THE WIND blows and the snow snows and once again

Scottish club rugby is facing a mountain of cancelled fixtures

and a season extending into late April or May, well beyond

the mid-March target date set by the clubs last year.

 

reasons, from icy roads to hard or waterlogged pitches.

Summer season

While the SRU’s Championship Committee wrestles with innumerable and unlikely ways to

resolve the fixture backlog, a more level-headed observer might think that it’s time for a

decisive move to a better-weather season.  That indeed is the basis of a new proposal

from FOSRS, the Forum of Scottish Rugby Supporters.

The organisation calls for the club season to start in March and run until mid-November,

with a mid-season summer holiday break in August.  The winter months would be given

over to international and cross-border matches.

Free run

One of the obvious advantages is that the domestic game would suddenly take on a more

attractive and practical shape. Instead of the leagues being interrupted by a dozen

international, cross-border, Cup and standby games, the clubs would have a free,

uninterrupted run for their fixtures calendar.

It is an arrangement that should be welcomed with open arms by SRU and clubs alike.

Without competing club matches over the winter months, the SRU could look forward to

some improvemment in attendance at Murrayfield internationals and Pro team sorties. All

clubs would enjoy a shorter season, due to the need for fewer standby dates. And the

Premier clubs would be particularly pleased to have their age grade internationals and IRB

7s players available for almost the full league season.

International bonanza

For the supporter, the move would offer a particularly welcome solution. If not quite beer

and barbeque Saturdays, the amateur end of the game could expect to gain a new,

sunnier lease of life and a welcome income boost. The club season would be followed by

a 19-week bonanza of top-flight international rugby at the better, more weather-proof

stadiums from mid-November to mid March. As well as the Autumn Internationals and

6 Nations, fans would have an attractive menu of 10 Magners League and Heineken

Cup matches, the Clubs International clashes and the pool stages of the new British &

Irish Cup.

There would even be a 6-week window for the return of an Inter-District championship,

a traditional shopwindow for club players in the past, which clubs in the Borders and

Caledonia are keen to see reintroduced.

Technical skills

A switch to better-weather rugby has been called for by many coaches, including Grand

Slam architect Jim Telfer. They have long argued that training and playing on muddy

pitches in inclement weather does not lend itself to developing the technical or attacking

skills that Scottish teams need to compete.

There are of course arguments against a season change. The ground can be harder in

summer and risk injury, a number of clubs lose the use of school playing fields and some

players depart for the delights of cricket, athletics and other summer sports.

However, FOSRS does not view these as major obstacles. Clubs already play into April

and May and start pre-season training and friendly games in August. The new season

would only require the addition of June and July to the club calendar. Pitches can be

watered for the brief period of a Scottish summer and players and school pitches are

already lost after Easter, without any particular impact on the league season, as clubs

generally have alternative options in place.

10-team leagues

One side-effect of the change would be to encourage 10-team rather than 12-team leagues, in order to fit

club fixtures comfortably within the new season. The SRU has reportedly been looking at a variant of this,

splitting 12-teams into two pools at mid season and playing a reduced total of 16 rather than 22 league

fixtures.

Either way, the Scottish season could change markedly for the better and encourage more players,