Scottish rugby needs to capitalise on Football's demise

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Title says it all really!

I can't help but think that football is dying a death here in Scotland. Rangers and Celtic are barely competitive in Europe anymore, Hearts can't pay their players and Rangers have massive debts to sort out. Yes a new TV sponsorship deal has prolonged the demise but clubs and the league in general have been struggling of late to get decent sponsorship deals.

Add to this the pretty awful standard of football, the neds in the crowds and the sectarian chanting (and not just from Rangers and Celtic) and I can't help but think that Scottish rugby really needs to try and capitalise on the problems with Scottish football just now.

I'm particularly looking at families here - dads (without being sexist) bringing their kids and their kids pals to the football, probably paying a decent sum of money to watch awful football on sub-standard pitches while their kids are subjected to swearing and chants and quite often some real anger and hatred in the stands.

If Scottish rugby can try and offer an attractive alternative so that instead of going to Tynecastle or Easter road they go to Murrayfield, and instead of Rangers, Celtic and the numerous other clubs in and around Glasgow go to see the Warriors.

The SRU put on some great ticket deals when it comes to kids (10 kids free per adult at one point!) and I can really see some non-diehard football fans being tempted if the marketing is done well.

Of course I'm not talking about every football fan here - indeed most football fans have an inherent dislike for rugby - but the ones that go for a family day out and have had enough of the prices, poor standard and general atmosphere at a football game.

I certainly know of at least 10 dads (and a couple of mums!) who have started coming to Edinburgh games with their kids because they have had enough of Scottish football. Or at least started coming more regularly to the rugby than they used to.

Thoughts?

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Thinking of new players to add to the list above:

Jamie Sole (son of David) - London Scottish - fullback
Jonny Baird (son of Roger) - Nottingham - flanker

Some more:

WP Nel - Cheetahs - tighthead prop
Tim Swinson - Newcastle Falcons - lock
Scott Wilson - Sedbergh School/England U18 - prop
Gary Law - Rotherham - flyhalf/centre
Grayson Hart - Warratahs - scrumhalf

gboycottnut wrote:When will Scotland learn. What is needed are forwards who are taller and bigger who can win enough lineout ball for the backs to use. The backs themselves are also not good enough to use any individual brilliance and flair skills to score tries like what the great Welsh teams were famous of doing in the 1970's and what the great England teams did in the 1990's.

Really? You've made fully four hundred and four posts of drivel like that? Respect.

Please will you all read Hill 90 in the Herald today, this explains why we are not producing enough talent!

Thank goodness Weir picked Rugby instead of fitba.

We have to get rugby on the agenda in more state schools 'simples'

George Carlin wrote:

gboycottnut wrote:When will Scotland learn. What is needed are forwards who are taller and bigger who can win enough lineout ball for the backs to use. The backs themselves are also not good enough to use any individual brilliance and flair skills to score tries like what the great Welsh teams were famous of doing in the 1970's and what the great England teams did in the 1990's.

Really? You've made fully four hundred and four posts of drivel like that? Respect.

Four hundred and four really eh. That number is more than Scotland have scored V England since Scottish Rugby went down the pan in the late 1920's.

I totally agree with the OP's article. Scottish club rugby must use this window to promote their product to the max. As he says, fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters, Grandas & Grandmas - can safely go to a game and enjoy the experience. It should be targetted at everyone. That should be the main selling-point in fact. In rugby, everyone matters, no matter gender, age or culture. Ultra-PC.

A massive amount of Leinster fans are female and children for home & away games. Some serious and knowlegable fans too. Promote the family aspect. Compare it to to the diving, cheating, overpaid, money-rolling, skobies - who play pro-soccerball. Show them the latent violience and racism at games. Preach them the rugby ethos. Unashamedly too. Its business.

Scottish rugby, really has to start spending a few bob and get in a top promotional team, to fully utilise this opportunity. And it is an opportunity. Rangers, Celtic And Hibs, play in a league that is not competitive. Rangers are in serious financial trouble. That lessens the only big game left there. And if you are not in Europe - whats the point?

The PRO12 is getting seriously competitive. Glasgow doing weel this year (now in a playoffs spot). Edinburgh are obviously concentrating on the HC this year, under Bradley. But both are doing well in their choosen pursuits. They deserve more support. So the the time is now. It would be money well spent in the long term. They need to build a whole culture of it up, slowly. Make it sexshy for all.

I pray Edinburgh beat Toulouse in the HC, for the sake of Scottish club rugby. And HC rugby itself. It would be fantastic and would surely highlight the fact that the fans are out there, ready by be brought into the fold.

Latest statement from Edinburgh Rugby, is that ticket sales for that game have gone past the 20,000 mark and rising fast. More.

A very sensible comment from KF in today's Herald:

The Rangers story tells us we need to rethink our sporting culture

by Kevin Ferrie, Senior Sports Writer.

The woes that have befallen Rangers may have rocked Scottish football but they also provide us with an opportunity to address the myth that this is a sports-obsessed country. All major media outlets have indulged in the corporate equivalent of suicide watch in the past few weeks as one half of the Old Firm has torn itself apart and that, in itself, is an indication of the importance of Rangers and Celtic to Scottish culture.


However, in real terms that is where interest in Scottish sport begins and ends for a disturbing number of our citizens and, as understandable as it has been for the two clubs to exploit that to the maximum, it has had a suffocating effect on all other sporting activity.

Long before Rangers' troubles were of sufficient significance to register with the London-based networks and newspapers, we had only to look at the balance of coverage of sport within the Scottish media.

Sports bulletins on Scotland Today or Reporting Scotland have invariably started with a Celtic or Rangers story for decades and the same applies to the back pages of, in particular, Scottish tabloid newspapers.

That is not an indictment of those outlets since their output merely reflects the supposed Scottish obsession with sport which goes no further than people aligning themselves passionately, to the point of fanaticism, with one or other of these clubs.

What all of this also means, though, is that any individual or, more particularly, business looking to gain benefit from sponsoring sport in Scotland looks first and foremost at ways of investing in the Old Firm.

Those clubs themselves are businesses, a long way removed from their origins when set up purely as sports clubs, so have been perfectly entitled to take the view that this was all right for them and that the broader considerations of what was good for Scottish sport was not their problem.

However, Rangers' collapse and the impact that looks like having on the rest of the Scottish Premier League is forcing people to think again.

This week there was a documentary on BBC Scotland asking what needed to be done to improve Scotland's footballing fortunes, followed by a debate on the subject.

My own view is that it missed the point, though, because they talked about football in isolation.

What has to be done if Scottish football is to improve is for Scottish sport to improve. That requires a cultural change.

Does Scottish football need Rangers? That is debatable. Does Scottish sport need to revolve around Celtic and Rangers? I would suggest quite the opposite.

Examples abound all over the world. Mention New Zealand and sport and, inevitably, we all think of the All Blacks, but anyone who has visited that country, significantly smaller than Scotland in population, will know that sports such as sailing, cricket and netball are granted considerable media coverage and support.

If that's a bit too far away for us to grasp, then how about an example from closer to home. Many of its residents may head over to Scotland on ferries every weekend to support the Old Firm, not to mention Liverpool, Manchester United and other clubs in the Barclays Premier League, but Ireland's sporting culture is vastly superior to that of Scotland.

Looking at what I consider to be the three major team sports: the Irish football team have qualified for the European Championships and was a Thierry Henry palm away from reaching the World Cup in South Africa; their national rugby team have won a grand slam and three triple crowns in the past decade, while Ulster, Munster and Leinster have all been European champions; and their cricketers are now well ahead of Scotland in the rankings, with many players on the books of English counties.

Scotland may lay claim to being the Home of Golf, but Ireland is the home of Rory McIlroy, the current world No.1 while three others – Padraig Harrington, Graham McDowell and Darren Clarke – have all won majors since Paul Lawrie won his Open Championship.

Perhaps because no big corporate entities have predominated, Irish sporting culture is sufficiently broad that it has been able to adapt to opportunities as they arise. Twenty years ago, anyone suggesting that their provincial rugby teams would garner attention and support that was anywhere close to that of Gaelic Athletic Association sports would have been laughed at. Yet when rugby turned professional, there was no shortage of youngsters possessed of the necessary skills.

Some in the Gaelic games community doubtless detest rugby's rise and those of us whose main interest is in the wider world of sport have long observed a similar isolationist attitude within a significant section of the Scottish football community. They should note that Irish rugby's rise has not been to the detriment of other sports, but has been part of a golden age of sport in their country.

Instead of seeking to preserve Rangers' status or that of Scottish football, the real challenge is encouraging our youngsters to participate, rather than merely support. In the long term that will be good for Scottish sport as a whole, good for Scottish football and maybe even good for the Old Firm.

Rangers' demise, as sad as it is, should be seen as an opportunity to get participation rather than just support in sport up

There are plenty of schools who dont play rugby . thats the starting and only way u will change the playing numbers and the quality.