Hadden accepts IRB decision on autumn Test player release

SCOTLAND head coach Frank Hadden has won a partial victory in his bid to have his England-based players available in the run-up to the autumn Tests.

A ruling by the International Rugby Board (IRB) means the players will be available for a training session on Monday, 27 October – 12 days before the game against New Zealand which is the first of Scotland's three internationals next month. Previously, English clubs had said they would only release their employees five days before an international.

The IRB ruling, however, has also said that Scotland must release players back to their clubs three days later if they are required for fixtures that weekend. They would then be required to report back to Murrayfield at the latest 24 hours after the end of their match.

A longer-term resolution of the dispute, which in one form or another has gone on since rugby union went professional after the 1995 World Cup, is expected next month. There has been no official ruling yet regarding French clubs, but Hadden is confident that his players based in France will also be available to him when the squad convenes at the national stadium a week on Monday.

"The games we have coming up next month are massively important for Scottish rugby," Hadden said yesterday. "We face New Zealand, South Africa and Canada over three weeks and how we go in these contests will play a major part in determining our ranking for the 2011 World Cup draw in December.

"We now have clarity on the access to our players who play with English clubs. The IRB Regulations Committee has ruled that players selected for the autumn Tests can join us to train on Monday, 27 October.

"We accept the ruling and we will continue to articulate the case for a robust and workable regulation which underlines the pre-eminence of the international game, which is fundamental for the game's worldwide development. We're not entirely happy with the resolution, but at least we can plan for the autumn Tests."

The Scotland squad for those three matches – against the All Blacks on 8 November, South Africa on the 15th and Canada on the 22nd – has yet to be finalised. Hadden stressed that when choosing the teams for those matches he could well take into consideration which players had been available to him throughout the build-up period, but insisted that was not an attempt to cajole either athletes or clubs.

In particular, he is unhappy with the prospect of losing some players for club matches the weekend before the opening international, but is hopeful some clubs will be considerate – to their players if not to Scotland.

"That's not ideal," the coach continued. "That weekend it may be possible that some players are rotated or rested. If that's not the case, it may have an impact on the way we select our team.

"What happens remains to be seen, but I am optimistic. We have tried to build up good relationships with the clubs, and it's reassuring to know that if at all possible clubs will try to help us with this."

Next weekend sees the latest round of fixtures in the EDF Energy Cup, the competition for leading Welsh and English clubs. Many from both countries are effectively treating the tournament as a low-priority event, preferring to concentrate on the Heineken Cup and their own league, and that too could play in Hadden's favour.

"It's an EDF (Energy Cup] weekend and some clubs are not picking their strongest sides in that competition," he said. "But some are. There's no guarantee."

And in the case of those who do play at the weekend, there is no guarantee that they will be immediately able to take part in a full national training session. Some, Hadden expects, will be able to do little more than rest on the sidelines when they return on the Monday before the All Blacks game.

"They come back pretty well beaten up from a weekend game, so (that lessens] the genuine preparation time you actually get. I've noticed that some of the EDF games are scheduled for a Sunday, and if they have a tough match on the Sunday they can't do anything on the Monday at all.

"So that means getting into the practice on Tuesday. We'll probably get a full day out of them on Wednesday, day off Thursday, team run Friday, then you're straight into it.

"So that's where the problem is. It says you're getting five days, but you're not getting five full days. If we had five days, I would be delighted."

Returning to the theme of squad selection, Hadden explained why he thought opting for those available throughout the preparation period was a rational decision.

"It's not about leaving people out just because they're going to be unavailable. We'd never do that," said the Scotland coach.

"But what I would say is we've got a number of hotly contested positions. And if you're wondering who to select and you've got one guy available for a fortnight and another going back and forwards to his club, then it has an impact."

With Scotland requiring a win over New Zealand or South Africa to be seeded in the top eight for the World Cup, a school of thought has arisen that they may concentrate their efforts on winning the latter match. Hadden denied he had even considered that, and said the situation was different from the last World Cup, in which Scotland rested most of their leading players in the pool match against the All Blacks.

"It would be foolhardy to expect to beat one team and not the other. We've got to go out with all guns blazing."

• Heineken Cup favourites Toulouse face a scrum-half crisis in the build-up to Friday's clash with Glasgow at Firhill.

It was confirmed last night that Byron Kelleher will appear at a tournament disciplinary hearing in Dublin tomorrow after being cited for alleged violent play. The former All Black was charged with deliberately stamping on rival stand-off Butch James during Sunday's narrow victory over Bath in France.

If Kelleher receives a ban it will leave Toulouse without an experienced specialist No9 for the Glasgow game. Their other frontline scrum-half, Jean- Baptiste Elissalde, is sidelined and waiting for surgery to remove kidney stones.

STORY SO FAR

IN THE amateur days of rugby union, the international game was paramount. Since professionalism came about, however, the sport has been dogged by a series of running skirmishes between national sides eager to have their players available whenever possible and clubs keen to hold on to their well-paid players.

The Scottish Rugby Union has avoided this problem internally by controlling professional rugby in this country, and in his first year as Scotland coach Frank Hadden had few problems as all but two of his squad were based here. Since the decision to close down the Borders team, however, more leading Scots are now playing in England.

A definitive resolution has yet to be passed by the International Rugby Board. A draft proposal earlier this year could not get the widespread agreement required to become law.