SRU WON’T GIVE UP IF WORCESTER BID IS UNSUCCESSFUL

SCOTTISH rugby chiefs will continue their search to take over a Premiership club even if their bid to buy Worcester Warriors is unsuccessful.

As they await a decision on their controversial offer for Warriors, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson is already actively looking for an English top-flight side willing to allow them to invest.

If they get the go-ahead, the SRU would use that club to field Scottish-qualified players at the highest level south of the Border.

In effect, any English club controlled by the SRU would effectively be a third Scottish professional side to sit alongside Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.

But rugby legend Ian McGeechan is concerned that it may end up weakening the Scottish duo.

The former Scotland and British and Irish Lions head coach, writing in a Sunday newspaper, also said there would be positives in the SRU buying the English club but he expected it to be ‘very difficult to achieve’ because of expected opposition from the English Rugby Union and other club owners.

‘You could argue it might weaken Scottish club rugby, with Glasgow and Edinburgh players wanting to play for Worcester in the Premiership,’ said McGeechan, a senior board member at Yorkshire Carnegie.

‘But, why would you not want a foothold in the strongest, richest league in the world?

‘The professional pathway in England is excellent. I’m proud to be part of the academy system, designed to open opportunities for the best talent to play for England. Why would the SRU not want to tap into that?

‘It all comes back to the dilemma since the game went professional: what is the best way for the SRU to establish a professional base?

‘Would it be by buying Worcester? Or on retaining Edinburgh and Glasgow’s brightest players?

‘Would the SRU be better off investing in a third professional club in Scotland? In Aberdeen, perhaps?’

McGeechan said the SRU ‘has to do something’ to build on the momentum created since Gregor Townsend took over the national side.