RIP Tom Walkinshaw

Rugby lost a big figure when Tom Walkinshaw died last weekend at the too-early age of 64.  It’s for others to write about his motor sport career, but his impact on English professional rugby was immense.

He bought Gloucester RFC in 1997 when the club was teetering on a knife edge: would it step up to the demands of professionalism, or go the way of equally illustrious names like Richmond, London Welsh and Coventry?  Those who were closest to Gloucester at that time have little doubt that without Tom the latter route was the more likely one.   The best way to assess his significance to Gloucester is to have a look around the modern Kingsholm and compare it with what he inherited.

There are new stands on two sides of the ground, including the huge South Stand which, if there’s any justice, will surely become the Tom Walkinshaw Stand, and capacity up to 16,500.  No move out of town, no sharing with a football club, and the famous / infamous Shed still firmly in place.  No tacky and unpleasant mascot, no dancing girls, not too much music (they tried it once but the natives revolted and the idea was rapidly dropped), and an announcer who doesn’t make a plonker of himself every time he opens his mouth.  In other words, tradition and standards still being maintained, but in a thoroughly modern context.. 

That’s not to say that it happened without incident along the way.  Some of the dyed-in-the-wool Glaws fans fought every change that was made, and Tom must have found the supporters’ websites making uncomfortable reading from time to time.  The South Stand displeased some because it wasn’t a cantilever construction and had pillars, and some of the diehards still refuse to use the new name of Gloucester Rugby.  Some of the abuse dished out by ‘fans’ on the websites was deeply personal and simply unacceptable – reading it made one wonder why owners  give their time and invest their money in the game.  However, the players who have been at Kingsholm the longest, and knew Tom best, have, to a man, come out and praised his loyalty, passion and commitment to the club.

Tom’s impact on the wider English game was huge too.  One of the new breed of businessmen who came into rugby when professionalism arrived, he was Chairman of  Premier Rugby between 1998 and 2002.  During that period the salary cap came in, and attendances grew rapidly.  He locked horns many times with the RFU over the issue of player release, and the current agreement is in no small part down to his influence.

I last saw Tom a few weeks ago at Kingsholm, when it was clear to everyone that he was desperately ill, and his response to a question about his well being was typical of the man: “Still here, still fighting!”.  He’ll be sorely missed.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On the subject of owners, you have to wonder what those at Sarries thought of Brendan Venter’s performance last weekend.  The bizarre interview with Sky after the defeat to Racing Metro didn’t really divide opinion.  Bar a few on the radical wing of Sarries fans who thought it was great to see someone sticking up two fingers to the ERC, the rest of the world seemed to shrug it off as a typically daft bit of calculated Sarries’ nonsense.  Being shocking only works for a short while: after that it just becomes plain boring.

Someone somewhere in the Sarries ranks needs to be thinking carefully about their club’s responsibility to the game and to supporters.  At one time it was simple: keep your own fans happy because they pay for their tickets and that’s where the money comes from to keep the club going.  Well, it doesn’t work like that any more.  Rugby fans pay their subscriptions to Sky and ESPN so that they can watch live matches, and part of that money makes its way back into rugby through the satellite broadcasters’ sponsorship of the game. 

By my reckoning that makes thousands of us Sarries’ customers to a greater or lesser extent, and we deserve a bit of respect for our contribution to their finances.  After a game, part of the deal is that someone from the club goes on air to comment on what has happened, and we deserve that to be done with a modicum of professionalism, irrespective of whether the club has won or lost.  If ‘Fortress Saracens’ doesn’t like that then they should simply pack it in and let one of the Championship sides take their place – in their current frame of mind they wouldn’t be missed.

Dr Venter heads off back to South Africa in the New Year, and time will tell what the real meaning of his new role of ‘Technical Director’ actually is.  The sad thing about last week’s shambles was that all it achieved was to add me, and probably quite a few others,  to the ranks of those whose attitude to his departure will be ‘Good riddance”.

First published in The Rugby Paper on 19 December 2010 and reproduced here with the permission of the editor.