Is it just me or do I detect a state of near-paralysis in Scottish rugby at this moment?
From the top down there appears to be a lack of positive progress on many fronts, and frankly that’s why so many of us who write about the sport are feeling worried about the state of things at present and as Rabbie Burns wrote in ‘To a Mouse’: “An’ forward tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!”
There’s no doubt Scottish rugby needs fixing, but if you can’t fix the present, how are you going to fix the future? Just because Glasgow Warriors magnificently won the United Rugby Championship and the national men’s and women’s team plus the under-20s all did improve last season doesn’t mean to say everything’s rosy in the garden – certainly not when Argentina beat the All Blacks at the weekend and leapfrogged Scotland in the world rankings in which we are now at No. 7 when we need to stay in the top six.
With each passing week the scandal of the SRU’s failure to appoint a chief executive officer more and more blights the reputation of the top echelon of officials currently running the governing body. I try to be even-handed when I write about the SRU’s high heid-yins, but sometimes it’s impossible to be anything other than critical of an organisation’s leadership when it just isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do.
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Former chief executive Mark Dodson indicated last year that he was thinking of standing down and handed in his notice in early January. Seven months later he has not been replaced and while Mark Darbon, chief executive of Northampton Saints, sold the SRU a dummy and went instead to the R & A at St Andrews, that happened at the beginning of July and here we are six weeks on and no sign of any appointment to the Murrayfield hot seat.
What’s the problem? Is there nobody good enough out there? Has nobody applied because they think the SRU is a basket case? I think we should be told.
I know Chairman John McGuigan and his colleagues are doing a committed job in trying circumstances – not the least of which was the £10m loss that Dodson left behind – but surely the time has a come for at least an announcement on where the SRU is standing in relation to a new chief executive. A recruitment timetable, anybody?
Put it this way, a few days ago the Board of Scottish Rugby Ltd appointed a new non-executive director, its own former advisor Stephen White, the chief operating officer of Santander UK. He will join the other non-executive directors Mike Soutar, Ruth Davidson, Alexandra Whelan, Chris Stewart, and Hazel Swankie in their principal role of holding the executives of the SRU to account – except that the most important of these executives is missing.
No doubt White will bring plenty of banking experience to the boardroom, and they’re going to need it, but it frankly stinks of the blazers circling the wagons as more people begin to look askance at what’s going on, not least the Union’s paid staff who, don’t forget, face a reduction in their numbers because the financial situation of the SRU has massively deteriorated.
Having argued that Jim Mallinder’s replacement as performance director should not be appointed until Dodson’s successor arrives and approves the choice, I’m not going to change my mind, but you see the problem – until there’s a chief executive in place, very important decisions cannot be made, and if the Chairman and board members do go ahead with some decisions, they will land the new person with a fait accompli which is precisely what he or she will not need.
Another problem immediately facing the SRU was the failure to prepare properly for a replacement for the Super Series. The announcement last week that the Warriors and Edinburgh are expanding their academies proved that lack of forethought – the youngsters will play an expanded list of ‘A’ team fixtures but no information on fixtures or opponents was forthcoming. Why?
Meantime the two professional clubs are preparing for the new season with Glasgow Warriors in the ascendancy. Edinburgh Rugby needs a collective kick up the bahookey for the season ahead, but I am reliably informed that is happening, not least because the Edinburgh contingent that did so well in the World Under-20 Trophy is hungry for more game time.
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What really galls me about the inertia at the top is that the clubs are suffering from a serious problem with player recruitment, hence the announcements from Walkerburn, Royal High School FP and Carnoustie HSFP that they are in trouble as regards league participation. Where’s the plan from Murrayfield to deal with this crisis?
Next week I will be looking at the grassroots level, the community clubs, who are generally suffering player recruitment and retention problems. Leave your comments online if you have something to say about this.
