Tough decisions still to be made
THE decision to call time on the 2019-20 domestic rugby season was the easy part. The only surprise being that it took the Scottish Rugby Union so long to make the call.
By the time they had communicated the news to member clubs and media on early yesterday evening, their counterparts in Ireland, England and Wales had all already bowed to the inevitable.
Now comes the difficult part, because unlike Ireland who have made the tough call that their club game will effectively be reset to the state of play at the kick-off of the 2019-20 campaign, a decision has still to be made in Scotland on whether there will be any promotion or relegation based on what happened up to the point of suspension in all rugby last weekend.
The SRU Championship Committee and Scottish Rugby Council (both made up of elected club representatives) will make a recommendation on this to the Scottish Rugby Board by the end of the month. Whatever solution they come up with is going to cause serious upset to at least some of the clubs.
A similar approach to the IRFU – declaring the season null-and-void – would be a big boost to clubs such as Edinburgh Accies (who were on the precipice of relegation from the Premiership) and Dundee High (who were already condemned to relegation out of National One), while it would be a kick in the teeth to the likes of Biggar (the runaway leaders of National
One who had already secured promotion into the Premiership) and Stewart’s Melville (who were looking good for promotion from National Two into National One).
An alternative suggestion is that the leagues be organised next year based on league placings at the time when matches were suspended, but clubs such as Peebles would understandably feel aggrieved at that given that they sit third in National Two but on the same number of league points as second-placed Dumfries Saints and with a game in hand.
The third solution is that only the two clubs which were already mathematically locked-in to a change of league next year get promoted/relegated. That would mean Biggar move up to the Premiership, and Dundee High move down to National Two.
That would make the Premiership an 11-team competition next season, which would not be ideal but manageable, with one team getting a rest weekend in every round of matches. National One would be a 10-team league, just as the Premiership is at the moment.
The sticking point might be National Two, which would have 13 teams, which would be a real challenge at a time when clubs are looking to reduce the number of games they are trying to fit into an average season.
Similar scenarios exist in the men’s Regional Leagues, while the women’s season structure is slightly different with the league section completed before Christmas.
Super6 is a slightly different scenario. That league – which was set up at the start of this
combination of the World Health Organisation categorizing Covid-19 as a pandemic, local markets implementing very aggressive event/gathering limitations, and unprecedented, broad-scale travel restrictions that impact so many of our players and caddies, made hosting an LPGA official event under these conditions simply not possible or prudent.
“I promised myself that I wouldn’t send any more cancellation/postponement emails without some positive, rescheduling news and I’m happy to report that we have been successful in rescheduling the ANA Inspiration for the week of September 7 at Mission Hills...
“As you can imagine, we are busy working on dates [and other changes] for postponed season to sit as a conduit between the club and the pro game – will not now be able to play out their end of season play-off schedule, but there is no relegation so that is not a factor.
The big disappointment for those teams is that they will now not be able to take part in the cross-border section of their season against Welsh opposition, which the clubs were hoping would help raise standards and give a boost to the profile of that controversial new tier in Scottish rugby.
It remains a difficult situation, however, and we must hope that common-sense prevails with both those making the decision and those clubs adversely impacted. There is no right answer, there is only a least bad one. Somebody is going to have to get the short straw.
events. Assuming we get some relief from the Covid-19 issues soon, it’s pretty clear that the rest of the 2020 season will be quite busy and crowded.
“We are focused on giving you as many playing opportunities as we can. I will share more details about the back half of 2020 as soon as I can.
“The truth is, every time I think we’ve made a plan to address changes, it never seems to be long enough. I wish I could tell you when the LPGA Tour will resume our schedule, but the truth is, no one has those answers.”
World rankings in the men’s and women’s games will be frozen from the week ending Sunday, March 15 with an announcement about their resumption made in due course.