'A gulf': Scottish rugby and club game must bridge gap - for the sake of young players

Scottish Rugby is now two years removed from the dissolution of the Super Series - the competition designed to bridge the gap between the professional and amateur game in Scotland.

It came and went to little applause and has now been replaced by a system where the SRU places elite young players into academies, with their first tastes of senior rugby usually coming in ‘A’ game fixtures for Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh. It’s a programme not without its merits and both professional clubs introduced players from this pathway to their first teams last season.

However, it does raise the question if club rugby at the amateur level in our country is being properly utilised in the pro player development pathway. The Scotsman travelled to Malleny Park on Saturday to take in a thrilling Arnold Clark Premiership clash between Currie Chieftains and Melrose and was able to catch up with some of the people working behind the scenes at both clubs who have come face-to-face with this particular issue.

Scotland’s club game still has plenty to offer elite player development but challenges remain

Melrose RFC President Rob Moffat (Pic: SNS) | SNS Group / SRU

“Super Six didn't work,” explained Melrose President Rob Moffat. “I think we've tried that and have now parked it, so really what you've got to do now is, you've got to back the Premiership and back that level.

“One problem we and the SRU have is to try and bridge the gulf between the pro game and the club game. Every year that gulf gets bigger, and so it should, because if you're a professional at anything you're going to get better and better rather than the vast majority of boys playing the club game who are amateur. So the challenge is to try and have more players that can eventually play pro and play for Scotland.

“What the SRU have done is, through their academies, they'll take the boys away quicker. They're 15 or16 now instead of 17 or 18 and they'll be in a group at Murrayfield and they'll be training with Edinburgh and Glasgow.

“That's fine, but for me, the best avenue for these boys is through a club, even if it's just for a year or two. I would argue if you have more A games at Edinburgh and Glasgow, you're diluting the Premiership.”

Melrose have one particular recent example that perhaps exemplifies Moffat’s comments in Scotland under-21 vice captain Jake Dalziel, who left the Borders club this summer, aged just 17-years-old, to sign with Newcastle Red Bulls.

It’s a slightly different situation, with the English club clearly outwith Scottish Rugby’s remit, and while he obviously wishes their former player all the best, Moffat believes another season with Melrose and playing regularly in the Premiership would have benefited Dalziel’s development more than turning out for Newcastle’s academy side.

“I'm not blaming him for going to Newcastle,” said Moffat. “I think it's a good move for him in a lot of ways, but I still feel if Jake played for us this year it would have been a challenge for him to run the game. He's maybe an example of someone who would be better playing club rugby for a year or maybe a couple of years, but gets drawn out of that and put in an academy system.”

Taking in the match between the two sides, who had both started the season with back-to-back bonus point victories prior to their round three meeting, it’s easy to see what Moffat meant. The standard of rugby on display at Malleny was more than high enough to be considered a testing environment for a promising young players with ambitions of going professional.

The home side ran out 32-27 winners, scoring the decisive try with the last play of the game to keep themselves level on points with leaders Ayr, who beat Hawick 33-3. There was also a fantastic match-day atmosphere created by the many volunteers who make running a running the club possible and a decent crowd in attendance to take it all in.

Both teams are proud of their roots in their local community and Chieftains’ director of rugby Andy Jones highlighted the number of players in their first team squad that day who were homegrown. However, he acknowledged the difficult balancing act that comes from having a core group of players who are almost certainly not going to turn professional playing ahead of young talent who will benefit from exposure to the senior game.

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That was one of the biggest criticisms of the Super Series that ultimately played a part in bringing about its downfall. Both Moffat and Jones stressed that they did not wish to criticise the SRU and acknowledged that both the governing body and the clubs could do more to try and find a system that worked.

“I feel for the lads who are in the academies,” said Jones. “There's not that many games for them. I don't think the Super 6 was the answer but some of the younger guys were getting some game time in that format.

“Obviously we've got the pro-line academy players [players who are aligned with Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh but are sent to clubs to gain senior exposure]. We had one on the bench today. In a games like today where it was really, really tight, the poor lad never got on.

“Having said that, we did have a second row released to us last week and he did get a good 20 minutes in another tight game against Heriot's which we won narrowly. It is difficult because you get these guys parachuted into you maybe just for a week at a time. They’re generally not 17 or 18 years olds, they are adults, 18 or 19, but they're not playing a lot of rugby from what I can see.”

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