EDINBURGH Accies coach Ian Barnes has taken a further swipe at Murrayfield bosses over Scottish rugby's youth policies.
Speaking after his side had lost 18-14 at Boroughmuir to leave them requiring a win at Heriot's on Saturday to have a chance of avoiding relegation – GHA and Stirling County can also still go down though in the case of the latter the prospects of tha
t happening are slim – Barnes hit out again at the way young players are taken from clubs for development.
"We are pulling players through and not buying players in (and not signing) former pros…
"Then the SRU kick us in the b**** at every opportunity," said Barnes in referring to himself as being on a "hobby horse". That was a throw-back to comments last month when Barnes claimed top prospects signed under the SRU academy system were then prevented from training with their clubs on the traditional Tuesday evening session and in some instances given fortnight-long breaks between matches.
Provoking his ire was a question linking Accies' present precarious plight with the possibility of continuing to give a Premiership Division One platform to a host of up-and-comings, the latest being teenage flanker Murray Smith who came off the bench for a debut.
With obvious pride in the BATS youth development set up comprising of themselves and two other North Edinburgh clubs, Broughton and Trinity Accies, Barnes said: "We had a really young side. At the end there were nine guys under 20 on the pitch. (For example] Murray Smith is a Penicuik lad with no rugby background who joined us and has come up through the Bats."
A former internationalist and Edinburgh European Cup coach, Barnes has long argued that promising players should be kept at clubs to draw on the experience of other individuals who have instead been allowed to become disenfranchised.
The full article contains 322 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
