3. Make the IDC great again
Wouldn’t it be great to see Scottish Rugby properly to endorse the Inter District Championship and back it with some real financial support so that it can truly become an important part of the performance pathway, as a stepping-stone/safety-net for the many aspiring players who have genuine professional potential but were not picked up by the Murrayfield performance scouts in their mid-teens? [Alan Lorimer]
4. Decisive action to tackle player shortages
Too many matches are called off because of player shortages. An availability database administered by Scottish Rugby may give players game time, albeit without a more flexible dual registration system, those games would be friendlies.
Clubs unable to select a full team could submit lists of available players each week and these could be shared online, perhaps including details such as a travel radius and flexibility over positions.
Names on that list could help to fill gaps in teams, thereby offering social rugby for those who wish to play. And with a little thought, the system could be developed to include competitive games. [Colin Renton]
5. Get rid of play-offs
A team could win the Arnold Clark Premiership at the end of the league season but then lose the play-offs. Finishing at the top of a league, after 18 games, is a huge achievement in itself and should be recognised as such. I’d rather see the time of year when play-offs occur used for sevens rugby. Sevens rugby presents players with different challenges and requires them to develop a range of necessary skills that are very transferable to the fifteens game. [Alan Lorimer]
6. Celebrate the Cup
We’ve got ourselves into a rut where there is too much focus on where the club game is struggling rather than recognising and celebrating what it has achieved, and continues to achieve in often very difficult circumstances. A sponsor for the cup needs to be found so that prize money and travel expenses can ensure that the whole thing is not viewed as a cost. This will also help drive marketing. Pick a ‘Silver Saturday’ date ahead of the season, so people can stick it in their diary, and the marketing can take place over several months rather than just a couple of weeks. Make the day itself a proper festival for all of the club game, encourage every club in the country to attend (regardless of whether they have a team involved) wearing their club colours, with a schedule of events on the back pitches at Murrayfield such as touch-rugby tournaments, rugby skills challenges, as well as the plethora of good quality drink and food outlets that we are now beginning to see on international days, to provide entertainment and hospitality for all the family. Get some music entertainment on as well. Be ambitious and throw some cash at it. As Kevin Costner was told in Field of Dreams: ‘If you build it, they will come’. [David Barnes]
GHA won the 2024-25 Scottish Cup with a win over Glasgow Accies on Silver Saturday at Murrayfield. Image: © Craig Watson – www.craigwatson.co.uk
7. Neutral venue for URC Final
The league’s showcase event should be played at a venue that has been selected to provide the very best experience. This should be rotated every year (two years in Europe then one year in South Africa). [Graeme Macpherson]
8. Abolish the high contestable kick
I know it can be a joyous experience watching Kyle Steyn or Wes Goosen pluck one out of the air and launch a rapid counter-attack. But it’s gone too far, hasn’t it? Way too far. Kick after kick after unthinking kick in a sport that is ostensibly about running with the ball.
Yes, framing legislation to ban high contestables but not other clearance kicks would be tough, but as the global governing body seems to specialise in abstrusely-worded explanations of law alterations, it’s surely time for them to give it a go. [Stuart Bathgate]
9. Mark the box
To counter endless box kicking might I suggest that a ‘mark’ can be made within the defending team’s own half. [Alan Lorimer]
10. Abby Dow comes out of her premature retirement and signs for Edinburgh
At 28, the World Cup winner has decided to prioritise her career off the pitch – she has a degree in mechanical engineering and plans to follow that profession. But she has so much left to give to rugby if she ever does reconsider – and in the unlikely event of her heading north to take part in the Celtic Challenge, it would be a massive boost to the capital side. [Stuart Bathgate]
11. More goal line variation
How about limiting the number of phases a team can go through close to their opponents’ line. The endless pick-and-drive phases by fridge-sized players is boring for spectators and one of these days will result in a serious injury to players. [Alan Lorimer]
The Offside Line’s End of Year Awards for 2025
12. Limit the number of replacements to four
This would check the direction SA is taking the game – a sort of bomb disposal measure. [Alan Lorimer]
13. Enough of the hyperbole
Freddy Douglas is a brilliant talent with huge potential, but to have said he is “world class already’ before he had managed a game for Edinburgh was ridiculous. We hear that sort of stuff all the time, which just heaps pressure on players and lays them open to ridicule. It’s hard to think of any player in or around the Scotland squad who has not been spoken about by the coaching team (and/or the press) as the best of the best – the men’s national side was also described as “best ever Scotland team” ahead of the 2023 World Cup – but if that was the case then they would not be ranked ninth in the world (behind Fiji) having not made it out of the pool stage at the last two World Cups and not above third in the Six Nations table ever. Scottish rugby is very good at talking the talk – it is time to walk the walk. And on that note … [David Barnes]
14. Six Nations delivery
This is so obvious that it seems hardly worth stating, but another year of the men’s national team flattering to deceive would be unbearable. The Argentina flop shifted the dial. Patience has run out. One or maybe two good performances in the upcoming Six Nations will not be good enough. Fans will vote with their feet, which is bad news for a business so heavily dependent on premium ticket prices. A special generation is reaching the sunset of their careers, and certain individuals within that group have achieved great things at club level, but they are in danger of ending up without a legacy in international rugby. Time for Gregor Townsend and his team to show tangible progress. [David Barnes]
15. Women’s team build on World Cup success
There’s been plenty of fanfare around the investment in women’s rugby through the award of 35 central contracts, and a focus on the Celtic Challenge as a means of providing an appropriate level of performance rugby to drive the international team (although, frankly, the jury is out on whether this cross-border competition really is a step-up from the top end of the Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership).
Regardless, with Bryan Easson jumping before he was pushed, a new head coach in the shape of the gloriously named Australian Sione Fukofuka has been brought in to build on last year’s World Cup success, and that has to look like a third place finish in the Six Nations (which would be Scotland’s best return since 2005 when Spain rather than Italy were in the tournament). [David Barnes]
16. Expand the Open Conference
After a promising first season, Murrayfield needs to take the logical next step and expand the ‘Open Conference’ which has brought together eight to the strongest under-18 and under-16 rugby programmes (clubs and schools) to play against each other in a competitive league. The concept needs to be stretched out to two or even three tiers each of, say, ten teams. To accommodate the expanded number of fixtures, both the schools and youth cup competitions could be sacrificed. Open Conference rugby has enormous potential but needs to embrace a wider range of schools and clubs. [Alan Lorimer]
17. Relax dual registration regulations
This would be particularly useful for those clubs that have youth team in the Open Conference and risk becoming ‘super clubs’ with a plethora of players, some of whom could play for smaller clubs when the latter are struggling to field full XVs. [Alan Lorimer]
18. Sensible sin-bins
Make the sin-bin time proportional to the length of game in age-grade rugby. 10 minutes in an 80 minute game is less of a penalty than 10 minutes in a 70 minute game. Ditto in sevens rugby – two minutes in a 14 minutes game is more severe than 10 minutes in an 80 mins game. [Alan Lorimer]
19. Compassionate kick-off times
On a slightly selfish note: night time games to kick off no later than 7.35pm. Won’t someone please think of those newspaper deadlines?! [Graeme Macpherson]
20. A happy and prosperous 2026 for all our subscribers
Shifting from a free to a subscription model during 2025 was a big step which we didn’t take lightly. Ultimately, it was the only way we could carry on investing in covering Scottish rugby at the level we believe it deserves. We are extremely grateful to each and every person who has come with us on this new stage of the journey, and we promise to work even harder than before during 2026 to keep expanding the scope and depth of our output. Please keep in touch with us by email or in our comments section. Your feedback is important and helps shape what we do. [David Barnes]