SRU should be looking closely at budgets

Despite the lack of on-field activity, rugby seems to be moving into “signing season” as contracts expire and pro clubs look to freshen up their player roster.

Edinburgh have been busy on this front. They have signed three promising Scottish-qualified youngsters who have featured in the Scotland Under-20 set-up, with the promise of fixing up additional players from that age group.

Earlier in the month, they signed Australians Jono Lance from Worcester and Matt Gordon from London Scottish.

At the other end of the M8, Glasgow have been quieter on the transfer front. Instead they have confirmed that a number of players will leave the club at the end of their contracts.

DTH van de Merwe, Rory Hughes and Matt Smith will all be departing from Warriors – joining Matt Scott who will leave Edinburgh – but for budgetary reasons.

Richard Cockerill was eager to retain the services of the Scottish centre, but simply couldn’t afford him.

And therein lies the key issue, amidst the Covid-19 crisis which has crippled all sports.

Player budgets are the largest expense for the two professional rugby clubs in Scotland, so the coaches and directors of rugby will have to cut their cloth accordingly.

There is no mention of budget cuts yet, but surely they will come.

While the SRU’S chief operating officer, Dominic Mackay, went on record to say that Edinburgh and Glasgow were not under threat from the crisis, he made no mention of cutbacks on expenditure and the consequential impact on the competitiveness of the two clubs.

It may be a statement that comes back to haunt him in the future, not least because the summer tours were postponed in the last week.

The likelihood of any autumn internationals taking place in front of a filled Murrayfield seem to diminish daily. That would seriously dent Scottish Rugby’s finances and their ability to sustain activity at the same level as past seasons.

The SRU should be looking very closely at their expenditure budgets at this point in time.

The CEO, Mark Dodson, and his rugby team, may well be rueing their investments in clubs in France and the USA, as well as the Super Six, given that cash is under real pressure.

If they have to make cuts, it will be very interesting to see where from.

Do they harm the grassroots game which is struggling, or do they take an aggressive approach to player salaries and squad sizes in the pro game?

Do Academies take a hit? Is it time to cut their ties with their overseas clubs and focus more on what’s happening on their own doorstep?

Most rugby fans would definitely support the latter approach. It’s a time for difficult decisions to be made.