The Scottish Rugby Union has announced they will reinstate A team fixtures one day after England named a squad for their first men’s second-string game in eight years.
As part of a stated aim to “retain the country’s position in the world’s top five nations over the next decade”, the SRU will also increase the number of A matches for its professional men’s sides, Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, and expand academies to work with players up to Under-23 level.
A press release issued on Friday vowed there would “be a focus on developing more home-grown players”, although Super6 licence agreements, which had been granted to Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir Bears, Heriot’s, Southern Knights, Stirling Wolves and Watsonians, will not be renewed beyond this coming November.
“It’s clear that we must do better at creating more opportunities for our best young players to gain experiences and develop through playing rugby at a higher level,” said Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach.
“The game is often the best teacher and we need to provide more games at pro-level and above for those in our U20 and Academy environments. Increasing the number of pro team A games and reinstating Scotland A fixtures are two important pathways for achieving this.”
Conor O’Shea suggested on Thursday that he would eventually like for England A, who will face Portugal a week on Sunday, to play four fixtures per calendar. Scotland A would offer competitive, and geographically convenient, opposition.
O’Shea also insisted that the reintroduction of England A was not a mechanism to tie players or ‘capture’ them to a country. Either way, the return of Scotland A is hardly likely to slow the dash for individuals that are eligible for both nations.
Townsend’s senior side are currently ranked sixth in the world, having climbed to fifth before the World Cup. England overtook them during the knockout stages of that tournament and retain that spot ahead of this year’s Calcutta Cup encounter.
Stephen Gemmell, Scottish Rugby’s technical and operations director, stressed that these pathway changes would aid the Test team.
“The professional and international game continues to develop at a pace, and for us to be competitive at the top end of the game we need to ensure that our current and future international players are developed and able to play more often in the professional environments that we have,” he said.
“We want a model that provides a focus at all levels of our game, for players to be able to play up more often and ensures there are opportunities, and the right environments, for players to be supported and challenged to fulfil their potential and ambition.”
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