mikerob wrote:The crowds back then would have been 2 men and a dog* except for a game against a major touring side and these would sell out. So very similar to Ulster in the amateur days as well.
* a border collie
I believe a border collie is intelligent enough to be charged admission.
At times, I'm sure the WRU wish the average Welsh supporter was even half as bright as a border collie!!!
[instead, they are like them little rat dogs barking away at the fukking moon - kinda like the Welsh clowns thinking the PRL are going to ride in on a white charger to save the poor regions from the oppressing dictatorship of the WRU!]
Neil F wrote:Am I the only person who thinks a (properly located) third Scottish team could actually be quite successful? Aberdeen should work. A population of about 200,000 people and a hell of a lot more in the catchment area if Glasgow and Edinburgh are, in anyway, meant to be representative... It's also an incredibly affluent city. Incomes are high and there's feck all else to do. All I'm saying is that it's a lot of people and a lot of money 200km from regular professional rugby.
At the risk of repeating myself... Only the SRU could have contrived a situation where 100% of its three professional sides were based in a triangle that covered about 3% of the Scottish mainland and within reasonable travelling distance for about 60% of the population. Aberdeen, in nearly every way apart from history, would have been the sensible place to base a third Scottish team. It has a big (and affluent) population with a good history of supporting professional sports side. It also has a decent stadium that has hosted rugby before and plans for an even better one. It seems bizarre to me that the SRU have contented themselves, either with the belief that there isn't a market in a city of over 200,000 or that it was a market they don't care to try to tap.
Neil I'm in complete agreement with this, and I think that the SRU have made a hames of the stuation. I have friends in Aberdeen and have lived in Scotland for about 7 years now; the promotion of Edinburgh and Glasgow has been to the detriment of a decent local scene and the wider international game. Ulster playing in Aberdeen would bring me up there for a long weekend in a heartbeat and I know several itinerant workers who would do the same.
I've said it many times on here but Edinburgh need to bunker down in Meggettland and try and ape some of what Glasgow have achieved. There's no reason an Aberdeen / Borders side couldn't replicate Edinburgh's ability to leave their local Murrayfield Mausoleum 95% empty on game night. If Scotland could sustain it I'd love to see Aberdeen included and the Reivers resurrected.
I agree about Scotish Rugby until the SRU bite the bullet and move Edinburgh to a ground / staduim in which they can build an atmosphere they are wasting money and effortwithEdinburgh
I don't doubt that Edinb could flourish in a 5- 8 k capacity Staduim and grow a following.
After all even Connacht have grown a following with a lot smaller population and a lot weaker Rugby base it an be done.
The only time they would need to consider Murdayfield would be for the Christmas Derby games and maybe the SupaDuperCup if they got an exceptional draw or progressed beyond the pool stages. Even then it might be doubtfull.
