George
Clark Offers his Views
The
Administrator
George Clark has been a
member of Boroughmuir Rugby club for many years and now, as he has for
the past two seasons, holds the title of Club Secretary. Before he rose
to this position, he was Assistant Secretary for a year and a committee
member for a year before that.
His job as secretary
covers a great area, “There are a lot of jobs which fall into other
peoples camp, be it on the playing or administration part, and it is
essentially my job to make sure they get done and nothing slips through
the net. I also have a lot of dealings with the SRU and Edinburgh
District on the rugby administration side of things, but the main side
of my job is to make sure things like subscription letters and
newsletters go out on time”. The reasons for doing a voluntary job
such as this seems to be more obscure though, “I do it because I love
this club. I feel that I am contributing to the welfare of the club and
that is something that not everyone can do”. The job is ever expanding
and therefore continues to take up more and more of George’s time,
“During the week I’ll spend on average eight hours working on the
job and then on top I spend every Saturday following the side”.
The club’s financial
position, being an essentially amateur club, is always precarious,
“Running a cub like this is like walking a tightrope. For instance we
only have nine guaranteed home games per year which means there are only
nine guaranteed days we can make money. We are always looking at ways we
can expand on the income generated by the club because the expenses
involved in running a club like this are fairly substantial”.
Being an amateur club in a professional era poses other problems
as well, “Survival is the main thing. Some clubs are finding survival
a very difficult process. When we went down to the second division we
could have easily then dropped to the third, it happened to Stewart’s
Melville and Edinburgh Accademicals are only starting to bounce back
after their fall. No club has a right to be in the first division and
the challenge has been to keep as many players as possible through this
period. Luckily we managed to keep hold of most of our players and this
is what has seen us through”.
The survival of many clubs
could be threatened by the proposed setting up of a third District side,
“If a third Super District was set up that would take another 30 to 40
players away from the club scene and some clubs simply would not survive
that. For instance we may be in the top two at the moment but if we lost
five or six players then we could be relegated next year and this time
there may be no way back”. The Secretary also has opinions on what
should be done to improve things generally on the club scene, “There
has to be an agreement between the clubs and the SRU on how these Super
Districts are going to work - and how the season should be structured. I
would have club rugby played from the start of the season until January,
then the best of these players would be taken into the district set up
where they would play until March. Then the best of those would
represent Scotland in the Six Nations. This would mean that although the
second half of the season would be very amateur for the clubs, the first
half would be absolutely fantastic”. George is very enthusiastic about
the future of the club, “This season I believe we can win both the
league and the cup. Longer term as well, I believe we can consistently
be challenging at the top, at least in the top three. I think this is
possible partly because, in my opinion, we are the most friendly club in
the country. Anybody, player or fan, is truly made welcome by everyone
at the club and no-one is turned away”.
The
Coach
George is not just an
administrator. He is also involved in the coaching of youth rugby at the
club. “I coach the current S1 side. I’m now in my seventh season of
youth coaching and I plan to continue with it until the side I am
currently coaching reaches under-16 level, another three seasons”.
George followed the usual route of going along to watch his son play and
then getting roped into coaching the side. “Although I wasn’t too
interested when I first got involved, I now do it because I have very
much enjoyed developing the skills of youngsters and also developing
their interest in rugby”. He also has quite high goals for his
coaching, “My ultimate dream, although it won’t happen in my time as
a coach, would be to see a player who I have coached represent Scotland.
In the shorter term I would like to get as many players as possible into
the Edinburgh under-15 and under-16 squads”.
George has already
achieved success as a coach, “My teams have won three tournaments
whilst I’ve been in charge, the best of which was at the end of last
season and I actually wasn’t there, I was watching the 1st
XV play Currie”. The youth set up at Boroughmuir is thought by many at
the club, including George, to be very good. “The set up we have is
very strong. I have slight worries at mini level though. Whilst we have
a very good coaching set up at that level, we are now competing with
Watsonians for boys, whereas two seasons ago we were the only club for
them on the south side of Edinburgh. In general the level of youth rugby
across the country is quite high. There are always those clubs who are
stronger than others but the Pathways system that has been set up,
although complicated, is now providing the opportunity for serious
competitive rugby for the kids”.
Overall, George epitomises
the enthusiasm that is needed by every club side in Scotland to keep the
game afloat. To give so much of his leisure time to the club, as so many
do, is quite unbelievable and long may it continue.
Simon
Furnivall
