Scotland rugby team losing support over ‘plastic players’

Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe (left) qualified on a three-year residency. Photo / AFP

Project players, or the importing of foreign-born talent, has in recent times become one of rugby’s most emotive and divisive causes célèbres. For over a decade, the practice of Northern Hemisphere sides enticing Southern Hemisphere players who were surplus to requirements within their own national set-ups became commonplace.

The method undoubtedly resulted in the unearthing of hidden gems, but it also caused animosity; debate raged over how someone might truly “prove” their nationality, or describe which country they feel at home in. Passports, residency, parents and grandparents were all used as evidence and, despite the messiness, each case is nuanced.

During this period, only three years of residency in a country to which a player had no familial links was required; now that number is five, meaning that the practice has largely died out. Investing in a player who will only be available in five years’ time has been deemed too much of a risk.

However, in the Six Nations, vestiges of the custom remain. Three of Ireland’s best players – Jamison Gibson-Park, James Lowe and Bundee Aki – all qualified on three-year residency; and two of Scotland’s finest – Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe – are similar. Sione Tuipulotu, Scotland’s currently injured captain, qualifies through a Scottish grandmother but he was born in Australia to Australian parents and had never played rugby in Scotland until a 2021 move to Glasgow as an uncapped 24-year-old.

The difference between the land of the shamrock and the land of the thistle is twofold: first, Ireland are winning, which always helps; secondly, the Irish club scene is in a far healthier state than Scotland’s.

North of the border, apathy towards the team might not be widespread, but it is growing. Not only are there fears about the talent pipeline – Scotland’s Under-20s are bottom of the Six Nations table after last year’s wooden spoon – but there is also a belief that the likes of Schoeman and Van der Merwe are the cause of a lack of Scottish talent, not the cure for it.

Bundee Aki (left) and James Lowe qualified for Ireland after a three-year stint. Photo / Photosport

Telegraph Sport has spoken to fans, journalists and former players – one of whom did not wish to be named – who are fearful. Some feel disillusioned, with their love of the team waning somewhat; while others who will not go quite that far are not completely at ease with it all. There is little surprise, for instance, that so-called “plastic Scots” have also attracted the nicknames “Kilted Kiwis” or “Jock Boks” throughout the years.

A former Scotland international who played in the professional era, and who asked to be anonymous, told Telegraph Sport that “because of how they have chosen to invest, I worry that we will be where Wales are in five years”.

They added: “The approach sucks – I have no interest in watching some of these guys.”

A fan, who for the purposes of this piece has asked simply to be called Clark, has been a Scotland fan since he started playing mini rugby around age 7 or 8 in the early 90s. For him, it is clear: there is less love.

“I think there is, yes,” Clark, 40, says. “I will still go and watch and, of course, support them. They are exciting to watch and it can be enjoyable, but there’s a nagging feeling when you watch them: ‘They’re not actually Scottish.’ Who are we not giving the opportunity to and what happens next when they retire and we’ve run out of money? Have we damaged the team so much that we never recover?”

‘Kilted Kiwis’ paved way

“It started with the Five Nations, when we were pretty poor – okay, we had the 1990 Grand Slam, but after that we struggled. I remember 1999 and that was almost the start of the ‘Kilted Kiwis’ – Glenn Metcalfe, the Leslie brothers. After that, it paved the way for guys like Brendan Laney, Sean Maitland and Cameron Mather [an Australian]. But because professionalism was pretty new, the guys who were ‘kilted Kiwis’ had played in the amateur game in Scotland; they had more of a connection with grassroots rugby.

“Scotland were poor. Then they opened up to ‘project’ signings – and they made a difference. That’s when I started to become a little disillusioned with it. I have an issue with the term ‘project player’ – because they have no affiliation to the country whatsoever. We have seen some of them doing their residency, getting their Scotland caps, and then moving to a better offer in England. Duhan did that but, in fairness, he came back. A lot of people have a soft spot for Duhan because he’s spoken at length about how grateful he is to Scotland for giving him a chance. And I get all that – but he’s not Scottish.”

Another fan, Drew Russell, said: “I fundamentally believe that it’s wrong. If your parents happen to travel overseas for work then I would be okay, but the fact that you can’t make it as an All Black or a Springbok and then just come across here for a couple of years should not be allowed. If we are ever to grow the game domestically, we really need to ensure that the top of the tree is attainable for our own youngsters.”

Bill Lothian agrees. Lothian, the Edinburgh Evening News rugby correspondent from 1981 to 2015 who covered about every Scotland game in that period, believes Scottish rugby is in the midst of an existential crisis, with project players just the tip of the iceberg.

‘Good rugby guys walked away’

“It’s built on sand,” Lothian says. “Clubs are going to the wall up here! The amount of fixtures which cannot be fulfilled on a Saturday is really striking. I was interviewing the squash player Jonah Barrington once and he said that your sport was only ever as good as the base of your pyramid. The broader the base, the more players pushing upwards. The pyramid up here is shrinking dramatically. I played at clubs with six, seven teams. Some of the big clubs are struggling to get one out now.

“A lot of good rugby guys just walked away because the Scottish Rugby Union originally said, ‘You’re either with us or against us’ and a lot of good rugby guys just walked away. It’s not all to do with foreign-born players but this is all to do with what’s going on, why they need to import players from South Africa and New Zealand. It’s going to catch up one day. At Murrayfield, it’s perceived that if you criticise then you’re anti-Scottish rugby. That’s nonsense. ‘We know best, get back in your box.’

Sean Maitland is crash-tackled into touch by Japan winger Yasutaka Sasakura and lock Hitoshi Ono in 2016. Photo / David Gibson/Fotosport

“You couldn’t fault the Leslie brothers or anyone else who came across from the Southern Hemisphere, they’re all good guys and they did their bit, but where are they now? They’re back in New Zealand or South Africa.

“Sean Lineen, Sean Longstaff and Glenn Metcalfe stayed – Lineen has been here since 1988. Continuing to put back into Scottish rugby. He’s brilliant. Others said, ‘Thanks very much, I’m off now.' There’s a void behind them.

“My wife was a columnist for many years for the Evening News and she wrote a piece about this. I think we’ve still got the email somewhere. The PR at Murrayfield [many years ago] were furious and said, ‘Well, we have to import because we don’t have any players’. To which we replied, ‘Well, whose fault is that?’”

Lothian is able, too, to add a personal perspective. In the mid-90s his son was at Melrose as an Under-18 player, able to see Craig Chalmers, Carl Hogg and Doddie Weir up close. Things appear very different today.

Double-edged sword

“They don’t have that opportunity now to learn from the top players with only two clubs,” Lothian says. “If there were a proper Scottish domestic league, that’s what they would get. The club players are isolated from that. I’d take all the money they spend on those two sides, chuck it in a pot and tell the traditional clubs to go for it.”

Clark adds: “What is the future going to hold here? The Scottish team is as good as I can remember. It’s a double-edged sword. Yes, we’re good, but we’ve got there by opening our wallet and getting people in. We have tried to buy success. How sustainable is that? It’s not. With the residency laws changing, ‘project signings’ are harder, so where is the next wave coming from?

“When you see so many of the team not having been born in Scotland, that’s players who young boys and girls around the grassroots clubs have not been able to identify with. Previously you could say, ‘That player is from Kirkcaldy and he went on to Edinburgh and Scotland – and then the Lions.' That scenario will happen less and less. That’s the problem in a nutshell. If you can’t show a clear pathway to success, then will that put off potential players who are talented across many sports? They’ll think there are no opportunities in rugby, and they’ll go and play football.”

Ten years ago, Chalmers was of the same opinion as Clark and Russell. While the former Scotland first five-eighth was coaching Melrose, Chalmers was a vociferous critic of the Scotland Rugby Union’s scouting of foreigners. His opinion on the matter has cooled of late – with the switch from three- to five-year residency helping – but it still does not sit right with him that a South African-born player tops the try charts.

“Duhan has become Scotland’s top try-scorer,” says Chalmers, who won 60 caps for Scotland and another for the Lions between 1989 and 1999. “Personally, I’d love to see Darcy Graham at the top of the list – he’s from Hawick, the Borders. I’m hoping at some point he’ll overtake Duhan and we don’t have ‘Duhan van der Merwe’ as our top try-scorer. Nothing against Duhan or what he does.

“I’d like as many Scottish-born and bred players as possible, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve no issue over how it has been done over the past four or so years. People take the mickey a bit but Ireland have three or four – in their backline alone. No one really mentions that too often.

“Ten years ago, I was disillusioned by the quality, but now it’s slightly different. When I was coaching Melrose, I’d be given guys by the union to play in the British and Irish Cup, and I didn’t think they were as strong as what we had at club level.

“But, now, five years is a long time to wait and qualify. I think project players will be a thing of the past soon.”

Be that as it may, but north of the border, the fact they were ever a concept still rankles.