Dodson’s warning as SRU face cuts

By Rob Robertson SRU chief executive Mark Dodson has revealed no area within the governing body is safe from cuts caused by the coronavirus crisis.

His organisation is set to lose at least £15million if the three Test matches against Argentina, Japan and New Zealand at BT Murrayfield in November are called off.

In a worst-case scenario, the losses could rise to around £40m if there is no rugby until the early part of next year.

The SRU will get £20m as their share of a £120m investment in the Pro14 league by a private equity company, but Dodson has made it clear not a penny of that sum will be spent until the full financial cost of the coronavirus is known.

In the meantime, he is looking over the entire SRU business in case cuts do have to be made.

That will include the transfer budgets for new players at Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors to their association with foreign clubs like Old Glory in Washington, where former Scotland international John Manson has been seconded from the SRU to be their operations manager.

‘We’re looking at all the things we’re involved with, right across the whole of the business,’ said Dodson.

‘When you’ve got a challenge of this size, everything that you’re doing, every single piece of expenditure, every programme across the piece is looked at and analysed.

‘We’ll take everything into consideration before we make decisions around what exactly we do and what we don’t do due to the pandemic.’