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March 01, 2007

Glasgow players on the move

Posted by Editor on March 1, 2007 12:22 PM | 17 comments | Print | E-mail author

Rory Lamont is expected to leave Glasgow
Scottish Rugby today announced that two prominent Glasgow players are expected to accept offers from Guinness Premiership clubs in England and will not be with the Warriors next season.

Scotland and Warriors prop Euan Murray, who has seven Scotland caps and is coach Frank Hadden's current first choice Scotland tight head, is expected to join Northampton Saints next season.

Warriors utility back Rory Lamont, who won his sixth cap for Scotland when he came off the bench against England in the Calcutta Cup last month, is also talking to Guinness Premiership clubs, one of which is Sale Sharks. These moves follow last month's decision by Warriors hooker Scott Lawson to join Sale Sharks next season.

The news comes after several other professional players, mostly but not exclusively from Edinburgh Rugby, have accepted offers outside of Scotland for next season.

Whilst recognising it is inevitable there will always be player movement at this stage in any season, particularly in a World Cup year, Scottish Rugby also accepts that it finds it hard and sometimes impossible to compete against larger, more financially secure clubs in other northern hemisphere countries, who are better placed to meet players' overall expectations.

Scottish Rugby has endeavoured to make the most of its limited finances and facilities in today's professional game. However, despite many efforts to keep its talented players in Scotland, market forces dictate this is not a situation the governing body has sufficient powers to control.

Posted by ballinj on March 1, 2007 01:35 PM | Reply to this comment

hmmm not sure about this one.

Don't like to see either leave as have, both, been playing well. However some depth at full back and Moray Law would probably be 1st choice soon.

If that is the extent of the defections then could be worse. Still a shame to see either leaving.

Good luck to both

Posted by vicki on March 1, 2007 01:42 PM | Reply to this comment

Good luck to both players with their new clubs. Its always sad at this point in the season when people start to go, but totally understandable.

Posted by jenni b on March 1, 2007 01:44 PM | Reply to this comment

Very sad to see them go but fantastic for Euan and Rory to have an opportunity to play in the Premiership (although hope Frank Hadden manages to overcome his 'domestic players first' obsession and recognises that they can still make a huge contribution to the Scotland squad). Be interesting to see who Glasgow sign for the new season, two such talented players were never going to stay in Scotland forever but will be tough to replace! Good luck guys!!

Posted by hannah on March 1, 2007 02:44 PM | Reply to this comment

expected to leave? Thats horrible. Rory and Euan are great players and have a great Scotland future. What if the same thing happens to them that did to Sean Lamont, Jim Hamilton and Rory Lawson and they are not able to train with Scotland!

Posted by highlandbrave75 on March 1, 2007 03:36 PM | Reply to this comment

I don't think the SRU are worrying who's leaving to go South, until they can bleat about it in the national media about not being released for Scotland training stints saying the Guinness Premiership's evil & the SRU are the good guys, of course.

From what I hear this morning these players aren't the last we'll be seeing heading out the door at Glasgow. More to follow, at least another six or seven.

Just shows the gulf in contracting when the SRU sign a player on a three month deal yesterday but have refused to resturcture or se-sign players over the past three years.

Remember in May last year Gordon McKie told us all the contract situation was under control. The SRU were "moving forward and signing more players quicker" than they ever have in previous seasons.

Aye...Expect another "greedy player", "blame the agents", "not our fault" press release from Murrayfield Whisky Emporium within the next few days!

Posted by gailfoster on March 1, 2007 04:29 PM | Reply to this comment

Absolutely gutted that Euan is leaving - although I guess there is better rugby to be had out there. Hope to see him heading north again soon though.

Posted by hugh on March 1, 2007 04:10 PM | Reply to this comment

Over the history of rugby(amateur) and soccer the great Scottish sides were mostly well stocked with anglos its just the way of it
Rugby is now a professional sport and players are chasing the greenbacks-why blame them its a short career and the sooner the SRU spin machine realises that the better and stops issuing all this waffle
One of the great Scottish soccer triumphs(you will remember this Gordon) the Wembley Wizards when they beat England 5-1 just look at the composition of the team
Scotland
John Harkness (Queen's Park), James Nelson (Cardiff City), Thomas Law (Chelsea), Jimmy Gibson (Aston Villa), Thomas Bradshaw (Bury), Jimmy McMullan (Man City, capt), Alex Jackson (Huddersfield), James Dunn (Hibernian), Hughie Gallacher (Newcastle), Alec James (Preston), Alan Morton (Rangers)

Posted by pink*panther on March 1, 2007 04:43 PM | Reply to this comment

Good luck to them both. Cant help but be gutted

Posted by alan on March 1, 2007 07:16 PM | Reply to this comment

Both have been great for Glasgow. As Jenni says, we will be sad to see them go ..they have been great favourites with the fans, but they have to further their careers (and earn more money, nothing wrong with that). Good luck to them.. can't they just all go to the one GP club so I won't have to check all the results to see how they are doing? ;) ..if Rory joins Sean, I'm off to Franklin's Gardens for the weekends!

Posted by gnasher on March 1, 2007 07:19 PM | Reply to this comment

It may not be too much of a disaster for Scotland but it can't be healthy for professional rugby in Scotland. You can see the Scottish pro teams becoming development sides like Connaught and propping up the rest of the Magners League. Hardly a recipe for pulling in the crowds. Maybe we'll end up with Edinburgh and London Scottish!

Posted by highlandbrave75 on March 1, 2007 11:57 PM | Reply to this comment

What's more alarming is that the "poor man's province" Connacht are busy re-signing their players to new contracts and bringing in players for next season.

Posted by goose on March 1, 2007 07:47 PM | Reply to this comment

Agreed, it is a shame that Scottish talent is heading south. But can you blame them. They're trying to make a living, and the pro scene in Scotland is very amateur in it's dealings with their players. Not just in terms of the pay, but also P.R. I'm surprised, and respect, the players who are so loyal to remain in Scotland dispite the lack of professionalism in the buisness managament.
Furthermore, the Sru saying that they are doing everything in their financial power to keep players in Scotland is a blatent lie. I've heard cases where a player, in renewal of contract in Scotland, gat offered the same as thier initial signing three years ago. Talk about a slap in the the face. Then they're looking south and getting offered double what the SRU quoted them. When they return to the SRU with the counter quote, "somehow" they up thier bid by the 10's of thousands.
If they were doing everything they could to attract players, they wouldn't be trying to scheme players out of what they are clearly worth to save a few bucks for themselves.
You've got to support you families, lads. And it's a shame you can't do that in Scoltand.

Posted by gnasher on March 1, 2007 08:58 PM | Reply to this comment

I don't blame the players at all. It is a very physical game these days and their playing career is very short. But from what I read the SRU is not offering anything like a long term deal which could perhaps offset the big bucks down south.

Posted by alan on March 1, 2007 11:21 PM | Reply to this comment

Fair enough, does any one expect the SRU with a £23M OD to offer these terms? Anyone here got a better deal for these players?
Anyone? ... please...

Posted by highlandbrave75 on March 1, 2007 11:53 PM | Reply to this comment

We all know the problem with the £23 million and rising debt.

If the SRU had have thought about player contracts three years ago instead of virtually burning thousands of pounds into the Edinburgh air on light, sunny afternoon's at Scotland internationals then who knows?

The money the SRU wasted in that one instance could have paid for the contracts of a few players to remain in Scotland.

Posted by Hugues on March 2, 2007 01:03 AM | Reply to this comment

Players going south in the Guiness Premiership for more money=ok.
Players going south in the Guiness Premiership to becoming better players, not sure about that.
Example:
Northampton game V Biarritz, excuse me, but what a poor Rugby the English played.
Not sure about the "myth" that English Championship is the best league.
Irish Team guys play in the Magners League, and Ireland is the best Northern hemisphere team with France.
What i'm afraid is about Scottish players burnt out.

Is SRU the only factor?
Poor crowds, not a lot of private investment in pro Rugby in Scotland, Towns not involved in facilities, very hard to fight...

Posted by royc on March 2, 2007 04:49 PM | Reply to this comment

Well the main problem is we're trying to fund three teams when the budget is barely big enough for two. We will always be scraping to pay proper wages and failing to do any marketing until we bite the bullet and cut to two teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and spread the Borders' 1.5m cash between them. The SRU will waken up one of these days, but cripes are they slow taking things on board.

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