderer and while Gala are not yet back in Division One, I'm sure Chris would rather be attached to a Borders club than an Edinburgh or Glasgow one."
Hay also admitted a concern about the draft, in that some young players who will be released quite often have been placed with their third or fourth club in as many seasons, which, he argued, was not good for their continuity.
"There's also the fact we have Calum MacRae, a Melrose boy, while Melrose have Geoff Cross, who was a big success with us all last season. Common sense should allow us to swap."
Actually, he could have, as the forum gave clubs three days to do so after the initial draft, but Hay admitted he did not realise that before stating that the draft should be conducted around a table rather than via telephone conference call, as was the case this year.
"The only other concern I have is just whispers I'm hearing of some pro players saying 'there's no way I'm playing for them'. I hope that's not the case because we need everyone to buy into this for it to work well, and have real benefits, for both the pro players and the club game."
As for what we can expect from Hawick on the park this season, with or without their draft stars, Hay is reasonably optimistic.
"In the last few years it's been a case of bringing on young boys.
But it's not always clear-cut. Our home form was excellent last season, but we could hardly buy a win on the road, and that was down to inexperience. Every year we're losing more experienced players, mainly to other clubs, but also for jobs or to travel.
"So our squad is still pretty young and rugby is still all about pace and power. You can have great young players, but in a howling gale, ankle deep in mud, the strongest team will win nine times out of ten. So, we're bringing in a couple of foreign players with experience. I'd rather that than poaching from other clubs."
The full article contains 870 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
