JOHN GREECHAN

Overdue and sure to be fraught for Scottish Rugby but action is welcome

THEY’LL have seen t he hit coming. High, hard and perhaps just a little later than expected, it can’t have taken anyone at Murrayfield by surprise.

But will being braced f or a particularly thunderous challenge from a group of former players lessen the impact even a little?

Or will Scottish Rugby be picking up the pieces from this head- on collision for a long time, indeed?

Today’s Sportsmail exclusive about ten Scots being set to join a l egal battle against rugby authorities represents a serious local development in a global issue.

Because it threatens to put our own SRU firmly in the dock — as active co-respondents in a multimillion-pound negligence case.

Depending on how the first few arguments play out, this single court action has the potential to cause even more lasting economic damage to Scottish rugby than Covid-19.

And, should they be held even slightly culpable of contributing to players suffering brain damage in later life, they’ll find sympathy in shorter supply than bonus cheques for leading executives.

It would certainly be hard to imagine taxpayers rallying — again — to bail out a sport already reliant on the public purse to the tune of £15million in grants alone.

In the current climate, of course, the threat of a possibly ruinous legal battle will feel like overkill to the besieged leaders at Murrayfield.

One more existential threat, is it? Add it to the list and Mr Dodson will get to it later.

There’s the pandemic and all its attendant delights, obviously. A worldwide health disaster that has exposed structural flaws in entire nations, industries and economic models.

Even before anyone had heard of the novel coronavirus ripping through Wuhan, however, it would be hard to argue that Scottish rugby was in tip-top shape. It certainly lacked the resilience to cope with a real crisis.

Scottish Sports Minister Joe FitzPatrick has now made it quite clear, under close questioning, that Scotland’s second most popular team sport would have gone bust without his intervention.

FitzPatrick didn’t mince his words when pressed, earlier this week, on the differences between the variable ‘ emergency fund’ packages offered to the two most popular team sports in Scotland.

To recap, rugby — one governing body and two fully professional clubs — has been handed £15m in grants. With another £5m on offer as loans.

Yet the whole of Scottish football is entitled to claim only £10m in grants, with Premiership clubs — those hardest hit, in many ways — excluded from that pot of cash. They must take out a loan from a £20m pot if they want assistance. How can that be?

Well, explained FitzPatrick, it was all a question of necessity. Having studied all the revenue streams and expenditure predictions, he decided that rugby’s need was the more desperate. They need this cash. Just to keep the lights on at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Think about that for a minute. Scottish Rugby i s a modern marvel of central control and unquestioning governance.

The SPFL and SFA, meanwhile, seem forever to be grappling over the running of a game riven by factional in-fighting.

Yet it turns out that rugby’s rulers have presided over a bigger economic basket case than those chaotic football folk ever could. How embarrassing.

Fans of Glasgow Warriors may not be quite so surprised by this, mind you. After all, the talent drain still cutting through their team has been going on since long before lockdown.

If they carry on losing star players faster than those South African schools can churn out their replacements, well, who knows what kind of rugby Scotstoun regulars will be watching when the turnstiles eventually reopen?

Edinburgh are in better nick than Glasgow, with their new stadium on the back pitches at Murrayfield taking shape and the squad looking reasonably strong.

But a 50-per- cent ‘ competency rate’ isn’t much to boast about. Regardless of circumstance.

And now there’s this. The threat of a class-action law suit. Or, at the very least, an out- of- court settlement running well i nto seven figures.

The fact that players are even considering taking this step tells us everything about how rugby, as an institution, has dealt with them and their complaints over the years.

No ex-player takes this kind of decision lightly. They love the sport that has given them so much. Many f eel almost disloyal in pointing the finger at ‘their’ game for problems later in life.

So it speaks to their sense of desperation that they’re willing to take action.

Of course, there are no guarantees on what might happen next. But a day of reckoning for rugby has long been overdue. Whatever it costs, however lasting the damage may be, we should welcome it.