SCOTLAND played England at age group level twice in the past 10 days. The two results were very different, a 21-6 loss for the Scotland U20 side and a 63-0 shellacking for the U18 team, but the conclusions to be drawn were exactly the same. The SRU's development programme is failing to do its job.
The U20 match at Worcester's Sixways Stadium took place on the Friday evening ahead of the Twickenham showdown and, while the score was relatively close, the game was not. Scotland's points came from the boot and the men in blue never really threaten
ed the English line.
In the Scotland line-up, lock Richie Gray was the only professional player and his experience runs to a 30 minute stint off the bench for Glasgow. Every England player was posted as a member of a professional club, almost all of them in the Guinness Premiership, and several have extensive professional experience.
In the England midfield, 19-year-old Luke Eves made his debut for Bristol last season (2007/08) and has since racked up 24 starts and four tries for the West Country club. Eves made England's first try against Scotland which was scored by Henry Trinder, who has played three times for Gloucester this season including a full 80 minutes against both London Irish and Leicester Tigers. The try was converted by Falcons flyhalf Rob Miller, who has enjoyed four starts for Steve Bates in recent months. Another Newcastle player, Rory Clegg, came on in the 46th minute and even England's substitute has already enjoyed nine outings in the Guinness premiership.
As if that gulf in experience was not worrying enough, the exact same story is repeated at U18 level where every single English player (again) is connected to a top-class professional club, unlike any Scots on view. In addition England, were bolstered by a couple of useful recruits in the imposing shapes of brothers Mako and William Vunipola who are both listed at 130kg – bigger than Jim Hamilton.
Apart from persuading VisitScotland to set up an office in Apia, there is little that Murrayfield can do to counter the likes of the Vunipola brothers but there is much to do elsewhere to narrow the gaping chasm between the countries.
The England U18 side ape their elders by having had the sort of quality playing experience that the Scots can only dream about. According to former Scotland flanker Peter Walton, who now coaches them, four of his forward pack and most of his backs have played in the Guinness "A" league, the fully professional level immediately below the Guinness Premiership.
Against that a couple of Scots have played a handful of games for Premier One clubs. The vast majority of Scots counted an U18 inter-district playoff as their biggest match of the season to date so when faced by Guinness A-team professionals they are bound to be on a hiding to nothing.
England are so far ahead in the development of young players that they are about to lap the Scots… for the second time. Guinness clubs now go into partnership with local rugby schools where they place promising youngsters on scholarships. To take just one example, Gloucester have links with St Peters High School in the town and Hartpury College which is three miles hence and which, just to close the circle, is where try-scorer Trinder was educated. The system is known as AASE (Advanced Apprenticeships in Sporting Excellence) and there is nothing remotely comparable in Scotland's schools.
Gloucester actually recruits players from the age of 13 onwards where they participate, not in matches, but in core skills development. From the age of 18 onwards players can, and do, sign full-time contracts. It is clear that Scotland needs to rethink its youth development but, according to the hugely respected U20 coach Eamon John, it's a question of priorities.
"Look", says the little Welshman, "decisions have been made not on the basis of rugby but on the basis of finance and I understand why it needed to be done. If you were to make decisions purely on the basis of rugby you would have kept the third pro-team and added a fourth.
"With four fully professional clubs in Scotland all running proper academies I think we would be in a very much better place. As things stand we will only win youth games occasionally.
"There are problems associated with sporting scholarships, social engineering and all that, but it works in Europe. I've seen it work with other sports like soccer, volleyball etc, it does happen. I think that there will be changes next year and the national academy players will have closer links with the professional clubs."
But whatever academy structure Scotland adopts, the country's best youngsters still need to play high-intensity, high-quality rugby on a regular basis if they are to compete against the best and the U20 forwards coach Peter Wright makes his own suggestion.
"I believe we should look at introducing school leagues, or even an U18 league incorporating schools and clubs, because at the moment most of the matches are friendlies and the way to boost the intensity of the rugby is to make the results matter.
"I would also like to see us go back to the system we used to have when there were three pro-teams who each ran their own academy."
Both men make good points but, sadly, the exact same points have been made for much of the last decade by various wise men without any noticeable improvements. Any changes to the current system will require money, effort and imagination, none of which seem to be in abundance. It seems incredible after 13 years of professionalism that the two pro-teams don't boast their own separate academy complete with manager, coaches and identity. In fact senior figures within Murrayfield concede, off the record, that the current structure is at best woefully inadequate and possibly even downright harmful.
The structure in situ simply isn't working and Wright issues the warning that everyone connected with youth rugby in Scotland already knows.
"The gap between us and England at the moment is pretty big and it is only going to get bigger unless we do something."
