Concerns are being raised among the Super Series clubs over where they will be placed in the system moving forward after it was announced the semi-professional league would be disbanded by Scottish Rugby.

An announcement was made by the SRU on Friday morning detailing their decision to end the Super Series after five years with the six franchises not having their licence agreements renewed moving forward. There is an acceptance that it is the SRU’s prerogative to make that decision but a series of issues are being raised among the six.

Those include a lack of communications and consultation, where they will be placed in the club system moving forward and other issues such as finances, sponsorship and what will happen with players. A senior figure at one of the six clubs believes they are being left to pick up the pieces with little help being provided to them despite them getting on board with the Super Series when it was announced in 2019, amid criticism from some others within the amateur game.

No clubs in Glasgow had been admitted to the Super Series when it was launched despite an application from Glasgow Hawks while other club teams were also disappointed with the move from some to the semi-professional system that they felt were leaving them behind.

Of the six franchises, the associate club sides at Ayrshire Bulls and Heriot’s Rugby have already earned promotion back to the Premiership but the other four – Southern Knights (Melrose), Boroughmuir Bears, Watsonians and Stirling Wolves – are yet to do so and there are concerns among some of them that they are unsure of what happens next for their first XV.

Now there are fears that Scottish Rugby will leave it up to the clubs to decide where the disbanded Super Series teams will be placed and it could leave historical organisations in the lower echelons of the game in Scotland. Stirling County are one of those and have already released a statement stating that they expect to be returned to the highest level of amateur rugby but it’s understood there are similar feelings across the board with no clear plan put in place as of yet.

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There are also worries around sponsorships with the change that could see some decide that the game they have invested in is different to the product which will be on show and there might not be as many eyes on it when the franchises go from semi-professional back to the amateur club game moving forward while there is also no clear end date.

The Super Series Sprint is due to begin in April and runs until June but it remains unclear over whether the Championship will return after that and finish in November alongside the license agreements.

The Sprint also includes Glasgow Warriors ‘A’ and Edinburgh ‘A’ and part of the new plan will see those sides used more. They also represent another concern for clubs who are asking who those teams are going to play against and potentially leaving players without game time which could hamper their progress, with the Super Series being a big help to Scotland at U20 level this year including improved performances in the Six Nations so far.

Players had been complimentary to the Futures team who played in that series and it was shown against France in particular with a much improved showing compared to last year when Scotland struggled at that level but this season they went toe to toe with the World U20 Champions where many of their team have played at a professional level while none of the Scotland team had, although that is set to change this weekend if Ruairidh Hart comes off the bench to play for Glasgow at Scotstoun.

Many of the concerns surrounding the situation come from a place of worry about what’s happening next and there is a belief that it could have been dealt with better from the SRU with the clubs feeling they were an afterthought for the organisation and have been left on the outside looking in.

They feel they should have been consulted more or at least been given more of a set out plan on the future but instead they’ve been hit with the news and are now dealing with the fallout. That includes almost bizarre issues such as having too many players and too many coaches associated to their clubs and it’s likely that some will fall by the wayside moving forward as they look to deal with the situation and pick up the pieces once more.