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Bad News for Scottish Rugby

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getofmeland

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Scottish rugby crippled by debts

The future of Scotland's three professional rugby teams is once again in doubt as the Scottish Rugby Union's debt has risen to £23m.

The SRU will review the status of Glasgow, Borders and Edinburgh if external funding cannot be found before the start of next season.

The national under-19, 21 and Sevens squads are to be scrapped.

But involvement at a new U-20s level will be examined and Sevens teams can be selected from the National Academy.

The SRU says it is open-minded about which professional teams any joint ventures would involve and where the teams would be located.

But chief executive Gordon McKie warned: "If suitable terms cannot be agreed and opportunities don't materialise, we will sadly have no alternative but to further reduce our investment in pro-team rugby.

"Scottish Rugby has lost over £20m in nine of the last eleven years, so it's no surprise that our budget priorities now dictate this long overdue action.

"The changes to our representative teams are much needed. Historically there has been a serious lack of proper preparation and intensity of competition, which resulted in a consistent inability to compete meaningfully at underage rugby.

"Going forward we will introduce properly structured player development programmes, which will allow more of these young players the opportunity to make the grade within high performance rugby.

"We've been over ambitious in all that we have taken on at the elite end of the sport. This is a business after all and we can only do what we can afford to do."

Scotland will participate at the Under-21 World Championship in France in June.

And Scotland's Under-18 team will continue but the Under-18 A team will no longer exist.

There is also doubt over Melrose staging one of the final legs of the world Sevens circuit. The SRU will discuss the commercial viability of this next week.

Source BBC Sport
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My Comment
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It seems another Home Nation has hit a crisis point this year, but this time with money... Its a shame really as the Scots had a good run in this years Six Nations, although some of the changes may be beneficial to the youth development of scottish Rugby... the main priority I feel for the scottish Celtic league teams, is too look into other possible ways of saving money, so that they are able to support themselves a bit better... This is a situation that will have to be monitored closer, but hopefully they will find external investment...
 
To be honest, The Borders need to go to save money. Edinburgh have been the best side and Glasgow is needed to promote rugby in the west. Either that, or the pro teams need to be privatised.

Got to admit that I'm not bothered about the age grade stuff being scrapped cause the selection for that isn't fair.

Sad to see the 7s go. We gave it to the world and we won't be putting out a proper 7s team anymore. We were getting good at it aswell.
 
why the hell would the union be trying to run the pro teams anyways. Personally I think if your going to have a pro sport get the governing bodies out of the fray and friggin let the corporate boys have their go :) Thats how everyone else does it rugby should be no different.
 
Originally posted by Canadian_Rugger@May 1 2006, 02:03 AM
why the hell would the union be trying to run the pro teams anyways. Personally I think if your going to have a pro sport get the governing bodies out of the fray and friggin let the corporate boys have their go :) Thats how everyone else does it rugby should be no different.
As far as I understand in SANZAR it's the Unions which are running the professional Rugby while in Europe only England and France have a different organization for the professional Rugby. There's no single rule which apply and as far as I can see both approaches have cons and pros.
 
Well the SRU own and control the Gunners, Warriors and Reivers. What that means is the SRU is responsible for contracts and apointing managers, coaches etc. They are also charged with finding sponsors and attending the board meetings of the Celtic League and Heineken Cup and providing wages and money to sign new players. Coaches and managers, of course, still pick the team and decide on what players they want.

Of course there other cost cutting measures like not paying players for playing for their country. I would play for Scotland for nothing. Surley the pride of representing your country is payment enough.
 
Originally posted by edinburgh_gunner@May 1 2006, 08:39 PM
Well the SRU own and control the Gunners, Warriors and Reivers. What that means is the SRU is responsible for contracts and apointing managers, coaches etc. They are also charged with finding sponsors and attending the board meetings of the Celtic League and Heineken Cup and providing wages and money to sign new players. Coaches and managers, of course, still pick the team and decide on what players they want.

Of course there other cost cutting measures like not paying players for playing for their country. I would play for Scotland for nothing. Surley the pride of representing your country is payment enough.
yah in International hockey players are not as far as I am aware paid to play for their country. I don't think any of the big 8 pay their players Canada, USA Sweden, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany do not pay their players for International participation but this is made up for because most of these players have multimillion club contracts which put their bread and butter on the table.
 

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