Six Nations 2014: Scottish rugby needs a Borders renaissance

When Edinburgh and Scotland tried to shoehorn him into the fly-half position a

couple of seasons ago, his disquiet ran deep. It was as if the family honour

was being questioned.

The railway works have added a few diversions to the route into Netherdale,

home of Gala Rugby Club. But they could have strewn hot coals in the

Galashiels streets and the players would have walked over them to get to

training on Tuesday evening. You do not miss a session when you have a clash

with Hawick, the greatest of all the Border derbies, at the weekend.

‘Never be Beaten’ says the motto on the gate. On Saturday night, Gala are

training on the 3G pitch of their football neighbours Gala Fairydean, but it

still fits the mood. There is a snap and sense of purpose as the players go

through their paces. A dropped ball provokes an outburst of anger, not

laughter.

Gala are flying in the moment. They are second in the Scottish RBS

Premiership, but with a game in hand over leaders Melrose – whose home

ground is all of three miles away – and beating Hawick will put them clear.

The television in the clubhouse is tuned to Manchester City v Barcelona; out

on the pitch, the focus is on more serious affairs.

“This is a huge game,” says Gala coach George Graham. “Regardless of league

positions, points or anything else, it’s always big. You can tell it from

the body language of the players that they all want to be involved. Before I

came here I thought that Melrose would be the big one, but they put me right

on that one pretty quickly.” It was not the first lesson that Graham – a

flinty prop with Stirling County before he turned to rugby league with

Carlisle and then went back to union in the great Newcastle side of the late

Nineties – was taught about Borders rugby.

“It was definitely different here,” he said. “When I played for Stirling

County and we came down here it was always a dogfight. If you went to Jed or

Melrose or anywhere, you knew you were in for a really nasty one. It was in

the days when you could put feet on people on the wrong side. If you went on

the wrong side in the Borders then you went there at your peril. You found

out very quickly that it wasn’t tolerated.”

Graham gave as good as he got – and won respect for it. He likes his rugby

hard, and he has passed that quality on to the team he coaches. As two of

his own sons are in the side, he wants them to be as good as they can be.

But he worries that the system in Scotland is set up to thwart ambitions.

For the past two seasons, the star of the Gala team was Lee Millar, a

sublimely gifted fly-half. But there was no opening in Scotland for him to

turn professional and take his game to a higher level. Millar has now moved

south, and is playing for London Scottish.

The Borders had its own professional team – Graham played and later coached

the side – between 1996 and 1998, and then again from 2002 and 2007, when it

was shut down for financial reasons. The side always struggled, but gave

players chances. Kelly Brown, Ross Ford, Chris Cusiter, Scott MacLeod and

Nick De Luca all cut their teeth there.

“I’m happy coaching here, but I can feel the frustration of the players,”

Graham continues. “A lot of them are desperate to play professional rugby,

or just get the opportunity to play.

“What does it say to them when Edinburgh and Glasgow keep shipping players in

from abroad? My own son Gary [a powerful flanker/lock] has high hopes of

turning pro, but it’s frustrating for him to see all these players brought

in. How are players going to get better if they don’t get a chance?”

In the Netherdale clubhouse, photographs of the 45 Gala players who

represented Scotland stare down from the wall. Hawick might be far behind in

the league, but they are ahead on this one. On their wall, at Mansfield

Park, there are 59 photographs.

And not just local heroes. Mention Jim Renwick anywhere rugby is played and

appreciated, and eyes will mist over as the darting, elusive genius of the

52-times-capped centre is recalled. Mention Hugh McLeod, the Hawick hardpan

himself, and you might see something like fear. Grand Slam try-scorer? Yes,

Tony Stanger is up there as well.

John Thorburn, Hawick’s long-serving and hugely respected secretary, remembers

times when Mansfield Park would be raucous and alive as 5,000 supporters

came to watch. For one of the seven consecutive Scottish titles they won in

the Seventies, Hawick beat Gala in a play-off at Melrose in front of 12,000

supporters. Today, bolstered with pre-match hospitality based around a

broadcast of the Italy v Scotland match, Thorburn hopes they might get

1,000.

But Thorburn is not lost in rheumy-eyed reminiscence. “It’s a tough time for

young players here,” he says. “I think the economy has a lot to do with it

[Hawick’s famous woollen mills employ only a fraction of the number they

once did] and a lot of people have migrated to the cities.

“Professional rugby just doesn’t suit an area like this. I think a lot of

people turned away when the game went pro. But I’m actually pretty

optimistic because genuine talent will always come through. If you’re a

special player, like, Stuart Hogg, you’ll be spotted. It’s not a wasteland.

There’s no tumbleweed blowing down the High Street just yet.”

Maybe not, but these are still lean times. Thorburn speaks highly of Hogg, who

is still a regular visitor at Mansfield Park, but being spotted now means

being taken out of an area where continuity and presence was once

everything. Few places have ever captured that old rugby magic, that your

hero on Saturday was your workmate on Monday, so well as this.

Greig Laidlaw might have admired his uncle Roy, but he grew up worshipping

Gary Armstrong, another scrum-half from Jedburgh. “What made it even better

was that Gary lived 10 minutes away from me. To have my hero walking around

the streets of Jedburgh after had been playing for Scotland was amazing, not

just for me but for all the young players in the town.” The trains will run.

The mud will be washed off the A7. But what will be left in this land of

rugby soil and soul?

Article source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mystery-found-rugby-caps-deepens-6141154

Six Nations 2014: Scottish rugby needs a Borders renaissance