London Scottish

[sharvey44]

Callum Hunter-Hill becomes latest Scot to join as part of Performance Partnership

BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy second-row Callum Hunter-Hill has joined London Scottish on a loan deal.

The 19-year-old is a Scotland Under 20 international and recently made his Glasgow Warriors debut in October against Zebre in the Guinness Pro12.

Previously, the lock received 10 caps at under-18 level, five of which he took charge of the team as captain. The lock has also captained Edinburgh at under-17 and under-18 level as well as appearing for Edinburgh Rugby A against their Glasgow Warriors counterparts, and has since represented Glasgow Warriors in non-league fixtures.

In the summer of 2015 Hunter-Hill travelled to the Canterbury High Performance Unit in New Zealand on the prestigious MacPhail Scholarship, and after arriving in London he will be reacquainted with fellow age-grade internationalists Cameron Fenton, Ally Miller, Hugh Fraser, Tom Galbraith and Patrick Kelly.

Also at the club are Scottish Rugby's Head of International Age-Grade Rugby, Sean Lineen, who has taken up the role of Director of Rugby, and former Scotland Under 20s Coach John Dalziel as Forwards Coach.

Hunter-Hill is looking forward to a new challenge with the Scots. "I'm really excited to get stuck in and continue my development with Scottish."

He added: "I have played with some of the guys before at Scotland age group level and I'm hoping to getting straight in to action in a big derby match against Richmond on Friday."

[switchskier]

2016 since thread was updated!

I see that LS are leaving the Richmond Athletic Ground, which is a shame as it was a nice evening out (though I haven't been for ages). Hope it's not Esher as that's a bit of a pain to get to for me personally (though not much worse than Richmond)

[General Zod]

Very good article here. Interesting bit about playing in the Pro-xx.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/london-s ... cba1185463

[Big D]

Very good article here. Interesting bit about playing in the Pro-xx.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/london-s ... cba1185463

The RFU wont allow LS to play in the Proxx.

[Puja]

Very good article here. Interesting bit about playing in the Pro-xx.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/london-s ... cba1185463

The RFU wont allow LS to play in the Proxx.

Is that for definite or speculation? I can see a lot of advantages to the RFU of having another club in London that they don't have to support.

Puja

[Big D]

Very good article here. Interesting bit about playing in the Pro-xx.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/london-s ... cba1185463

The RFU wont allow LS to play in the Proxx.

Is that for definite or speculation? I can see a lot of advantages to the RFU of having another club in London that they don't have to support.

Puja

I may be wrong but I'm sure years back it was said that they wouldn't grant permission for teams in London to play in other leagues back when LS, LW and LI were rumoured to be considering applying to the pro whatever it was at the time. Don't think it came in an official statement though.

Would bin off the italians in a heartbeat for exile teams to be included if viable.

[septic 9]

Very good article here. Interesting bit about playing in the Pro-xx.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/london-s ... cba1185463

The RFU wont allow LS to play in the Proxx.

Is that for definite or speculation? I can see a lot of advantages to the RFU of having another club in London that they don't have to support.

Puja

what exactly are these advantages? I'm genuinely struggling to see them and interested to read a rationale.

Looking just around the corner from an RFU point of view, what happens when the Premiership is ring fenced, and one of those teams outside the fence fancies a go at proXX?

[septic 9]

The RFU wont allow LS to play in the Proxx.

Is that for definite or speculation? I can see a lot of advantages to the RFU of having another club in London that they don't have to support.

Puja

I may be wrong but I'm sure years back it was said that they wouldn't grant permission for teams in London to play in other leagues back when LS, LW and LI were rumoured to be considering applying to the pro whatever it was at the time. Don't think it came in an official statement though.

Would bin off the italians in a heartbeat for exile teams to be included if viable.

we need to ask why? LS seem to acknowledge their problems - a ground which they own is a huge one - but also they aren't really London SCOTTISH in the sense that the nostalgia wants. How many SQ players do they have? A more successful outfit, well financed (but also without a ground) is London Irish - its for a reason they were nicknamed the NotNots

LS are a chicken and egg set up. Couldn't get the money or players to bring promotion, so went p/t. And hard truth is a p/t pro club is of little use to Scottish Rugby, especially when we have 6 of them up here now.
They have a long hard slog, no ground, little financing and a p/t set up. However much I empathise with the romantic idea of a resurgent LS once again providing regular Scotland starters, I just cannot see it. Its a full time job now, no need go to London for work and join LS, no need for to someone with connections to find them a job in London so they can pretend to be amateur. World has moved on

[Big D]

Is that for definite or speculation? I can see a lot of advantages to the RFU of having another club in London that they don't have to support.

Puja

I may be wrong but I'm sure years back it was said that they wouldn't grant permission for teams in London to play in other leagues back when LS, LW and LI were rumoured to be considering applying to the pro whatever it was at the time. Don't think it came in an official statement though.

Would bin off the italians in a heartbeat for exile teams to be included if viable.

we need to ask why? LS seem to acknowledge their problems - a ground which they own is a huge one - but also they aren't really London SCOTTISH in the sense that the nostalgia wants. How many SQ players do they have? A more successful outfit, well financed (but also without a ground) is London Irish - its for a reason they were nicknamed the NotNots

LS are a chicken and egg set up. Couldn't get the money or players to bring promotion, so went p/t. And hard truth is a p/t pro club is of little use to Scottish Rugby, especially when we have 6 of them up here now.
They have a long hard slog, no ground, little financing and a p/t set up. However much I empathise with the romantic idea of a resurgent LS once again providing regular Scotland starters, I just cannot see it. Its a full time job now, no need go to London for work and join LS, no need for to someone with connections to find them a job in London so they can pretend to be amateur. World has moved on

In very simplistic terms I think London based sides could in time be better for the league. The Italians bar one or two rare occasions haven't really brought much to the league. From a marketing point of view, with the rather than large caveat of it having to viable, the exile clubs would fit well.

There are so many obstacles that would need to be overcome that I can't see it ever being viable.

[septic 9]

I may be wrong but I'm sure years back it was said that they wouldn't grant permission for teams in London to play in other leagues back when LS, LW and LI were rumoured to be considering applying to the pro whatever it was at the time. Don't think it came in an official statement though.

Would bin off the italians in a heartbeat for exile teams to be included if viable.

we need to ask why? LS seem to acknowledge their problems - a ground which they own is a huge one - but also they aren't really London SCOTTISH in the sense that the nostalgia wants. How many SQ players do they have? A more successful outfit, well financed (but also without a ground) is London Irish - its for a reason they were nicknamed the NotNots

LS are a chicken and egg set up. Couldn't get the money or players to bring promotion, so went p/t. And hard truth is a p/t pro club is of little use to Scottish Rugby, especially when we have 6 of them up here now.
They have a long hard slog, no ground, little financing and a p/t set up. However much I empathise with the romantic idea of a resurgent LS once again providing regular Scotland starters, I just cannot see it. Its a full time job now, no need go to London for work and join LS, no need for to someone with connections to find them a job in London so they can pretend to be amateur. World has moved on

In very simplistic terms I think London based sides could in time be better for the league. The Italians bar one or two rare occasions haven't really brought much to the league. From a marketing point of view, with the rather than large caveat of it having to viable, the exile clubs would fit well.

There are so many obstacles that would need to be overcome that I can't see it ever being viable.

yes, in simplistic terms better for ProXX. I get that. I also get that is one big reason why the RFU would not sanction it. They really don't want fans and sponsors having an alternative in London - they want all available cash in their pockets and for english rugby. Quite rightly IMHO.
Would the SRU sanction a well financed start up in say Aberdeen, who couldn't get approval for a ProXX slot, to play in the English set up? (albeit starting at the bottom)

Still waiting for Puja to explain what the benefit to the RFU would be, genuinely curious on that one

[Puja]

we need to ask why? LS seem to acknowledge their problems - a ground which they own is a huge one - but also they aren't really London SCOTTISH in the sense that the nostalgia wants. How many SQ players do they have? A more successful outfit, well financed (but also without a ground) is London Irish - its for a reason they were nicknamed the NotNots

LS are a chicken and egg set up. Couldn't get the money or players to bring promotion, so went p/t. And hard truth is a p/t pro club is of little use to Scottish Rugby, especially when we have 6 of them up here now.
They have a long hard slog, no ground, little financing and a p/t set up. However much I empathise with the romantic idea of a resurgent LS once again providing regular Scotland starters, I just cannot see it. Its a full time job now, no need go to London for work and join LS, no need for to someone with connections to find them a job in London so they can pretend to be amateur. World has moved on

In very simplistic terms I think London based sides could in time be better for the league. The Italians bar one or two rare occasions haven't really brought much to the league. From a marketing point of view, with the rather than large caveat of it having to viable, the exile clubs would fit well.

There are so many obstacles that would need to be overcome that I can't see it ever being viable.

yes, in simplistic terms better for ProXX. I get that. I also get that is one big reason why the RFU would not sanction it. They really don't want fans and sponsors having an alternative in London - they want all available cash in their pockets and for english rugby. Quite rightly IMHO.
Would the SRU sanction a well financed start up in say Aberdeen, who couldn't get approval for a ProXX slot, to play in the English set up? (albeit starting at the bottom)

Still waiting for Puja to explain what the benefit to the RFU would be, genuinely curious on that one

It would be developing new rugby consumers (assuming a different area of London to that already covered - no use if they're going to play at the Stoop) who would be Anglo-Scottish at worst - they would likely bring in money and interest to the English game as well. It would also be another academy that the RFU didn't have to fund - yes they would be trying to produce players for Scotland, but by dint of their location they'd also be producing Englishmen as well.

Puja

[septic 9]

It would be developing new rugby consumers (assuming a different area of London to that already covered - no use if they're going to play at the Stoop) who would be Anglo-Scottish at worst - they would likely bring in money and interest to the English game as well. It would also be another academy that the RFU didn't have to fund - yes they would be trying to produce players for Scotland, but by dint of their location they'd also be producing Englishmen as well.

Puja

might be me but I'm not seeing anything there specific to LS, nothing that another, or existing team English could not do if it had the finance.
There are also clubs all over London who wouldn't be too chuffed to have an interloper in their local market

[Puja]

It would be developing new rugby consumers (assuming a different area of London to that already covered - no use if they're going to play at the Stoop) who would be Anglo-Scottish at worst - they would likely bring in money and interest to the English game as well. It would also be another academy that the RFU didn't have to fund - yes they would be trying to produce players for Scotland, but by dint of their location they'd also be producing Englishmen as well.

Puja

might be me but I'm not seeing anything there specific to LS, nothing that another, or existing team English could not do if it had the finance.
There are also clubs all over London who wouldn't be too chuffed to have an interloper in their local market

The advantage of LS is that they would provide the benefits of an extra team without having to be fitted into the English system or funded by the RFU. It'd basically be a bonus academy and interest-drawer.

You raise a reasonable point about the other three (LIrish are going to Brentwood next year, so they'll just be the Nots from now on) London clubs getting tetchy, but it's a risk they'd have to take if Ealing ever got promoted and frankly London isn't small - there should be enough of a pie for everyone.

Puja

[Mr Mwenda]

Potential source of players/revenue (presumably the RFU'd demand some pie) not dependent on Premiership Rugby?

[septic 9]

Potential source of players/revenue (presumably the RFU'd demand some pie) not dependent on Premiership Rugby?

Pro14 is not going to fund the RFU. If SRU had the funds to start that sort of thing they'd be funding a pro team in Scotland. Wales are struggling as well, Italy more so for funds. Pro14 lets teams in who bring significant cash to the table, not bleed more away