CAMBUS CAN DODGE DROP
SRU call gives hope of avoiding relegation
ANDY MCGILVRAY
Cambuslang coach Alex Donaghy says promotion and relegation should be scrapped, after Scottish Rugby decided to end the season now.
Donaghy says if the governing body still want to go ahead with teams coming up or dropping down the leagues, it should be via a play-off.
Cambus were bottom of West League One, but with games in hand, and Donaghy says they could have played themselves out of trouble.
He said: “Hopefully they scrap promotion and relegation. It has not been a good season for us, with a lot of injuries and people having work commitments.
“I don’t think we should still do promotion and relegation because arithmetically teams can still do a lot with the games they had left, and we could realistically have got ourselves to third or fourth bottom, rather than bottom.
“It should be all square, null and void, and the Irish have done that.
“I would have loved the chance to fight our way out of it, and we had four games left to do that, but we’re now at a stand-still.
“If they are going to go ahead with relegation then the four top teams in West Two would play-off against the four bottom teams in West One, it’s the only fair way to do it.
“But a lot of that would depend on when we can get back to playing.”
Donagy says the decision to scrap the season was the right one, given the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
However, he would like to be told whether he can start planning for next season, or if relegation is still a threat.
He said: “It’s the right decision with everything that is happening, and people’s health has to come first.
“Rugby is a hobby for the most part and it should be fun, not something serious like people’s lives.
“We don’t know when we’re going to get to start again, it could be Christmas before it’s back to normal.
“I would like for us to be able to put a programme in place so that we can start planning for next season but we don’t know when that is going to happen.
“If they delay next season by a month it could be midSeptember before we can really get started.
“But we’re just trying to hear what’s happening at the moment.”