One year on from Reivers closure, rugby retains hold on heartland

Club game thriving in Borders but fears remain over migration of talent

THREE Borders clubs will contest SHE Cup quarter-finals next month, Selkirk are on the verge of a return to Division One and Gala and Peebles could also savour the sweet taste of championship success this weekend.

Life appears good in some parts of Borders rugby at least. Yet, exactly a year ago today, the region was engulfed in shock and anger and quickly swept up in doomsday scenarios after the Scottish Rugby Union announced that it was pulling the plug on the region's professional team, the Border Reivers. It was the second time the area had lost its professional presence, the union having 'merged' the original Reivers into Edinburgh in 1998, less than a year after it was launched as a pro outfit.

However, the SRU fared no better with the Reivers' return. Attendances at the three pro teams continued to rock between 1,000 and 4,000, for the big European games, and the union's overdraft slid further into the red despite continuing cutbacks.

The SRU board took the decision to revert to two teams and on 27 March, 2007, announced that the Borders would again take the hit, provoking instant condemnation for putting city teams before the one region were rugby was more popular than football, and concern that this would overturn that sporting balance. But has it? What is the feeling now, one year on?

While football is continuing to grow in the Borders, with more youngsters playing it now than ever, John Davidson, president of the Border League, claims club rugby is also flourishing in the wake of the pro team closure.

"A sense of calm has descended on the Borders clubs," he said. "The loss of the professional team was a bitter pill, and I wouldn't pretend that we haven't missed it, but we are moving forward.

"The uncertainty and negativity around whether the Borders would go or stay was the biggest problem I think, but now that has gone there is more enthusiasm and more focus on helping the clubs. At my club, Jed-Forest, we have increased our membership over the past two years, we're starting to see money filter down from the SRU to clubs, a lot of clubs are no longer trying to compete at semi-pro level by paying players and are turning their attentions to local players, and I think there is a greater sense of us all having a duty to look inwardly and grow the game.

"The SRU have also helped us set up an 'academy' at the Borders College in Galashiels, seconding Richie Dixon to it, which will open in September. One year on, the wider game in the Borders is very much in good health."

A contrasting view is provided by Richie Gray, one of the SRU's first development officers, who worked in the north, south, east and west, and was latterly the union's academy manager at the Border Reivers. He is putting together the new rugby/vocational academy at Borders College with Dixon, which he hopes can encourage young rugby talents to remain in the Borders, but he still fears a negative effect from the closure of the Borders pro team.

He said: "I would agree that the positive aspect of the decision is probably that everybody has now focused back on their club again, but we're getting crowds back at Gala, and Selkirk and Peebles, this season simply because we're winning.

"The main problem in Borders life is outward migration and the loss of the professional team has made that more serious in rugby. Most young kids in the Borders always wanted to be the best in rugby, and now that means turning pro and making a career of it, which means leaving here as a teenager for a pro academy somewhere.

"I will always encourage young lads to grasp opportunities and go and better themselves, but what does it leave here? I remember watching about 300 or so kids running around the Netherdale pitch after the final game against the Ospreys, in their Reivers jerseys, throwing passes and tackling each other, and wondering how we would keep that enthusiasm.

"I still worry about that. While we're turning into a talent pool for clubs across the UK and Europe to come and drain, our own rugby communities are losing their most exciting, inspirational figures and the link and affinity with the top end of the game."

However, Ross Ford, the Kelso and Borders hooker now starring for Edinburgh and Scotland, insisted: "There are always obstacles to making it in professional sport, and the decision to close the Borders was one last year, but it hasn't stopped me and I don't think it should stop any youngster in the Borders who wants to be a professional rugby player.

"If you work hard enough and perform you will still get noticed, no matter where you play in Scotland."

PLAYER'S VIEW: Ross Ford
Ross Ford, from Kelso, had to leave the Borders when the team closed. He is the current Edinburgh and Scotland hooker.

It was difficult for us as players when the decision was taken, but being a professional sport you just have to get on with it. If you want to pursue your dream, you have to sacrifice things, and that meant not playing for Kelso and moving away.

I moved from the Borders to Glasgow initially last summer and then Edinburgh, and I have really enjoyed it at Edinburgh. I've learnt so much, I'm playing better now and, as a team, we want to finish the season on a high and win silverware.

But I don't see why other youngsters from the Borders can't do the same. There are quite a few Borders boys involved with the national academy and Edinburgh – John Houston is a great example of a guy who was playing club rugby last year, was spotted playing well and has played in the Heineken Cup and for Scotland A this season.

We have development officers and coaches out identifying talent all over Scotland, so it's about training hard and playing well for your school and youth teams.

STAFF VIEW: RICHIE GRAY
Richie Gray was employed by the SRU as Borders Academy Manager. He is now a TV presenter and businessman.

My big worry has been the loss of young talent to Borders rugby communities. We were developing strong links between young pros at the academy and clubs across the Borders, but with no professional team they scattered across the world.

Even in Scotland, my own club Gala lost Roddy Grant to Heriot's, where Hawick's Bruce McNeil and Kelso's Scott Newlands also headed to, Greig Laidlaw is at Edinburgh Accies and there are others, because the SRU encourage them to Division One clubs – the 'shop window' for the pro teams.

I'm not a blinkered Borderer; I have worked all over Scotland, and know how hard we have to work in the north, east and west, to turn people on to rugby.

I see thousands of kids in the Borders whose first thought is to pick up a rugby ball, run with it, pass and tackle, who will play full-on rugby in the dark until their parents make them go home.

We are too small a country to be able to afford to cut off such sizeable parts of the body as Caledonia and the Borders.