Report on the SRU Special General Meeting

A Special General Meeting was held on Friday 22/3/19 to consider a multi-point SRU Council motion on the league positioning of 'club XVs' of 'Super 6' clubs. Two sets of important decisions were taken.

Firstly, delegates voted in favour of amendments to the Council motion, proposed by Currie Chieftains. These were to retain the Premiership as the top league competition, and to record the Premiership in 2019-20 would comprise of 4 Premiership clubs and 6 promoted National 1 clubs.

Two further amendments failed to be carried. One was for the ‘club XVs’ of 'Super 6' clubs to play in the National Reserve league, as at present. The other was for a 3-year moratorium on 'club XVs' promotion, if they were transferred into National 1, as was proposed in the Council’s motion. The motion was then carried by a majority vote.

However, on the night, the atmosphere and outcome of the meeting were critically influenced by President Dee Bradbury’s opening statement: ‘--- if the motion is amended materially and therefore becomes significantly different from the motion the Council approved --- it is up to the Council to withdraw its own motion ---’.

This totalitarian step would have resulted in the 'club XVs' of 'Super 6' clubs playing in the Premiership - probably regarded by most delegates as the worst of all possible outcomes!