Edinburgh's Netani Talei versus Ulster in the Heineken Cup semi-final Picture: SRU
“The Irish model is what we’re trying to replicate now.” That was the declaration this week from Sir Moir Lockhead, chairman of the Scottish Rugby Union. It is a great sentiment, there is no doubt about that. Ireland have been massively successful in recent years, creating a formidable professional rugby structure, bringing in huge crowds and enjoying unprecedented levels of success, both at provincial and national levels.
If Scotland could, indeed, replicate the Irish model then all of Scotland would have something to cheer at last. But the problem is that comparing Scotland to Ireland in rugby terms doesn’t really work.
Sure, there are similarities: like Scotland, Ireland is a relatively small Celtic country and, like Scotland, its professional game is based around provincial rugby controlled by a central union.
But there are also many glaring differences, too – the main one being that Ireland has four rugby provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht.
Three are used to spearhead the island’s rugby effort, with Connacht a backup, a development wing, used to harden young Irish players by giving them a taste of proper league and cup rugby.
What this means is that the Irish provinces can each bring in a small number of excellent southern hemisphere imports and not unduly damage the development of their own players.
There are four professional outlets for rugby in Ireland, which means that even if two world-class fly-halves arrive from down under, then there will still be room for two Irish fly-halves to hone their games with full-time, professional rugby.
Rugby has also become (and apologies in advance to all GAA members and devotees) pretty much the national game of Ireland. Munster’s run of European success, which is now being matched by rivals Leinster, has given the sport a prominence it never had before and allowed it to become the most devotedly followed international sport in Ireland.
The rugby sides do not have to worry about competing with football, either for players or for supporters, and they don’t have to fight the impression – as the rugby authorities do in Scotland – that their sport is a minority one played by a few posh boys from fee-paying schools.
Rugby is a national sport in Ireland and, as such, enjoys huge advantages.
Then there is money. At the height of their European glories, Munster were selling 100,000 replica shirts a season. When that is added to regular crowds of 35,000 at Thomond Park and at the RDS in Dublin, plus the TV money gleaned from good Heineken Cup runs, and it is easy to see why the Irish teams had the money to invest in talent, as they have so clearly done.
Edinburgh secure a massive windfall for the Scottish game this year (money that is apparently being split between the two Scottish teams) from having reached the Heineken Cup semi-finals.
But the last time Edinburgh reached the knockout stages of the European Cup, the money was largely soaked up in the SRU’s debts and not reinvested in the team.
That was a false economy because it prevented Edinburgh from reaching the knockout stages the following year, when they would have generated more money.
Sir Moir knows, this which is why he wants to follow that part of the Irish example: invest in the pro teams, give them the players to reach the knockout stages of the pro-rugby competitions and reap the rewards in increased crowds and revenue.
The hope is then that, like Ireland, the success of the pro sides will rub off on the national side and Scotland will start winning too.
It is here, though, that the theory starts to fall apart.
Edinburgh have clearly been given more money for next season and look what they’ve done. They have bought in a South African tighthead prop, a South African lock, a Georgian number eight, a Welsh prop, a Welsh scrum-half, an All Black centre, an English winger and an English (possibly soon to be Scottish) full-back.
That’s great for Edinburgh and should give Michael Bradley the chance of actually winning something next season – particularly as, with so many non-Scottish players, he won’t lose the best part of his squad when the Scotland games start. (Put your money on the league, though, rather than the Heineken Cup next season – but a league title would be good.)
But what does it mean for the development of Scottish players? It is in Bradley’s interests to have a squad he can play for the whole season, not just for the non-international parts of it. But is it in Scotland’s interests?
We only have two pro teams, unlike Ireland’s four – so, when so many international players are brought in, what happens to the promising young Scottish players vying for their positions?
Take number eight, for example. Edinburgh now have two non-Scottish number eights on their books: Fijian Netani Talei and Georgian Dmitiri Basilaia. Presumably, then, a young Scottish number eight could get game time at Glasgow?
No, not with Tongan number eight Villiami Ma’afu and New Zealander Angus Macdonald now signed for Glasgow next season.
This is just one position where there is hardly any prospect of a Scottish player getting professional game time next season. In Ireland, there would be two other provinces for the players to go to: not in Scotland.
For years, the SRU’s strategy seemed to be to condemn the pro sides to be nothing more than development teams, sides which would be competitive occasionally but never actually win anything. But, in packing the sides with young Scots, the SRU could get players up to a level where they could play for Scotland – hopefully benefiting the Scottish national side.
This hasn’t worked. The pro sides, starved of funds and overseas talent, laboured and won nothing, attracting small crowds and making little or no money.
So the plan has changed. The idea now is to invest in the pro sides, like the Irish do, and hope that success will come and crowds with it – and that, in the end, this will help Scotland.
The first two parts of that theory make sense. The SRU’s change of tack will undoubtedly help Edinburgh and Glasgow and, with the Welsh sides shedding their best players as fast as they can, the prospects for both Scottish teams look brighter next season than they have for years.
Success will boost crowds and mean more money to re-invest once again.
Where the question remains, however, is in the long-term worth of this strategy to the national team because of the suspicion that, with just two pro sides, there just isn’t the depth to import star foreigners and develop enough Scottish players at the same time.
Indeed, following the Irish example is a laudable aim – but, to work, it would need to be followed in its entirety and that means more than two pro sides – something the SRU may have to contemplate in the long term if it is to really find a way out of the mediocre rut that the national side has been stuck in for so long.
