The Boss Man

Though players and coaches are often, and rightly, the focal point of a rugby club, there are many others who do invaluable work, without which any club would merely grind to a halt. One such person at Boroughmuir is David Barr. Now in his 30^th year of association with the club, Davie has filled a role as player, coach and team manager at various points. It is from the latter role that he retired following ’Muir’s BT Cup success in April, ending a six year tenure.

With his father in the army, Davie moved around the country a lot in his early years before settling in Scotland when he was eight years old. Living in the Dundee area, Davie went to Queen Victoria boarding Under18 in Dunblane. Having spent seven years there, he moved to Edinburgh when he left Under18 and has remained here since, now working as a medical sales rep.

His long association with Boroughmuir began as a player, something he did until he reached 40 years of age, stopping, in his own words, “because I was getting hurt.” His playing career wasn’t the most illustrious the club has known, “I never reached the dizzy heights of the firsts. I think I played two games for the seconds and they found me out, so that was that.” He then turned his hand to coaching with Meggetland, but began to find the physical exertion that the job brought with it more and more difficult as he was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

When Iain Paxton joined the club in 1999, Davie found another way to be involved. “I knew Iain’s wife through the hockey, and so when he came to the club he asked me to fill the team manager role. The idea appealed to me as it meant less to do physically, but it still gave me an interest in the rugby and got me out of the house.”

But after six years helping out the coaches and players, Davie is calling it a day. “The job of team manager is quite demanding. Making sure everything is there, being on call for the players, not quite twenty-four hours but near enough and my own job’s quite demanding. So trying to do both was getting more difficult. I’ve probably not been doing my own job as well as I should be doing because I’ve been spending so much time doing the team manager job, and at the end of the day it’s my other job that pays the mortgage.”

The role of team manager may not be familiar to some, and Davie listed it as “making sure that the coaches can spend most of their time focused on their job. I make sure the kit is all sorted out, that the players know where they’re supposed to be and when, that the buses are going to be on time and being a conduit between the players and the coaches. So if the players have a problem then they’ll phone me, and I’ll pass it onto the coaches if I feel the need to, or if I can’t deal with it myself.”

Having done the job for six years, there are obviously things that he enjoyed about it, but the one he feels that he will miss most is Saturdays as a whole, “I got a real buzz out of the Saturdays. Waiting for the game and getting everything organised, being involved in the whole thing. I certainly won’t miss Tuesday and Thursday nights out on the training pitch in the middle of winter, but the excitement and tension leading up to and during the game and (hopefully) the exuberance after we’ve won is what I’ll miss most.”

But he isn’t about to sever all ties with the club, he will instead turn out as a spectator. “I have every intention of watching as many games as possible, whether it’s the 1sts, 2nds or 3rds. The good thing about it is I can pick and choose now. I’ve no doubt I’ll watch a lot of the 1^st team games, but maybe I’ll decide not to go on some away trips and go to watch one of the other teams instead. It’ll just give me the chance to go and watch a game for the sake of it, rather than having the stressful side of things involved with being a team manager.”

The job wasn’t all stress though, and Davie definitely has fond memories of his time. “There’s a good few moments that I’ll remember, the first cup we won was very special. Even more so than the league. Also, another big thing for me was the Monday after we had been relegated, the coaches at the time, Iain and Sean gathered all the players in and asked them to stay with the club and bring us back up. As a unit we’d got relegated and Iain and Sean wanted every single player to be there for the following year despite the obvious interest there was going to be from other clubs. And the fact that everybody stayed was fantastic. Obviously the next year we went on to win the second division and we won the cup, so that was important. The whole year, from the team committing themselves to lifting the league and cup was really special. And that team stayed together for about two years and won two cups in a row, which had a lot to do with the loyalty and spirit amongst that set of players.”

And amongst that set of players, as with those who have followed, there has been some fantastic talent seen in a Boroughmuir shirt in Davie’s time as team manager. “Lindsay Graham was always a player that impressed me, playing out of position at inside centre which he maybe physically was never the size for. But he was a very intelligent player, which he showed he still is in the Cup Final at the grand old age of thirty-something. Calvin Howarth was a top class player and the two scrum halves, Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter. Rory Couper, out of the players we have here now, Angus Martyn as well. I like to watch guys who’ve got something different. There are a lot of big guys play rugby, everybody can bash it up. It’s the guys who can do that wee something different that always really stands out for me.”

The job of team manager has been taken on by former ’Muir player Grant Wilson, and Davie has no doubts that the man stepping into his role will do an excellent job. “I think he’ll do a very good job. Grant’s a very organised guy. He’s obviously played a high level of rugby, he’s friendly with Stuart, he knows most of the players and he certainly won’t take any trouble from anybody. And, quite frankly, I think the sight of him will stop anybody from trying to give him any trouble.”

Grant isn’t the only new face in the 1^st XV set up, new coach Stuart Reid takes up the reins vacated by Gerry Dryburgh, who temporarily took over after Iain Paxton was tempted away to work with the Scotland U-21 side. “I think Stuart will do very well. To a certain extent Stuart’s been there, seen it and done it. This may be his first coaching job but he’s been down and taken quite a few coaching sessions, which all the guys have raved about. They really feel they’ve been great sessions and that he’s taught them things that they’ve found very useful. He’s also got a really good attitude. Nothing fazes him and, like Grant, he knows what he wants and where he’s going. He did that as a player and he’ll do that as a coach. I’m sure him and Bruce will add to the success that Boroughmuir have had over the past few years.”

Obviously a hot topic around the club at the moment is the development, the transformation of the building site we have played on for the majority of this season to one of the best facilities in Scottish rugby. “If we get it right then we could be the club in Edinburgh. We could make this the club in Scotland if we go about it the right way. But what we’ve got to refrain from is the kind of silly things that are happening at Watsonians and putting money into paying players. Paying players large sums of money at club level is not the way to go forward. What we’ve got to do is make sure that the club is stabilised first because there’s obviously going to be a lot of financial outlay into kitting the new facilities out. But if things are done right and the potential for the new clubhouse is maximised and we still bring in the right players, the ones who come here to play rugby, not looking for handouts then the future for Boroughmuir is extremely bright.”

And that bright future may well, in Davie’s opinion, start with the recapture of the BT Premiership Division One title next season. “A club like Boroughmuir has got to go into every season with the main aim of winning the title. We didn’t help ourselves this past season by losing so many games early on, I don’t think the guys had been tested enough in pre-season. So if we get the right group of players here and everyone starts the season off with the right attitude then there’s no reason why can’t end next season as league champions.”

Such an optimistic note is a good one on which to sign off Davie’s time as team manager. During his time in the role, he has helped the club to 3 BT Cup wins and league successes in Premiership Divisions 1 and 2. Such success leaves new man in the job Grant Wilson with much to live up to, and it will be strange to see Davie in the stands rather than on the bench every Saturday. I’m sure everyone will join us in thanking him for the work done over the past six years, and hoping that he enjoys as much success as a fan as he did as team manager.

Simon Furnivall