VIEW FROM THE TOUCHLINE
Richard Cockerill has never been a man to mince his words and he didn’t miss the target during a brief visit back to Scotland this week.
The former Edinburgh head coach was in the capital with his Georgian side, Black Lion, who demolished a Glasgow/Edinburgh A select 38-0 in a match played behind closed doors.
Cockerill reckons some of the flaws in the player pathway programme that were evident when he first arrived in the country back in 2017 have yet to be fixed.
The one-time England hooker also suggested that Scottish Rugby never evolves, it just shuffles the same failing personnel from one department to the next, creating a vicious cycle where things never get better.
Given the poverty of the Scotland Under-20s’ performances and the lack of talent pushing through to the senior team, Cockerill may well have a point.
His comments arose in a week when Edinburgh announced Magnus Bradbury would be returning to the club and Glasgow did the same with Grant Stewart.
Both were solid servants at their respective clubs in the past and will likely do well but the moves are symptomatic of a system that needs to
‘Trying to recoup a £10m loss in their most-recent accounts
have as much Scottish-qualified talent playing as regularly as possible but without a regular stream of suitable candidates emerging from the youth ranks to bolster their numbers.
Cost considerations are at play, too.
Bradbury will arrive from Bristol Bears in a swap move that will see Bill Mata heading in the other direction and with Edinburgh/Scottish Rugby making a substantial saving in wages in the process.
The Fijian reportedly earns north of £400,000 a year, making him one of the highest-paid players in the Scottish game.
Scottish Rugby – trying to recoup a £10m loss in their most-recent published accounts – isn’t in a position to offer that kind of money, resigning the days of glamorous imports playing at Scotstoun or the Hive almost certainly to the past.
Stewart’s return after two years with Connacht and then the Ayrshire Bulls is to partially offset the retirement of Fraser Brown but also the expected summer exit of George Turner, headed for a lucrative payday in Japan.
These are the sorts of signings fans of both clubs are going to have to get used to in the coming years as they look enviously across the water at Leinster who will welcome an All Black legend in Jordie Barrett next season.
Still, if Franco Smith can continue to successfully blood young talent into his Glasgow side as he has done over the past two years and Sean Everitt can start to do more of the same along the M8 then it might not be all doom and gloom.