There was a time when Borders rugby ruled the roost. Men’s matches between the likes of Hawick and Gala, Melrose and Selkirk, used to draw big crowds.
Any good Scotland team would include lots of Borderers. The 1984 Grand Slam winning one had eight of them from Borders clubs. Peter Dods (Gala), Roger Baird (Kelso), Keith Robertson (Melrose), John Rutherford (Selkirk), Roy Laidlaw (Jed-Forest) Jim Aitken (Gala) David Leslie (Gala) and Iain Paxton (Selkirk) all started in the final match against France that clinched the Five Nations championship.
The 1990 Grand Slam winning team had Craig Chalmers (Melrose), Tony Stanger (Hawick), Gary Armstrong (Jed-Forest), John Jeffrey (Kelso) and Iwan Tukolo (Selkirk) playing for Borders clubs.
There have been the likes of Chris Paterson, Ross Ford and Greig Laidlaw from the Borders since then. Although Scotland internationals Stuart Hogg, Rory Sutherland and Darcy Graham (the first two also played for the British and Irish Lions) have come out of Hawick in recent years the conveyor belt of Borders talent has slowed down considerably.
It is good to see those who really care about Borders rugby are trying to do something about that and other rugby matters in the area that was once the heartland of the sport.
They had been talking about setting up a Borders regional union for three years ever since the Border league -made up of Gala, Hawick, Jed-Forest, Kelso, Melrose, Peebles and Selkirk- created a working group to try and figure out how to stop the slide in interest in the sport.
Read more:
- Blow as Scotland's Andy Onyeama-Christie suffers serious injury
- Gregor Townsend knows Scotland players are relishing Lions tour opportunity
The sad demise of Borders club rugby has seen St.Boswells fold as did Hawick YM. Walkerburn has dropped out of the league set-up but have been trying their best to keep going. There is at least one other Borders club that is facing tough times and could be fighting for survival sooner rather than later.
Concern over how things were going was one of the reasons the Scottish Borders District Union (SBDU) has now been set up. It is designed to provide a collective voice for rugby in the area-something that has been sadly lacking. They insist they are not a splinter group with their doctrine being ‘a voice for all’ for rugby in the Borders.
They have elected Scott Forbes, a former President of Kelso RFC to the chair. There are seven different section representatives from the Border League, the Borders semi-junior league, Borders Rugby Referees society, sevens rugby, regional clubs, women’s and girls rugby and schools rugby on their committee so they are showing a united front.
They also have four independent directors from the world of business, communications and administration.
SRU Vice-President Keith Wallace was an interested observer at their launch along with Mark Walker of the SRU’s governance committee. It will be interesting to see what they make of it all. The same goes for those in other rugby regions of Scotland. Will we see other regional unions cropping up in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Caledonia region?
I am hearing clubs in Caledonia are watching and waiting to see if the SBDU win a few battles to improve their lot in their region.
You can understand why those above the central belt feel like the Borders and believe a collective voice to lobby in their area is needed. Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness are big big rugby areas with massive untapped potential and a collective voice could make a big difference.
Already the SBDU has been given affiliate body status within the SRU. That means they have no voting rights but have a watching brief and will be looking to see if they can have a rep from their organisation on the club rugby board.
Read more:
- Franco Smith addresses speculation linking Glasgow with Scotland lock
- Sean Everitt 'proud' of Edinburgh response after 'difficult' week
After speaking to some of the SBDU members privately they don’t sound like a bunch of old club bufties ranting at the SRU because they are being ignored. They sound like they are genuinely concerned about finding solutions to the dwindling number of players, volunteers, referees and funding that is threatening the sport in the Borders.
In a way the Borders rugby people have only themselves to blame for the current situation as they were complicit in changing the governance structure of the SRU twenty years ago. There used to be individual area unions, like the one they have just re-introduced. Just now there are club representatives for individual leagues such as the Premiership instead so there is no joined-up thinking among Border clubs.
It could be argued that it would be easier herding cats than getting Borders clubs to collectively agree on anything but the SBDU are confident everybody involved are singing from the same hymn sheet in their organisation.
There is a feeling that the SRU committees are more ignorant now of the fundamentals that keep rugby going in a rural area like the Borders where sevens tournaments go a long way to funding the annual running costs of a club because there is no collective voice.
For instance a SBDU sub-committee headed up by 1984 Grand Slam player Keith Robertson has been set up to look at lobbying the SRU to make sure there are no league fixtures played on the same weekend as Borders sevens tournaments. It would be a big win if they manage to get that agreed.
They hope to provide a clear voice across all levels of the game in the Borders and provide a more positive support to the SRU. They insist they won’t be shouting at the governing body from outside the tent as they will be inside it as an associate body trying to find answers that work for Borders rugby and also Scottish rugby as a whole.
Let’s wish them well but only time will tell if they are allowed by the SRU to have a major influence on rugby policy in the Borders.
Read the rules here