White Shark gets his teeth into rugby's meaty issues

PLAYERS are often guilty of believing that they could run whatever sport they are involved in better than the administrators but, after 20 years of sitting on the sidelines, and carping in the case of many, a host of legendary players are moving back into Scottish rugby.

• John Jeffrey was a passionate player, whether charging through defences for Scotland or in the nitty-gritty of the club game at Kelso. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Following on from Andy Irvine's return in 2005, Ian McLauchlan, the famed "Mighty Mouse" prop of the 1970s, has been installed unopposed as the SRU's president this year, Gavin Hastings has just slid back to normal board duties with Edinburgh and handed the chairmanship to Jim Calder, the man who scored that famous try to seal the 1984 Grand Slam, and this month the "White Shark" of 1990 Grand Slam fame, John Jeffrey, took up the mantle as one of Scotland's new representatives on the International Rugby Board.

This particular shark is more commonly to be spotted on Saturdays these days appropriately underwater, with his young daughters in the Kelso swimming pool rather than charging through the mud of nearby Poynder Park, where he first made his name 30 years ago. He stood down as Scotland Under-20s manager last year, after a five-year stint, largely to be able to enjoy that side of life, but with some form of better work-life balance the 51-year-old admits he could not stay away for long.

"It did not take a lot of soul-searching to get involved," he admits, in a break from herding cows on his farm this week. "I enjoyed the five years as Scotland U20 manager, but when the World Cup went from every two years to every year it became too much for me, with my farming commitments, other business interests and the fact that I have a young family now.

"I took time out of rugby to sit back and get a better balance. But, in June, when I was up at Murrayfield for a meeting about the new Hall of Fame (Jeffrey is a judging panel member], on the same night that the Scotland XV were playing Japan, I bumped into the 'Mouse' (Ian McLauchlan], who said to me that, if he got into the SRU as president, he wanted to change the representation on the international boards, and asked if I would be interested. I said I was."

A passionate player, Jeffrey became a vehement critic of the SRU, writing Sunday Times columns with views that pushed him firmly into the media camp and out of the rugby one in the eyes of many denizens of Murrayfield. He walked out of Murrayfield in a storm of controversy in 1998, quitting the international game board on which he had sat with Andy Irvine since 1994, with a stinging attack on the SRU at a press conference in an Edinburgh hotel.

Clearly, many internecine wars have started and finished in rugby over the 12 years since, but what persuaded Jeffrey that now was the right time to put his shoulder back to rugby's establishment wheel?

"There were particular reasons for me quitting when I did and the way I did. The game had just turned professional and I was involved in persuading players to sign professional contracts. Then the SRU decided to go from four districts to two and lots of those players I'd persuaded to sign up less than a year earlier were suddenly losing their jobs.

"What angered me most was the fact that I was a member of the board at that time and yet we were not consulted on that decision. What was the point of being there? It might have been the right decision in terms of finance, but it should have come to us. There were other things well-documented, but that was the last straw.

"But as disillusioned as I was then, it did not change the fact that I loved rugby, and love Scottish rugby. I wasn't trying to be critical when I wrote or spoke on television, but constructive, but it invariably came across as negative because people didn't like it.

"The four captains, all Grand Slam and/or British and Irish Lions captains, who famously went on a tour of Scotland criticising the direction the SRU were taking - Gavin Hastings, Fin Calder, David Sole and Jim Aitken - felt the same, but the on-field and off-field direction has settled down, and the mood has changed.

"Finlay has stood for president, Gavin has been chairman of Edinburgh and ambassador for the sevens, and David Sole is someone I plan to speak to soon because I believe he has a lot to offer and so I'd like to see him involved.

"Jim Aitken is Jim Aitken. He hasn't changed his views; fair enough. But just last month, Derek White got married again and what a cracking day we had at his wedding; old Grand Slam codgers reminiscing!

"We had a golf day before and I think there were only about three or four of the Grand Slam team that weren't involved in either day. And you know what? They were all hugely positive about our game.

"I also remember speaking to Alan Tomes and there was a group of us and people were saying to me ‘why are you getting back involved in that?' And Toomba said: ‘For Christ's sake, we all played for Scotland. Of course that's who we should get involved with. We all should want to help Scotland'.

"It was a refreshing way to look at it, different to other people who think you had become a leper by getting involved with the SRU. We all want to see Scotland being successful, nowhere more so than when you're going to an international and are up against your former international rivals. What a kick I got out of going to Ireland this year and seeing the team winning.

"I was just there as a punter, but I had a great time. That doesn't change because you can't play anymore. That buzz. And it's why a lot of us are coming back I think. When we were critical it was because we cared, not that the SRU thought so at the time, but that's certainly why I took up this opportunity."

So clearly the passion remains. But what difference can the former Scotland and Lions flanker actually make? Jeffrey runs a good farming business, with two tenanted farms near Kelso, predominantly arable but with pedigree Charolais and Simmentals, and a sheep farm in the Lammermuirs near Dunbar. But he does not boast pockets deep enough to buy some new talent for Glasgow or Edinburgh, and no-one knows that better than his long-time friend Sean Lineen.

He does, however, have a varied background that takes in nearly 20 years as a Justice of the Peace, chairmanship of the Moredun Research Institute, which does research on animal health and welfare, and handles an 11 million turnover, the Border Union Agricultural Society and his rugby. He knows his appointment was all about giving Scotland a well-known face at the top table of world rugby, in the hope that that might bring about greater respect and influence, but ‘JJ' is astute enough also to recognise that he has to back it up when he gets there.

"For me, it comes back to me being involved. People talk about ‘wanting to put something back in the game', but it's not because you want to put something back in the game. It's because you want to be bloody involved in the game.

"I was never someone that was interested in coaching. I did a couple of years at Kelso, but it just didn't do it for me. I get too exasperated coaching to be honest with you. I can see why Craig Chalmers and Peter Wright end up in trouble because you get too carried away.

"So after I left the U20s and got settled, and these posts came up to represent the SRU on the IRB I thought ‘yeah, I'd quite like to do that'. I understand why they wanted me. When you look around you have Bill Beaumont from England, Gerald Davies from Wales and Graham Mourie from New Zealand, so there are names there. Being a former player doesn't guarantee that you are necessarily going to be a good administrator/politician, but it does give a bit of credence to that country's sitting on the board.

"But it's all very well talking about me having played for Scotland and the British and Irish Lions, I have to do something; I have to make it count when I get there.

"And in the three weeks I've been involved, I've had my eyes opened. In the first week I was sent an e-mail by Bill Nolan and asked to have a look at the submissions for the November meeting. The e-mail had 400 pages! Okay, 60 of them were in French, so they maybe took me a bit longer than the ones in English, but 400?"

Jeffrey pulled the IRB handbook off the shelf and flicked through its 476 pages, still with the blond eyebrows raised. Then he reached for another, which shattered the peace with a roar of laughter. The IRB Laws of the Game. "There's 180 pages in that! I've been taking it to bed to read, which is certainly a first, but I'm learning something!"

The decibels returning to a respectable level, he continued in more serious tones. "Overall, I have found it all really interesting and I've not had any meetings yet. We've had some amount of stuff about refereeing appointments, regulation eight [eligibility], regulation nine [player release] and there's a big issue around the Olympic Games and player qualification.

"The regulations there are different to ours in rugby, so how do you marry these up? That's going to be interesting. I haven't looked at it in detail yet, but in theory you could be qualified to play for your country in the Olympics but not in an international. I think it will be really challenging and will probably take me a year to get to grips with it. It's not a short-term move."

But we return to the question of what difference it can all make to Scottish rugby. Jeffrey might talk about needing involvement for his own sanity, but he is not the type of character to disappear into the committee vacuum. Clearly, that is not what the SRU want, nor what Scottish rugby needs.

"I am old enough and wise enough now to know that I can't go in there believing I can suddenly change the world. There are 26 people on the IRB committee, and I need to learn a bit about the politics of it all, but we need to change things for Scotland's sake.

"First of all, I see myself representing Andy Robinson and the Scottish national team, and I am going to have discussions with Andy and players to get their thoughts on what is holding them back, or areas that could be better.

"The international team is at their highest standing since the IRB world rankings were begun because of what has happened on the pitch, but that is in spite of problems such as player release, where England internationals get two or three weeks to prepare for a match and our boys get one or two weeks, simply because the RFU throw a bucket-load of cash at clubs in England.

"Is that fair? And it's not only Scotland; there are lots of countries who are struggling to have their players made available for training and preparation, while top nations carry on regardless, and I see a role in helping the IRB to work that out for the benefit of the game globally.

"But after that there are countless other issues. Referees is a big one for us. It's criminal that there have not been any referees at the elite level for a long time and I want to know the reasons behind that. The future of sevens is another big issue, and I've been looking at a document on player welfare this week."

Jeffrey might seem eternally youthful, from a distance anyway, but he stresses that he is older and wiser, and that this remit is about the long game, listening, learning and knowing how to have influence, rather than rushing up, infringing the offside line, grabbing the ball and retiring for drinks with hearty knees-ups. The rugby world has changed unimaginably and irrevocably since he and his peers took Scottish rugby into the bosom of the nation with terrific success and personality. But there is an excitement in a world still monopolised by faceless bureaucrats that these legendary figures are coming back, and adding business experience to their desire to help Scotland on the world stage.

"It doesn't get any easier in whatever role you have in Scottish rugby," said Jeffrey, shaking his head. "We always said as players in the amateur era that if we went professional Scotland would struggle and England would win the Six Nations every year and the World Cup every four years. Thankfully, they don't, but that was based on the numbers thing, and that numbers thing is still there.

"Twickenham takes in something like 16 million for their autumn Tests from TV revenue and we get, what, 1.5 million or so? And it's not just the numbers of pounds, but the numbers of people playing the game. We're not going to get over that.

"But we can make it better. People don't like the phrase but we're punching above our weight. Scotland seventh in the world, Glasgow into the Magners League play-offs and Edinburgh just missing out, back down to a 15 million overdraft from 25 million plus, so that's under control. I think we have the processes in place and I like what they're doing at Murrayfield at the moment.

"Now that's not shying away from the difficulties. It's going to be tough to replicate the on-field success this season, but tell me when that wasn't the case? I still get dismayed seeing the lack of people at club games. It's absolutely awful because club rugby remains the base of the pyramid, the bedrock of Scottish rugby."

He concluded: "We had a rosy period in the 1980s and 1990s where we were fortunate that a lot of good players came together at the same time and we got used to winning a damn sight more than we lost. But in the 1950s we went 17 games without winning, and the 70s weren't much better overall.

"Taking in the differences now in a professional era, we are doing reasonably well, but we've got to work bloody hard to keep the current level and try to improve it. It's never been easy, but I think you'll find most people in Scottish rugby, Scottish sport, like a challenge. It's the buzz. It's not playing, but it is a role that can help our players, hopefully."