Our First Award of the New Season

Whilst attending the Glasgow North Regional Development Conference on Sunday, we got some exciting news, a Murrayfield official notified us that we are officially one of the "trouble-makers" within Scottish rugby.

We're not exactly sure what the criteria is for this Murrayfield classification, but whatever it is, we'll continue to strive to maintain our editorial balance in what we share and report.

We will attempt to avoid sharing personal opinions on things like "fewer, but stronger" whilst fulfilling the role of administrator / editor of this site, but we can't guarantee that sometimes our views on some of the stranger things coming out of Murrayfield will be aired.  

This site is our small attempt to fill a gap; to highlight what's happening across our grassroots game (the good stuff that's happening in our communities as well as some of the issues being faced on a daily basis), but sometimes we may be guilty of straying into the personal opinion side of things. 

If truth be told, what we are doing with the site is something which the Union with its vast array of resources should be doing, but their priority appears to be on selling tickets and generating revenue to keep the pro game alive, so the promotion of the grassroots Club game has been given a backseat on their website and social media channels.

Unfortunately, we are beginning to wonder if there are some people inside the Murrayfield tent who have more interest in the tailoring and catering arrangements than the very real issues which the grassroots game is having to face.

Now, straying into the personal for a few moments, I fear for the grassroots game in this country - Clubs are struggling, (how many will field a 2nd xv every weekend this season), youth fixtures are already being left unfulfilled whilst there are several 50 point to nil scorelines (even in the Shogun Conference), and despite the resources that have been injected, the Womens game too are seeing similar problems with unfulfilled fixtures and silly scorelines. 

Fulfillment rates in the schools conferences last season were poor (as low as 42% at Under 16 in the Barbarian Conference), so fingers crossed this improves in the coming year, but with the Conference already reduced from 10 to 8 schools, it's not off to a good start.

We don't need to look too far to find plenty of metrics which shows our game is in jeopardy (e.g. it's looking like in North Lanarkshire, the fourth largest local authority in Scotland, that no Club or school within the authority will be fielding an under 18s this season), but instead of making some sort of attempt to deal with what is obvious to many in Club land, some Murrayfield insiders would prefer to dish out "trouble-maker" badges.

Best wishes to all for the new season ahead.

Paul Justice

Editor
Weegie Rugby