David Sole

In 2021, London Scottish will move home and abandon the Richmond Athletic Ground, where it has played its home matches since 1894.

It will be a real wrench for the club that has a long and illustrious history, one that has been forged without having its own permanent home. The change has been brought about by Richmond’s promotion to the Championship next year, and the operational difficulties that exist in hosting competing home teams on the same ground.

It’s a problem that has existed in the past, but which has not been deemed sufficiently challenging to force the move.

More to the point is the need for London Scottish to generate more income of its own, and to become commercially viable in extremelychallenging circumstances.

At present, Richmond benefits from all of the receipts over the bar at the Athletic Ground, whether they are playing or not – and unsurprisingly, the club could do with some of that revenue.

The lack of their own home ground has always been a challenge for London Scottish.

As they climbed the Championship table and knocked on the door of the Premiership, they were always going to be denied a place in the top tier – even if

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It’s sad the SRU have not capitalised on London Scottish more they had won promotion – on the basis that the Athletic Ground was too small. They simply could not accommodate the size of crowds that turn up to Premiership games, as the capacity isn’t large enough.

For years the committee at London Scottish have endeavoured to reach some sort of compromise with Richmond, even talking about ground development. But they had insufficient sway with their landlord partners.

Instead, London Scottish will move to Esher, for at least two seasons, from the end of next season. Thereafter, hopefully, to a new home of their own. The importance of London Scottish as a pathway into professional rugby cannot be underestimated, and it is sad that the SRU have not capitalised on this more.

Only recently, Scotland prop, Gordon Reid, went on record to say that the standard of rugby in the Championship in England is far higher than the Super 6 in Scotland, and that it is the ideal proving ground for aspiring Scottish players.

London Scottish seemed like the perfect vehicle for the SRU to develop a third professional team and, while some Glasgow and Edinburgh players have spent time in West London, the relationship has not been leveraged as much as it could have been.

It is very sad that Scottish rugby fans will no longer have a friendly waterhole at the Athletic Ground as they leave Twickenham after a Calcutta Cup match to drown their sorrows or celebrate an infrequent victory.

Sadly, they will just have to make the most of it in 2021.