SRU dropped the ball in London Scottish U-turn

THERE'S MANY a slip betwixt cup and lip, as they say in the leafy South West London borough of Richmond. The London Scottish plan to re-launch themselves as Scotland's third pro-team has been seriously undermined after the SRU stepped back from the venture and cancelled their part of the funding, around one quarter of the total, which the club was led to believe was as good as in the bank.

The exile club has put together numerous other investors including such venerable supporters of Scottish rugby as Willie Purves, the former chairman of HSBC, and Tesco chairman David Reid but they were still relying upon a sizeable contribution from Murrayfield in terms of both players and hard cash.

The club has every right to feel let down. The SRU chief executive Gordon McKie and chairman Allan Munro pored over the minutiae in six pages of a memorandum of understanding with club officials a few weeks back which is a strange thing to do before doing an abrupt U-turn. There are unconfirmed reports that it was the council, the club representatives, who persuaded the SRU executive board to change its mind. One Murrayfield insider gave his view of the affair last week: "The board is still 100% behind the venture in principle but there was a meeting with a group of the club's investors and we did not feel that their business plan stacked up."

When pressed on what exactly that meant, the source claimed that the London club couldn't guarantee a meaningful standard of rugby for Scotland's young professional players while they were lying in England's National Three (South). Perhaps more pertinently, he also admitted that any move by Murrayfield to throw several hundred thousand pounds at the London-based club in cash and kind when Premier One members are receiving about £1,000 per annum would provoke "a hell of a backlash from the clubs back home".

There probably would be a backlash of some sort although that is not to say the SRU should not be bold if they believe it the right thing to do and McKie has never been accused of courting popularity.

Another insider argued that there was not enough "clear water" between London Scottish and the best of Scotland's domestic clubs. He argued that if the exiles were to gain another promotion they would be in a far better position to return cap in hand to Murrayfield when they were in England's National Two, just one promotion away from National One. It seems that the SRU may be willing to support the club once they reach the elite rugby level but are unwilling to help them get there.

While the political difficulties of supporting the exile club with finance and players are obvious, the real risks lie not in acting but in failing to do so. There are moves afoot in England to make two fully professional rugby divisions (Premier One and Two) and then ring-fence them. The SRU has already blown a brilliant chance to support the exiles when the game first went professional and London Scottish were playing top-flight English rugby. To do so again courts ridicule, especially after travelling so far down the road over the last year.

Right now London Scottish are just three promotions away from the much-vaunted Guinness Premiership although there is probably a better return on investment by leaving them as a feeder/development club in England's national one, still a pretty handy level and several rungs above our own club rugby. Scottish rugby is already paying the price of only having two pro-teams.

The barrel was well and truly scraped when putting together the A-squad for the Churchill Cup this summer. The Union's need, Scottish rugby's need, is far greater than that of the exile club who were climbing the leagues very happily and who are now expected to go it alone and hope that the SRU jump on board at some point. They have already made several high-profile signings for next season.

Scottish rugby fans, and they include all of the London club's financial backers, will hope that the SRU come to their senses sooner rather than later and make the case to Scotland's club that supporting the exiles is not only a sensible move but a necessary one given the state of our national team.