Dominic McKay, Dr James Robson & Sheila Begbie

4 Jun 2020

On this week's Official Scottish Rugby Podcast, Al Kellock, Rachel Malcolm and Jamie McMillan are joined by three members of Scottish Rugby’s Threat Management Group to discuss the latest updates in relation to COVID-19 and the impact on rugby in Scotland.

Covering the professional and domestic game, Dominic McKay, Dr James Robson and Sheila Begbie provide an update on when rugby could return as well what professional rugby training will look light when the Scottish Government give them the green light to proceed.

In an in-depth interview Scottish Rugby’s Chief Operating Officer, Dominic McKay also talks about the financial challenges which Scottish Rugby face due to the pandemic, the possibility of BT Murrayfield hosting a British & Irish Lions warm-up match in 2021 and he exclusively reveals discussions have taken place with football clubs about potentially using BT Murrayfield for matches.

This is an episode which all players and fans in Scotland will not want to miss!

“We met with the Scottish Government last week and they were very pleased and impressed with the presentation which had been developed by our Threat Management Group. They were aware of the challenge of restarting grassroots rugby and we spoke at length about that particular challenge.” – Dominic McKay


“For us the main focus is the safety of our rugby communities and we will work within Scottish Government guidelines and advice and we will return to play rugby when it’s safe to do so. We are working in the background to look at how we support rugby clubs to train and to play again and to open their facilities.” – Sheila Begbie

Listen to the full episode below:

“We are still on the very first steps back to playing rugby, we’re in phase one of the Scottish Government’s return and for us that means we haven’t started yet. Return to training is the first priority for us because we need to get the players fit again. This is the longest period of decondition I’ve ever known in my professional experience, so that means we have to come back very slow, very gradual, very careful, very measured and we can only do that when the Scottish Government say it’s safe to do so” – Dr James Robson

The Scottish Rugby Official Podcast can be downloaded from PodBean, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Acast, and you can subscribe to get it downloaded automatically to your device each time an episode is released.

Tune in to The Official Scottish Rugby Podcast next week for more exclusive behind the scenes interviews and information, news and discussion from the home of Scottish Rugby.

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