Another Line in the SRU Suicide Note?

Scottish teams withdrawn from British & Irish Cup
Scottish Rugby has announced that the top four Premiership clubs from last season will not compete in the upcoming British and Irish Cup.
Ayr, Heriot's, Gala and Melrose had qualified for the 2014-15 tournament.
But changes to the cup would require teams to play six of their fixtures before Christmas.
And Scottish Rugby believes this would "compromise the integrity" of the Premiership, its "flagship club competition".
Discussions over the competition structure have been difficult and protracted, and we have done everything in our power to try to influence a solution that would meet the needs of all participants," said Scottish Rugby director of rugby operations Colin Thomson.
Regrettably, this has not been achieved and the B&I Cup pool dates have been set for two blocks of three fixtures either side of the autumn international window.
Given this, we simply could not support six B&I cup games in the first half of the season as this would have a significant impact on the integrity of our own Premiership competition.
Scottish Rugby will continue to work with its clubs to find suitable cross-border opportunities.
Ayr president Billy McHarg added: "It's disappointing this decision has been reached. But, as far as Ayr are concerned, we just need to get on with it. The B&I Cup was an important tournament for building the quality of teams and raising playing standards at Ayr, particularly reaching the quarter-finals against Bristol three years ago and notable wins against Ulster and Jersey this season."

Slightly old news for us now but probably inevitable with what they were proposing. It would have completely trashed the Scottish season, which because of the diabolical weather after xmas and the extended 7's season at the end needs to be loaded to the front end of the season before xmas.

In all honesty the format was not right for the Scottish clubs anyway, who are amateurs playing against pros in this competition. The results they achieve generally reflect that despite them putting up some pretty good showings for one off games.

Next year, with this new format, the English teams are likely to take it more seriously, which they have not always done, which would have meant even more miss matches for the Scottish club sides.

If we do come back into this competition, which I would like us to do, then better to follow the Irish model and play reserve teams of the Scottish Pro sides. They could then use good club players to fill the gaps. This would have the advantage of giving promising players an exposure to a higher level of game whilst also giving some meaningful game time to some of the fringe pros.

That may or may not happen, but it is unlikely that we would get back in on any format that mirrors the one being proposed for this year.

Scotland has never had more revenues than they currently do, they are not doing too badly financially, and remember, they keep reducing their stadium debt, so they'll have more and more money available for development. Personally, I think focusing on their own local league makes sense.