THE proposed formation of a new Scottish Exiles Association last night came under attack from the one Scottish Rugby Union member club it would represent.
Rod Lynch, the president of London Scottish, made it clear that his club members dissociate themselves from any involvement in the organisation, after it emerged that Colin Fisher, the Exiles representative to the SRU's general committee, was set to launch the new body.
Fisher refutes suggestions that establishing a new organisation is a bid to preserve his own involvement at Murrayfield after London Scottish indicated to him that they no longerwanted him to represent the Exiles on the SRU, following a string of allegations regarding his behaviour.
"They did not indicate that to me, " he said. "They said they were going to consider the matter at the next meeting."
Lynch confirmed, though, that London Scottish had invited him either to sue those making the allegations or resign. He has done neither.
"Mr Fisher has not enamoured himself to us of late, " said Lynch. "We have told him we would not nominate him again. There is particular dissatisfaction regarding the lack of consultation with his own constituency."
London Scottish were alerted to the moves when contacted by The Herald on Tuesday for their views on a proposal being put to next month's special general meeting by Irvine RFC, supported by Kilmarnock and Ellon, that a representative of a Scottish Exiles Association should be on the Scottish Rugby Council, which is to replace the general committee.
"There seems to be a faction trying to run away with things but then, you wouldn't expect much less with the SRU at the moment, " said Lynch.
"I can't be sure that it is the case in this instance but it seems there is a degree of positioning going on where members of the old guard are openly politicking to maintain their own personal positions."
That referred to issues highlighted in The Herald yesterday. Proposals to preserve a senior vice-presidential role have been made by the clubs of those scheduled to fill that role next, while two leading Borders clubs want to preserve the district's over-representation at Murrayfield in relation to the number of clubs in the district.
In direct contrast, Lynch said the London Scottish committee accepted that, with governance of the sport being reformed, they could no longer expect to have effectively their own club representative on one of the main SRU boards.
"We still have a huge membership base of around 1300 and are very proud of our traditions, having produced more Scottish internationalists than any other club as well as two Lions captains, but the reality is that we are no longer a Premiership club, " he said.
"With an Exiles academy being introduced, we think we should be represented at the new performance board level, but do not feel we need to have a seat on the new council."
London Scottish committee members are concerned by the impression in the wider rugby community north of the border that they support the proposal to establish an exiles association. "We have been used once too often on this and real irritation is growing, " said Lynch.
"We may eventually build an exiles association but we are against this direction being taken at the moment. There is irony in a group of unelected people taking it on themselves to drum up this body."
It emerged yesterday that, under Fisher's chairmanship, the existing unelected Exiles committee were meeting with selected members of the media to make the case for creating a Scottish Exiles Association.
Fisher claimed that the move was designed to create a proper democratically-elected process to ensure that the whole Exiles community was properly represented. He said the mechanism for achieving that was yet to be established. "The Exiles is not about clubs: it is an organisation which aims to identify Scottish qualified players and is spread far and wide, " he said.
"That is a community we cannot afford to disenfranchise."
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