The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Rugby union:
Aberdeen Grammar and Aberdeenshire hope to conclude talks to form a partnership next week.
The collaboration would mean the teams train together and the players being dual registered and able to play in both National 1 and 2.
Grammar president Gordon Thomson said progress has been made, but admitted there was still some way to go.
He said: “The talks are still continuing. We have another meeting on Tuesday. We are still working on it. I thought we might have got there by now but there have been a few hiccups.
“I would like to have something sorted by the end of next week.
“There is still room for manoeuvre, but we have some major hurdles to get over.
“It is a long-term project as there needs to be an Aberdeen team, there are varying views on how we get there.
“The main issue is the management structure. With such a big group of players, it is working out who is doing what and where. We should have a yes or a no by the end of next week.”
His Aberdeenshire counterpart Alasdair Farquharson was also upbeat about the talks and said: “Further discussions are still to be held. We are very much in dialogue. We are talking about new processes and procedures and we are busy documenting those. It is all to do with reaching a consensus.
“There are one or two things that have come up which need to be discussed. I would like to think we can bring the whole thing to a successful conclusion.
“Everybody has to buy into it so we are waiting to see how things go and would hope that over the next week it will be clearer in everybody’s minds where we are. I would like to think it will happen but I can’t make any guarantees.” Scotland wing Tommy Seymour is living the dream following his British and Irish Lions selection to tour New Zealand.
Seymour has just completed a first pre-tour training camp in Wales with 13 of his Lions colleagues – the remaining 27 players are all involved in domestic and European play-offs.
Being involved has already more than matched the 28-year-old’s expectations.
“Any rugby player from the British Isles and Ireland dreams of this happening,” Seymour said. “I have been so fortunate it has happened to me. It is living the dream every day.
“It has been surreal coming in, with all the history of the Lions and seeing the quality of players dotted around all over the place, the support staff, everyone.
“There is so much history involved in a tour like this. I am fully aware of the quality in the squad.
“We will drive each other, and the standards, right up. Everyone has a goal of playing in the Test side, and I am no different.”
Despite the Lions being down in numbers for the training get-together, a considerable amount of work was done ahead of next week’s camp in Ireland and the opening tour game against a New Zealand Provincial Barbarians XV on June 3.
“We’ve had a really great week,” Glasgow player Seymour added.
“We’ve had enough players to be able to accomplish a lot of work and have been able to tick a lot of boxes.
“Everyone coming in is an intelligent rugby player at the highest level, and they will be able to pick things up very quickly.
“But certainly for us it has been great to get a foot in the door, which will help to get everyone integrated as quickly as possible.”
The Lions’ schedule before meeting New Zealand in the series opener on June 24 includes four Super Rugby opponents – Blues, Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs. Competition for places will be fierce and the wing options look particularly strong, with Seymour, George North, Anthony Watson, Liam Williams and Jack Nowell all in coach Warren Gatland’s squad.
“Concentrate and make sure we have quality in every game we play”