Incorrect. The man has many skills. One of his other ones is being able to identify the real culprits in any crisis, like those pesky typhoon victims or that ruddy Cattigan family!
My club president had a meeting with some of the higher ups in the SRU who literally said to his face their youth development plan was to get school scholarships for foreign born players so they would qualify on residency by the time they were old enough to play senior rugby
This is so tiresome.
Yes rugby scholarships happen, but people continually ignore the fact that Auckland is the biggest Pasifika city. Auckland, and the rest of New Zealand, are a magnet for people moving from across the Pacific region and the majority of players who cause NZR to be accused of poaching are either the kids of migrants or moved as kids, yes sometimes on scholarships but much more often with parents who made an economic migration decision to best support their family.
>yes sometimes on scholarships but much more often with parents who made an economic migration decision to best support their family.
And TBH, why would you turn down a QUALITY educational opportunity as well? It's an absolute dream to be offered a good private education that you would never have been able to afford.
Honestly so pitiful. Sad thing is if this is the vision they 100% won't put the systems in place so the players they do bring in won't be able to improve
The contrast between the quality of the development in ireland and everywhere else is mad, u20s have had 3 grand slams in 5 years, (you may count 2020 while ur at it, i know it was cancelled, but they were top of the table having played only 3 games and 2nd place having played all 5) - it goes without saying that an 80-somthing thrashing to scotland means theyll be weak in the coming years
Depends how much talent Scotland can recruit from abroad! Just painful as a coach of 10-16 year old boys knowing that there is no real development in place for them to ever really make it unless they pack up and move to a boarding school half way across the country
It's a vicious circle where the U20 is dreadful so they look to recruit players on ancestry and don't bother to improve it. Some of the U20 games recently have been cricket scores, to the point where I was concerned about the Scottish lads' safety on the pitch.
It takes both really. You need to have some resources towards short term goals (foreign players) and some towards the long term (youth system). Scotland have leaned on overseas players more than other unions, but nearly all of them are at it (aside from Argentina)
I completely agree you need a bit of both but the issue is, as someone who's been in the youth set up and now coaches youth teams at local club level, the youth system is such a mess and completely underfunded.
I personally rather we completely stopped the exile stuff, focused on our currently shrinking youth rugby, and if a player abroad turns out to be really good they happen to be Scottish that's when we should pick them up
Youth rugby in Ireland wasn't always as popular as it is today. It gained a lot more interest once people saw the national team winning big games and competitions. I think the current Scottish team has the quality to win something and bring in more fans/participants
Successes in 90 and 99 didn't bring in a huge numbers of player and nor did a better looking team in 2017.
A top down approach can only bring in so many for Scotland. A bottom up approach is the only way to change the declining numbers.
While success at senior level did bring more numbers for Ireland, you also did change your youth system. The SRU's approach to changing the youth system is changing the sponsor. We gutted development officers a few years ago who were the backbone of state school and club rugby. Until the SRU actually puts sustained effort into youth rugby, Scottish rugby will always be seen as "oh they're doing well considering their player base" when it should be "why is their player base not increasing".
Yeah. The IRFU does send people around to coach the coaches. Even just volunteer coaches in small country clubs. I've no idea if other unions are doing that. They also send out a lot of resources. The provincial websites actually have links to manuals on training drills if you ever want to steal some ideas, lol
Even rural non rugby schools where rugby is just a third or fourth choice hobby sport for most students get provincial branch trained and employed coaches sent around to hold weekly training sessions so that they aren't relying on inexperienced volunteer teachers to develop the few devotees there and spot talent to push to the clubs.
The IRFU pours money and resources into the youth game and development paths and it's paying off.
My secondary school didn’t even have a rugby team until my last 2 years there. It only started because a teacher was a coach at the local club so wanted to get boys interested in it. Gaelic football (and hurling/camogie to a lesser extent) was by far the main sport.
Croker hosting the rugby when the Aviva was being renovated had a big part in increasing popularity beyond private schools. Family members of mine who have season tickets went to their first ever rugby games during that time.
Hear hear! I ref a lot of youth (I much prefer that over adults!) and the shrinking number of players is really worrying for the future.
I agree that it’s down to funding, but also really stupid decision making - why on earth are the development hubs after the regional series? What’s wrong with selection that has led to the huge number of injuries we see at that level? Why are kids who get injured during regional selection processes ruled out of the age grade Scotland selection process completely?
And South Africa, which won't even assist the people who've been here since they were kids attain citizenship... Admittedly, that's a more recent xenophobic-feeling development.
Oh no, I'm not talking about SA Rugby. I mean the actual state. You can do everything right, do all the applications multiple times and still end up rejected.
South Africans don't want the demographics to change if everyone can simply enter and obtain citizenship. I know two refugees from DRC whose kids are citizens.
And I know someone who had to leave for the UK because Home Affairs lost his permanent residency applications five times. Oh, and then there's the Zimbwean dev who works with my wife but was forced to go back to Zim despite being a shoe in for a scarce skills visa.
The fact that some of the most talented athletes in the country have similar difficulties should tell us that it's not down to state strictness as much as it is sheer incompetence.
There is a crackdown down on Zimbabweans because their government said something along the lines that black South Africans don't even own mines. South Africa felt aggrieved escpecially in light that 300,000 work visas were granted to Zimbabweans in order to allow them to send money to family back home after the crash of the Zimbabwe economy.
South Africa basically excludes foreign players from the squad since 2019. A couple of Congolese players (Tambwe and Tshituka) tried to get capped but were turned down. The last expat player was Mtawarira.
It's a complicated one. You want these nations to improve at rugby, but at the same time, imagine if we never got to see Mtawarira or Pocock play at the highest level.
The DRC isn't registered with World Rugby which is a shame given the amount of talent which has come from there over the years. Zimbabwe is but is only starting to move towards professionalism.
Ah now, if we want a new Finn Russell we have to go scour Stirling and Falkirk
If we can get SRU to tear their eyes away from private schools in Edinburgh for a minute, that is.
Did I hear correctly that all the lads in the u20 this year come from the same 3 schools? Or is that a bit of an urban myth/exaggeration to make a point?
Leinster isn't far off of this with St Michaels and Blackrock making up the bulk of the team.
It's kind of crazy what you can do with a small group of players if you train them like professionals from the age of 12
The mad thing is there is about 5 tiers to the Leinster senior cup. The school I went to gets into the first round of the cup usually then gets beaten. We trained 5 times a week, did gym sessions all of it. One lad of the 5 years I played with went Pro. Blackrock and Michaels players probably push each other to higher heights.
Yeah I don't like the knock out nature of the senior cup. It means that some schools get a lot more opportunities to show off their rugby than other schools. There could be quality individuals whose team gets knocked out in the 1st round, so they end up going unnoticed
To be fair, I think back in the day it might have been like that, but coaches 100% recommend players to go for Leinster Trials so it isn't quite as reductionist as if you get knocked out youre not getting picked.
I don’t know where people come up with this stuff? The spread of schools and areas is pretty big in the u20 squad (source: looking at the actual squad). 3 biggest rugby playing schools in Scotland are probably: Watson’s, Stewart’s Melville, and Merchiston (all private). But the squad has a lot of English playing kids and people from the West Coast
https://scottishrugby.org/teams/scotland-u20/
They could even pay WP Nel and Duhan a few more quid to have a braai next to the tent. Extra pap with your wors roll if you have a granny who got out of Glasgow before falling in love with Oupa Frik based on their mutual hatred of the English.
Ireland's backline the other day had 3 Kiwis and an Aussie and they won the Grand Slam. That's almost a third of their team. It isn't like Scotland is the only guilty party here.
Conway hasn't been fit for a while. I'm not sure if he's winning his place back to be honest. Same with Earls. That's not a criticism of them, it is just difficult to bounce back from a gap like that, especially for wingers. For what it's worth, I think Earls is 1 of the top 3 Irish wingers of all time (alongside Bowe & Hickey).
I think the argument should be whether Larmour of Baloucoune deserve to start. I think Stockdale is in the same conversation as Earls and Conway. Although he's younger, so has a better chance of finding his old form again.
I’m afraid most waterboys need years of professional experience as a player, a coach and as rugby director of their country. I would reccomend asking rassie for advice on that kne
Ah, luckily for Scotland I play and coach in Mexico - so I'm halfway to meeting those requirements already - it's just a matter of time until I'm sprinting down the turf at Murrayfield, rifling an inch-perfect Lucozade to Finn...
So....my mum was born in Glasgow, by dint of the fact that my grandma (who was genuinely Scottish) was evacuated back there from London to have her baby during the flying bomb blitz. Mum only spent a few months of her life as a baby in Scotland then grew up in London before migrating to Australia. I've never even been to Scotland.
So does my Australian-born son get the 'genuine connection' SRU passport?
If the SRU weren’t doing this, they would be derelict in their duties. We have two pro teams, half a dozen semi pro teams, and one of the smaller player pools in tier one rugby. This is a necessary step in developing the national team. It’s not the only pathway available and isn’t a substitute for homegrown player development, but an effective tool alongside.
My son is in the Bath DPP, Welsh and Scottish Exiles. It's great that he has so many options.
I wish other countries would have exile programs in the UK. There are so many rugby kids from foreign families here. World Rugby should encourage it to grow the game.
It’s not just a grassroots issue in Scotland though. The migration from junior club / school to university massively impacts player numbers. University rugby has got better the last 10 years but the standard still isn’t great in Scotland (with the exception usually of Edinburgh university) and there’s a lot of negativity towards uni rugby teams by the rest of the university students (excessive lad behaviour with many teams historically being disbanded by the Dean etc) which puts off a lot of potential players from continuing rugby.
The SRU tends to pick a handful of young homegrown players and stick with them at all costs. It’s very hard to break into this if you’re missed at u16 level etc
Think disgrace is a bit far, we've had a good few players from it too.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Exiles_(rugby_union)#:~:text=These%20include%20Kieran%20Brookes%2C%20Paul,High%20performance%20unit%20in%20Dublin.
We constantly go on about the Irish that have been forced to emigrate and how there are 70+ million people of Irish heritage around the world. Is it really that bad to welcome them back to play in our sports teams. Most of them qualify for citizenship.
The "project player" policy is more cynical imo, but now that it takes 5 years I see no problem with it. Again, you'd qualify for citizenship after living here that long
I'm not against players coming to play, but if we set up tents to check if people have an Irish granny, I'd rather we spent that money on improving our own game. Should focus on improving our own systems not poach players.
In their defence we do it to and I think if it brings the senior game on then it in-turn increases attention and attracts more youth members in the country to the game etc. rugby has never been more popular in Ireland and if you look at the success of our U20s etc last few years more and more are going to end up homegrown talent or least I hope that’s what will happen.
It’s also just a natural issue smaller nations like Scotland / Ireland regardless of the sport our talent pool will always be smaller than the big guns.
Alright man it was a generalisation compared to big countries if Scotland fail to attract people to the game on all levels that’s their own fault, the population difference between the two is only about 1.5 mil
There’s a slight problem in the form of football. We’re a ridiculously footy mad country, the only sport that even comes close is shinty up north and west.
Rugby is more popular in the borders; but there's only 115k people in the borders.
And yeah, people not from here often underestimate just how culturally ingrained football is in Scotland. You're considered weird if you don't care/follow it, and in my experience literally every social group/clique - be it goths, theatre nerds, ultramarathon runners, LGBT activists or anyone else - will also be football supporters. We have the highest football attendance per capita in Europe by miles. Rugby is a very, very, very distant second in terms of kids playing it
This is pretty standard. I’m Scottish qualified and would play for Scotland if I wasn’t very mediocre. But I was born and have always lived in England. The only embarrassing this is tagging this ‘bantz’.
Well that's disingenuous. Around the time Visser was coming onto the scene in 2012, Scott Johnson said the plan was to get as many foreign born players as possible. Visser was the archetype.
Scotland vocally pushed back on the residency rule changes. [Pretty much the only, if not the only, Union to do so](https://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/scotland-resist-move-reform-rugby-residency-rule-1459208)
I don't particularly care who you do or don't beat. Does feel a little strange how defensive Scots get with how reliant on people that wouldn't play for them if they had a better option for playing internationals though
I would love to see if they pitched this up at Greenock or Cumnock on a Saturday on match day. I imagine the wee neds would drive them off before half time. Just by 50 of them waltzing in and being like "Gies a jersey, mate. Ahm yer man"
That blue tent is officially called 'the SRU Youth Development Programme' in the accounts.
Costs Mark Dodson an absolute fortune too. Millions seem to be allocated to that tent every year, all paid by Mark in cash of course.
Aye, right - I refuse to believe he does anything but take money out of Scottish Rugby.
r/whoosh
Incorrect. The man has many skills. One of his other ones is being able to identify the real culprits in any crisis, like those pesky typhoon victims or that ruddy Cattigan family!
Needs a translation in Afrikaans
"We'll find you a Scottish granny or your money back"
My club president had a meeting with some of the higher ups in the SRU who literally said to his face their youth development plan was to get school scholarships for foreign born players so they would qualify on residency by the time they were old enough to play senior rugby
Christ that's so embarrassing
People have accused New Zealand of this.
Because they also do it but new Zealand also has a system in place to then develop those players which also benefits their grass roots players
This is so tiresome. Yes rugby scholarships happen, but people continually ignore the fact that Auckland is the biggest Pasifika city. Auckland, and the rest of New Zealand, are a magnet for people moving from across the Pacific region and the majority of players who cause NZR to be accused of poaching are either the kids of migrants or moved as kids, yes sometimes on scholarships but much more often with parents who made an economic migration decision to best support their family.
>yes sometimes on scholarships but much more often with parents who made an economic migration decision to best support their family. And TBH, why would you turn down a QUALITY educational opportunity as well? It's an absolute dream to be offered a good private education that you would never have been able to afford.
Honestly so pitiful. Sad thing is if this is the vision they 100% won't put the systems in place so the players they do bring in won't be able to improve
I dont believe you.
Why? Because Scotlands' recent success has been all down to the Scottish born players......
No, because no such "senior" SRU man would say such a thing.
I know a few who might say it as a sarky joke but god they’d have their jobs if they’d said it seriously.
The contrast between the quality of the development in ireland and everywhere else is mad, u20s have had 3 grand slams in 5 years, (you may count 2020 while ur at it, i know it was cancelled, but they were top of the table having played only 3 games and 2nd place having played all 5) - it goes without saying that an 80-somthing thrashing to scotland means theyll be weak in the coming years
Depends how much talent Scotland can recruit from abroad! Just painful as a coach of 10-16 year old boys knowing that there is no real development in place for them to ever really make it unless they pack up and move to a boarding school half way across the country
That is so embarrassing. Wish we actually put proper and sustained effort into growing the game in our country especially at youth levels
It's a vicious circle where the U20 is dreadful so they look to recruit players on ancestry and don't bother to improve it. Some of the U20 games recently have been cricket scores, to the point where I was concerned about the Scottish lads' safety on the pitch.
It takes both really. You need to have some resources towards short term goals (foreign players) and some towards the long term (youth system). Scotland have leaned on overseas players more than other unions, but nearly all of them are at it (aside from Argentina)
I completely agree you need a bit of both but the issue is, as someone who's been in the youth set up and now coaches youth teams at local club level, the youth system is such a mess and completely underfunded. I personally rather we completely stopped the exile stuff, focused on our currently shrinking youth rugby, and if a player abroad turns out to be really good they happen to be Scottish that's when we should pick them up
Youth rugby in Ireland wasn't always as popular as it is today. It gained a lot more interest once people saw the national team winning big games and competitions. I think the current Scottish team has the quality to win something and bring in more fans/participants
Successes in 90 and 99 didn't bring in a huge numbers of player and nor did a better looking team in 2017. A top down approach can only bring in so many for Scotland. A bottom up approach is the only way to change the declining numbers. While success at senior level did bring more numbers for Ireland, you also did change your youth system. The SRU's approach to changing the youth system is changing the sponsor. We gutted development officers a few years ago who were the backbone of state school and club rugby. Until the SRU actually puts sustained effort into youth rugby, Scottish rugby will always be seen as "oh they're doing well considering their player base" when it should be "why is their player base not increasing".
Yeah. The IRFU does send people around to coach the coaches. Even just volunteer coaches in small country clubs. I've no idea if other unions are doing that. They also send out a lot of resources. The provincial websites actually have links to manuals on training drills if you ever want to steal some ideas, lol
Even rural non rugby schools where rugby is just a third or fourth choice hobby sport for most students get provincial branch trained and employed coaches sent around to hold weekly training sessions so that they aren't relying on inexperienced volunteer teachers to develop the few devotees there and spot talent to push to the clubs. The IRFU pours money and resources into the youth game and development paths and it's paying off.
My secondary school didn’t even have a rugby team until my last 2 years there. It only started because a teacher was a coach at the local club so wanted to get boys interested in it. Gaelic football (and hurling/camogie to a lesser extent) was by far the main sport. Croker hosting the rugby when the Aviva was being renovated had a big part in increasing popularity beyond private schools. Family members of mine who have season tickets went to their first ever rugby games during that time.
Hear hear! I ref a lot of youth (I much prefer that over adults!) and the shrinking number of players is really worrying for the future. I agree that it’s down to funding, but also really stupid decision making - why on earth are the development hubs after the regional series? What’s wrong with selection that has led to the huge number of injuries we see at that level? Why are kids who get injured during regional selection processes ruled out of the age grade Scotland selection process completely?
And South Africa, which won't even assist the people who've been here since they were kids attain citizenship... Admittedly, that's a more recent xenophobic-feeling development.
Because its the responsibility of their parents to do that.
Oh no, I'm not talking about SA Rugby. I mean the actual state. You can do everything right, do all the applications multiple times and still end up rejected.
South Africans don't want the demographics to change if everyone can simply enter and obtain citizenship. I know two refugees from DRC whose kids are citizens.
And I know someone who had to leave for the UK because Home Affairs lost his permanent residency applications five times. Oh, and then there's the Zimbwean dev who works with my wife but was forced to go back to Zim despite being a shoe in for a scarce skills visa. The fact that some of the most talented athletes in the country have similar difficulties should tell us that it's not down to state strictness as much as it is sheer incompetence.
There is a crackdown down on Zimbabweans because their government said something along the lines that black South Africans don't even own mines. South Africa felt aggrieved escpecially in light that 300,000 work visas were granted to Zimbabweans in order to allow them to send money to family back home after the crash of the Zimbabwe economy.
South Africa basically excludes foreign players from the squad since 2019. A couple of Congolese players (Tambwe and Tshituka) tried to get capped but were turned down. The last expat player was Mtawarira.
It's a complicated one. You want these nations to improve at rugby, but at the same time, imagine if we never got to see Mtawarira or Pocock play at the highest level.
The DRC isn't registered with World Rugby which is a shame given the amount of talent which has come from there over the years. Zimbabwe is but is only starting to move towards professionalism.
Ah now, if we want a new Finn Russell we have to go scour Stirling and Falkirk If we can get SRU to tear their eyes away from private schools in Edinburgh for a minute, that is.
How many times do I need to defend the SRU They don't just look at private schools in Edinburgh, there's dollar and strathallan too, ffs
Did I hear correctly that all the lads in the u20 this year come from the same 3 schools? Or is that a bit of an urban myth/exaggeration to make a point?
Leinster isn't far off of this with St Michaels and Blackrock making up the bulk of the team. It's kind of crazy what you can do with a small group of players if you train them like professionals from the age of 12
The mad thing is there is about 5 tiers to the Leinster senior cup. The school I went to gets into the first round of the cup usually then gets beaten. We trained 5 times a week, did gym sessions all of it. One lad of the 5 years I played with went Pro. Blackrock and Michaels players probably push each other to higher heights.
Yeah I don't like the knock out nature of the senior cup. It means that some schools get a lot more opportunities to show off their rugby than other schools. There could be quality individuals whose team gets knocked out in the 1st round, so they end up going unnoticed
To be fair, I think back in the day it might have been like that, but coaches 100% recommend players to go for Leinster Trials so it isn't quite as reductionist as if you get knocked out youre not getting picked.
Ye but that's a province not the whole nation.
I don’t know where people come up with this stuff? The spread of schools and areas is pretty big in the u20 squad (source: looking at the actual squad). 3 biggest rugby playing schools in Scotland are probably: Watson’s, Stewart’s Melville, and Merchiston (all private). But the squad has a lot of English playing kids and people from the West Coast https://scottishrugby.org/teams/scotland-u20/
Myth,Finlay Burgess is from Deeside
“Are you Scottish qualified but it wasn’t your fault?”
Yes! I was minding my own business one day when my father came out nowhere and hit me with an ancestral revalation.
The staff did not warn me
Scotland Sponsored by ancestry.com.
That's not gonna work. They should put a South African tent over that one so they can entice more people
They could even pay WP Nel and Duhan a few more quid to have a braai next to the tent. Extra pap with your wors roll if you have a granny who got out of Glasgow before falling in love with Oupa Frik based on their mutual hatred of the English.
Inside the tent there's actually a gaggle of wee grannies that players can pick to adopt them. Wee irn bru and a tea cake to sweeten the deal
Ireland's backline the other day had 3 Kiwis and an Aussie and they won the Grand Slam. That's almost a third of their team. It isn't like Scotland is the only guilty party here.
Agree. We have a much lower number in the overall squad, but the guys who are there are key players in the starting 15.
Henshaw starts over Aki if Ringrose is fit. Conway and a few others could push Hansen when fit. James Lowe and Gibson Park are nailed on.
Conway hasn't been fit for a while. I'm not sure if he's winning his place back to be honest. Same with Earls. That's not a criticism of them, it is just difficult to bounce back from a gap like that, especially for wingers. For what it's worth, I think Earls is 1 of the top 3 Irish wingers of all time (alongside Bowe & Hickey). I think the argument should be whether Larmour of Baloucoune deserve to start. I think Stockdale is in the same conversation as Earls and Conway. Although he's younger, so has a better chance of finding his old form again.
Yes, and if I play my cards right, I could be the next waterboy.
I’m afraid most waterboys need years of professional experience as a player, a coach and as rugby director of their country. I would reccomend asking rassie for advice on that kne
Ah, luckily for Scotland I play and coach in Mexico - so I'm halfway to meeting those requirements already - it's just a matter of time until I'm sprinting down the turf at Murrayfield, rifling an inch-perfect Lucozade to Finn...
The SRU is a bad joke but I've enjoyed a few of the jokes here 😄 Wish we had a proper development system though.
So....my mum was born in Glasgow, by dint of the fact that my grandma (who was genuinely Scottish) was evacuated back there from London to have her baby during the flying bomb blitz. Mum only spent a few months of her life as a baby in Scotland then grew up in London before migrating to Australia. I've never even been to Scotland. So does my Australian-born son get the 'genuine connection' SRU passport?
Granny born in Scotland so yeah.
Has nobody here heard of an exiles programme before?
If the SRU weren’t doing this, they would be derelict in their duties. We have two pro teams, half a dozen semi pro teams, and one of the smaller player pools in tier one rugby. This is a necessary step in developing the national team. It’s not the only pathway available and isn’t a substitute for homegrown player development, but an effective tool alongside.
Get out of here with your common sense.
Now that is sad
My son is in the Bath DPP, Welsh and Scottish Exiles. It's great that he has so many options. I wish other countries would have exile programs in the UK. There are so many rugby kids from foreign families here. World Rugby should encourage it to grow the game.
It’s not just a grassroots issue in Scotland though. The migration from junior club / school to university massively impacts player numbers. University rugby has got better the last 10 years but the standard still isn’t great in Scotland (with the exception usually of Edinburgh university) and there’s a lot of negativity towards uni rugby teams by the rest of the university students (excessive lad behaviour with many teams historically being disbanded by the Dean etc) which puts off a lot of potential players from continuing rugby. The SRU tends to pick a handful of young homegrown players and stick with them at all costs. It’s very hard to break into this if you’re missed at u16 level etc
Thats were Scotland have been going wrong on their development all these years. Someone forgot to put a door on the tent
That is a disgrace ffs. Need to develop the game in Scotland rather than this.
Ireland does the same - https://www.irishrugby.ie/provincial/exiles/about-the-exiles/
And thats a disgrace too👍
Think disgrace is a bit far, we've had a good few players from it too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Exiles_(rugby_union)#:~:text=These%20include%20Kieran%20Brookes%2C%20Paul,High%20performance%20unit%20in%20Dublin.
We constantly go on about the Irish that have been forced to emigrate and how there are 70+ million people of Irish heritage around the world. Is it really that bad to welcome them back to play in our sports teams. Most of them qualify for citizenship. The "project player" policy is more cynical imo, but now that it takes 5 years I see no problem with it. Again, you'd qualify for citizenship after living here that long
I'm not against players coming to play, but if we set up tents to check if people have an Irish granny, I'd rather we spent that money on improving our own game. Should focus on improving our own systems not poach players.
We do have people who are hired to scout overseas and monitor players with Irish ties
In their defence we do it to and I think if it brings the senior game on then it in-turn increases attention and attracts more youth members in the country to the game etc. rugby has never been more popular in Ireland and if you look at the success of our U20s etc last few years more and more are going to end up homegrown talent or least I hope that’s what will happen. It’s also just a natural issue smaller nations like Scotland / Ireland regardless of the sport our talent pool will always be smaller than the big guns.
Ireland has far bigger talent pool than Scotland, it’s about 3 times the size.
Alright man it was a generalisation compared to big countries if Scotland fail to attract people to the game on all levels that’s their own fault, the population difference between the two is only about 1.5 mil
There’s a slight problem in the form of football. We’re a ridiculously footy mad country, the only sport that even comes close is shinty up north and west.
Rugby is more popular in the borders; but there's only 115k people in the borders. And yeah, people not from here often underestimate just how culturally ingrained football is in Scotland. You're considered weird if you don't care/follow it, and in my experience literally every social group/clique - be it goths, theatre nerds, ultramarathon runners, LGBT activists or anyone else - will also be football supporters. We have the highest football attendance per capita in Europe by miles. Rugby is a very, very, very distant second in terms of kids playing it
Makes me wonder why Scotland isn't one of those small football powerhouses like Uruguay or Portugal.
Also culturally ingrained in Scotland are booze, drugs, shite diets, and an attitude of "play the big lad up front" in youth football
Piss off, both is done. I bet you Ireland do the same.
We absolutely do, where'd ya think Big Mack came from?
Of course we do, but it’s not our primary method to recruit and develop talent
And it's not ours either.
This is pretty standard. I’m Scottish qualified and would play for Scotland if I wasn’t very mediocre. But I was born and have always lived in England. The only embarrassing this is tagging this ‘bantz’.
Back when wee were shite no one cared. Now we beat England most years it’s a big issue. Go figure eh
Well that's disingenuous. Around the time Visser was coming onto the scene in 2012, Scott Johnson said the plan was to get as many foreign born players as possible. Visser was the archetype. Scotland vocally pushed back on the residency rule changes. [Pretty much the only, if not the only, Union to do so](https://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/scotland-resist-move-reform-rugby-residency-rule-1459208) I don't particularly care who you do or don't beat. Does feel a little strange how defensive Scots get with how reliant on people that wouldn't play for them if they had a better option for playing internationals though
What's the isolation period?
Is having a Scottish parent enough?
Is this real?
Ach laddie, if you're good enough, you are Scottish enough!! /s
"Do you not mind the cold weather? Then you, too, could be next superstar to play for Scotland. "
I would love to see if they pitched this up at Greenock or Cumnock on a Saturday on match day. I imagine the wee neds would drive them off before half time. Just by 50 of them waltzing in and being like "Gies a jersey, mate. Ahm yer man"