Può essere interessante fare qualche paragone con la realtà scozzese, simile alla nostra per numeri e dimensioni (ma non per mercato potenziale). I progressi delle loro squadre di Pro14 e della nazionale negli ultimi tempi sono sotto gli occhi di tutti ma SRU ha un programma di sviluppo che, nell’alto livello, si muove lungo due direzioni: i) investimento in una squadra di Premiership, vista l’impossibilità di avere una terza franchigia di Pro14 ii) creazione di una Lega domestica di Elite con 6 squadre quasi-professionistiche. Stralci da un’intervista al CEO Mark Dodson:
“It's our desire to get involved in the English Premiership. It's a league of great importance and it's a way that we can, perhaps, gain access to a third [professional] team, because it's probably impossible in Scotland, given the economic climate, to have a third franchise … It's too early to say what a Newcastle deal would look like. We're just having conversations with several people, but we would like to work with them in a partnership. It would give some of our players the opportunity to taste what it's like in the Premiership.”
On criticism of the new Super 6 club competition due to start in season 2019-20. (The franchise winners will be announced on 1 May):
"If you listen to the people who bleat the loudest, they are the people who least understand it and who don't want anything to change … There's a group of people in every union, and ours is no different, who keep pointing back to the glory days. Well, I've tried to find these glory days over the last 30 years and I'm struggling. I can't find this period when everything was wonderful inside Scottish rugby. We have been mandated to reform club rugby. The clubs have mandated us to do it and Super 6 is the solution. This is part-time professional rugby, not semi-professional. Everybody who plays in that league will have another job. … I've had about 40 meetings with clubs and there is an understanding now around this. We've had 13 letters of intent. That's 13 clubs, or an amalgamation of clubs, that are interested in delivering on this. … The Super 6 will look nothing like the Premiership as it currently does. It'll be dressed differently, it'll be promoted differently. It will be part of our high performance department, so it will be looked after by our professional rugby people”
Intervista integrale su
http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/43473255