THIS season, so far, I have been spending my Saturday afternoons mainly covering Premier 1 Scottish club rugby and enjoying the experience. In the wake of rugby going professional, the SRU has spent probably too-much time looking after the two fully-professional teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow and the small number of Scottish full-time professional players, to the detriment of the club game, but the club game is flourishing.
Saturday was a lovely autumnal afternoon, the sun shone over Ayr RFC's Millbrae home and if it was slightly chilly out of direct sunlight, it was still a nice day.
Ayr duly saw-off the challenge of a brave Selkirk side, I got my post-match interviews done and my copy filed within half an hour of the final whistle, then headed for the club bar.
On the grass outside Ayr's club-house a throng of supporters were chatting, drinking, socialising, while inside the bar, it was busy but not over-crowded.
I was ushered into the committee room, to chat with the respective committee members, the match officials, some Murrayfield officials and a couple of former internationalists. It was a pleasant end to the working day.
Compare this with what happens up the road at Ayr United's Somerset Park, where I must say the club officials are as welcoming as at the rugby club.
Within ten minutes of the final whistle blowing, the ground is deserted, as the fans disperse; you leave the press box, go down stairs and are corralled in a tiny room, to await the managers' pleasure in attending you (when they are ready) to offer their pearls of wisdom.
Those directors who know you, will nod as they stroll in and out of that special sanctum, the board room, but by and large, as pressmen, you are treated with suspicion. If you have re-writes to do and are maybe still filing copy as six o' clock nears (which can happen), there is the distinct impression you have out-stayed your welcome, because the ground has to be closed up until Monday.
At the rugby club, at 6pm, Saturday night is just cranking up, the club house will be busy for another four hours at least.
On Sunday, I took my grandson to the local rugby club for his Under-16 game. The place was mobbed, with the primary school-age Minis already playing and the secondary school-aged Midis turning up for their games.
When I went back for him four hours later, it was still all hustle and bustle, parents and coaches mingling, the boys from all teams getting along well.
Rugby has got it nearer to right than football. Rugby clubs are trying to recruit club members rather than fans; they want people to hang about, spend money in their bars, buy the replicas, wear them and feel they belong - the clubs control the outlets for replicas, they want to create an identity - to grow their game's base. They are community clubs in a way which I don't think football could ever replicate.
Rugby clubs are what football clubs are not, they are inclusive. They genuinely want supporters, too often football clubs seem to want customers - whom they too-often treat like dirt.
Even the two Murrayfield-controlled professional clubs, if you like Scottish Rugby's equivalent of the Old Firm, are trying to create genuine families of supporters, while the big two only play at Happy Families.
Each game could learn something from the other, but I believe in present day Scotland football has more to learn from rugby than vice versa.
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