I am no apologist for Gordon Bullochas I believe he is over-rated and not even the best hooker in Glasgow. What is more important is that disillusionment among senior players with the Scottish national team management is leading them to consider futures elsewhere. As some players undoubtedly play in Scotland principally to secure international recognition, that suggests departures fronm the Scottish scene as well as from the Scottish team. Do we want that?

Would it not be better to dump McGeechan, Williams, Anderson et al?

There is no doubt that the coaching issues need addressing.

It should be noted though that players who rule themselves out of international rugby will find it MUCH easier to gain contracts in the English Premiership. I really hope that this is not what is happening here.

The more players who move south, the more money there is in the kitty to pay off Williams and Co. Or is that too simplistic?

I posted on the forum about international retirements last week. Well that's one now come out in public and said so - another two to go.

Not sure I have much sympathy really... either they want to play for their country or they don't. To suggest they are going because they don't agree with the coach is wrong. I suspect it is all just a smokescreen to let them get away and pursue their careers and ambitions in England. There are young, keen guys who would have been brought in anyway, surely, after 6N. I am worried about certain players leaving Glasgow, though.

To be fair the retirees or those thinking about retiring haven't used the current SRU conflicts as any smokescreen, coaching disagreements or anything sinister.

They will still play in England and still be picked to play for Scotland....there is no "Fortress Scotland" in place with the SRU, it's in "name" only.

Hopefully, the retirees from international scene were going to retire anyway, having given many years of loyal service to the cause (talking of TS there). So what is there to keep any top pro at Glasgow now? ..and what does that do to the Celtic league if it is known that any player worth anything is off to the ZP?

From what I can gather quite a high percentage of the current Scottish playing staff are out of contract and are heading for the Zurich Premiership or over the Channel to France.

How does this fit in with the "Fortress Scotland" policy?

..and how does it fit with Grainger's declared intent of making the pro game more popular, letting our well known internationals go abroad? How does that attract Jo public to come along to Glasgow? ordinary folk won't come to see guys they have never heard of ..they might as well go to a club game! (Ha Ha)

Actually I wouldn't knock the club game!

The club game is running alot more smoothly than the pro game is at the moment. It's producing alot more young Scottish talent. The club game is run by a core of volunteer workers with no salaries, new major sponsorship deal with the leagues in club rugby, happy blend of players and coaches.

Now we flip the coin and look at the running of the pro game in Scotland....

Full highly paid entourage of faces running the show, high foreign player investment, low attendances (having to hand out free tickets), major sponsorship pulling out of deals, unhappy players, coaches.

Makes you wonder who's actually more of the laughing stock!

Agreed. Not knocking it. Not exactly ZP though! It's a pro game..good old days have gone..hence the reason our guys are off!Pro team above club with Jo public along by the thousands was the idea (LOL!)

So sad to see the mess in Scottish Rugby, after reading some newspaper.
It will be so hard to build a team for next world cup.
Some senior front players will leave, and back line is in construction, so very short to have "homogéneité".

Leaving aside if the good old days were actually that good unless you go back to the 1920s with 10,000 watching Accies play Heriots
there is simply not enough money to sustain professional rugby in Scotland without the SRU subsidy which of couse means that the rest of the sport has to go without

Do you advocate having no professional tier in Scotland below International level?

I do wonder if we can afford professional rugby teams in Scotland. Maybe our best players would then have to ply their trade in the ZP and in Europe, it may actually help them as they would be playing in better and more competitive leagues.

Ireland and Wales succeed to reach the top nations with their pro regions in the celtic league.
I don't know about the financial system between the 3 celtic nations.
Is Scotland so different?
Is it about the home union organisation?
Do you think there is a link with the money from attendancies, so more important indeed for Irish and wales pro sides games?

Don't know about Ireland, but in Wales there is a lot of pro rugby played below the regional level. The clubs in the Welsh premiership are quite well financed, because they get crowds, sponsorship etc. The difference is that rugby Wales is a major sport. It declined a bit during the bad years, but just watch it grow again if the current young national team continues to progress.

Don't worry that the Scottish pro teams will lose many players to the Zurich premiership in England - they're not good enough!

hugues.
The Welsh have greater income streams, but are still teetering under £70-80 Million in debt. This has still to come to roost.
The Irish have invested no money in Landsdowne and will spend very little in it's redevelopment in the way the SRU got into debt over Murrayfield. So they can spend their money on bringing players back, also they get a huge subsidy in personal tax relief for Sportsmen.

Actually, now I am becoming more convinced that we should look at becoming semi-pro. I simply don't think we can sustain the finances as they stand at the moment. I'd be interested to see if the Warriors supporters would pay more to watch the games than they do at the moment.

There was a time when I would have said that Bulloch was at the heart of the scotland team and was an amazing player, an asset to the scottish set-up, but he along witha few others just hasn't shown the form with which he had become associated. I'm pretty sure the scottish management and coaching team have realised that changes HAVE to happen and they are no doubt taking a long hard look at the current set-up.