Safeguarding the next generation

Scotland have announced their latest Elite Development Player roster for the coming season - good to see a mix of ages, and different focuses depending on player needs: Elite Development group & Full list

What's most pleasing is that reading these reports, it sounds like some serious thought has gone into these selections and these programs, and that at early ages they are identifying talent from a variety of backgrounds (yes, the regional academy list has a fair few from the usual sources - Edinburgh Academy, Stew Mel, GW, WSIS etc - but there's a couple of lesser known institutions that gives me hope that the net was cast sufficiently wide).

This is the right system. Young players getting quick access to the top professional players in the country, and yet getting regular rugby at the same time. As an example, just think of the schooling young McAlpine will get at Glasgow training with Gray, Kellock and Harley. As regards the Regional Academy, the incentive is there for them to step up, and, as pointed out, top talent last year made that transition and proved it was possible.

I'm also pleased that they're going to use the 7's properly as a development tool. If we're going to continue funding it, it has to serve more of a purpose than it has in recent years. The Kiwis use it to great effect, we should attempt to do the same.

Very impressed.

As,
Certainly a nice step in the right direction: Identify the young kids early enough and give them the right development opportunities. Using 7s strategically, to me is absolutely the right thing to do, as well. Good luck to them and congrats to the SRU. Thanks for sharing the article.

Looking to the future, if more young kids start coming through, where will they all play their top Rugby? Sorry for appearing to rain on this good news. Not my intent at all. But I have already jumped to the obvious next step. And this is very encouraging.


Do you think this one new step amongst many to rebuild Scottish Rugby? Or is this a one-off? Better put, do they seem to be looking forward more

doctor_grey wrote:
Looking to the future, if more young kids start coming through, where will they all play their top Rugby? Sorry for appearing to rain on this good news. Not my intent at all. But I have already jumped to the obvious next step. And this is very encouraging.

Good morning, the good doctor, doesn't at all feel like you are raining on the parade It's a good question, and would certainly be a lovely problem for Scottish rugby to have. The obvious answer is to recreate a third district side, either in the south (Borders) or for the north and midlands - hopefully by the time we need it, the finances will be in place to sustain it.

doctor_grey wrote:Do you think this one new step amongst many to rebuild Scottish Rugby? Or is this a one-off? Better put, do they seem to be looking forward more

I truly hope that this is just one of the first small steps of many, coming off the back of the decisions taken at last week's AGM: https://www.606v2.com/t7983-things-are-looking-brighter - it does seem that an impetus is developing to make some real progress

"Looking to the future, if more young kids start coming through, where will they all play their top Rugby?"


1. Edinburgh or Glasgow now. Both currently have vacancies in their squads in a number of positions. Weir and Hogg will certainly be prominent for Glasgow this year, as will Gilchrist at Edinburgh.

2. Edinburgh or Glasgow once, as happens each year, several established international players (or even potential internationals) leave for more lucrative shores. Look at what happened to Harley last year. Once minute he's cleaning Brown's boots, and the next he's starting for Glasgow and in the WC training squad.

3. Clermont's academy. Seriously though, there are opportunities out there for top talent outside of Scotland, and perhaps sadly, we can't stop young players being lured to such opportunities. Several of our young prospect are already tied to Premiership clubs (e.g. Hamish Watson), and whilst obviously it would be nice for the talent to play in Scotland (e.g. Richie Gray), young players (like Ansbro and Grove) will emerge from outside the Scottish system.

If your point was "we need a 3rd region", we're a long way from that. Edinburgh and Glasgow have threadbare squads. Currently I'm not sure Glasgow will have the full compliment of 23 players during the WC, and will certainly struggle in the forwards. Until top talent starts falling out of the game, and there have been very few instances of that that I'm aware of (Alex Blair being the prime example but you can't legislate for stupidity), then focusing our funds in the way we currently are seems sensible to me.

Fantastic. That's exactly what I was hoping you would say! Absolutely think Scotland need a third side. Hopefully this time with a sound business plan, a nice place to play, and ideas how to bring people back to watch Rugby. Also encouraging younger players to stay at home.

Interestingly enough, young Bennett is by no means the first tho, FES: Fraser Gillies

That is interesting - never heard of him! I wonder how he's getting on there. On Google I found his blogspot from 2010 but it doesn't look like it's taken off. I wonder if he influenced Bennett.

It sounded like his move was in response to being snubbed by the Scottish system (not the case with Bennett), in which case very much fair play to the guy for going out there and finding an alternative. Hopefully he'll emerge a class player, and not opt to play for France on residency grounds!

Think he's back in Scotland at uni somewhere - played for the U20s in the 6Ns this year, when Weir was injured or with the Warriors

funnyExiledScot,
Understand your points about player limitations now. And you make a good point about the RWC stretching team rosters to the lmit. But I think if the SRU is finally investing in developing players, now would be the time to start planning for a third team. Not needed today, but hopefully in the next few years. And it will take at least a year, or more, just to plan it properly, so it can be put together in a sound manner, and on firm financial footings.

I've no issues with planning for it. If it's financially sound I'm completely in favour. At the moment however we're struggling to sustain two teams, so I think it's not realistic in the near future.

Does the SRU have anything in place for looking for Scottish qualified talent abroad? E.g Hamish Watson qualifies via grandparents. Would he have had to go to the SRU or would they go looking for him? It's a pretty good way of widening the player pool without 'paying' for it with an additional club. The player number registered with the SRU may be low but they'll be a lot of Scottish players (of one degree or another) playing under the RFU in England.

I don't know if there's anyting formal, but we've been doing it for decades!

HammerofThunor wrote:Does the SRU have anything in place for looking for Scottish qualified talent abroad? E.g Hamish Watson qualifies via grandparents. Would he have had to go to the SRU or would they go looking for him? It's a pretty good way of widening the player pool without 'paying' for it with an additional club. The player number registered with the SRU may be low but they'll be a lot of Scottish players (of one degree or another) playing under the RFU in England.

Thunor, it's presently an informal system and seems likely to stay that way for the time being, but the recent return of an Exiles representative in the SRU should help a good deal in bringing identified talent to the attention of the powers that be: Exiles rep

Yes, all in favour of the Exiles Rep. Historically we've had some key players come from exile backgrounds, and currently it's no different.

I'm not sure whether Ryan Lamb would have considered playing for Scotland, but we'd certainly have welcomed him.

I think casting the net wide will reap rewards.

Scottish Rugby is not in a strong enough position to ignore talented players from all clubs. From my playing days it was always talked about that if you played for a team like Stirling County or one of the Borders Teams you would have a much better chance of getting noticed (even at a young age).

It seems with our limited playing pool, we might be able to get some rough nuggets and mould them into rugby gold.

i have absolutly no problem either with a large ammount of Exiles, I would rather our talented youngsters could go out and play top level rugby week in week out.

A great example of this is the U20 RWC. The England side we played against was full of seasoned pro's even at such a young age who all to some degree had exposure to the Premiership.

By all means let the other unions pick up the tab for taining our youngsters! Just as long as they know where their loyalties lie