Irvine warns players off England

Andy Irvine says massive debts must be tackled

Scottish Rugby Union president Andy Irvine has warned international players moving to English clubs that they risk harming their careers.

And he has accused the Scottish Executive of "short-changing" the sport compared to other countries.

"Once they go down there, they are under the control of these English clubs," Irvine told BBC Sport.

"And those English clubs will not particularly be too concerned about their welfare."

He realised why some have already moved to the English Premiership for greater financial rewards or to play at a higher standard.

"But these guys have to be very careful," he said.

"One of the reasons why England have struggled this year is because players have had to play week-in, week-out for their clubs.

The Scottish Executive has in the past and continues to work closely with the SRU to develop rugby on Scotland Scottish Executive spokesman

"Our lads have been rested before international matches because we look after them.

"We have got to give our manager, Frank Hadden, the players and coaches tremendous credit as they have instilled a lot of faith in the game again.

"Frank inherited the same squad as Matt Williams but has made more progress than most of us expected.

"They were tremendous victories against the odds over France and England, countries that have much greater financial resources and many more players to choose from.

"It was the equivalent of Raith Rovers beating Celtic."

The SRU is having to make widespread cuts in its budget to tackle debts of £23m that Irvine believes will take up to 12 years to eradicate.

"It would be great if we could retain all our players, but we can't compete with financial resources that are miles ahead of ours," he said.

"But some players have decided to stay here for lower financial rewards because they want to remain in Scotland and work with Frank."

Irvine believes that the new SRU hierarchy has made a good start.

"We have been spending more than earning for the last 10 years, but we now have a chief executive who has a handle on our financial situation, which was not the case before," he said.

And, with Scotland's under-19s having recently been thrashed 78-3 by Australia, Irvine said the SRU would attempt to concentrate its resources on improving the youth game.

"They were playing against boys who have 16 training sessions per week, while our lads have two," he said.

"It would be great if we had sugar daddies for our pro teams like they have found in England.

"It would be great to get more money from the government and local authorities.

"But, relative to our counterparts in France, England, Ireland and Wales, we are being short-changed.

"To be fair, the government does put money into the community game and it's very welcome. But, quite bluntly, we would like to see more."

However, an Executive spokesman said that it had pumped almost £1.3m into the game last year.

"The Scottish Executive, through sportscotland, has in the past and continues to work closely with the SRU to develop rugby on Scotland," he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that this positive relationship continues."