Unfortunately, end of season holidays and illnesses affected the numbers attending the October Lunch to being down somewhat from September. Nevertheless, there were almost 110 present to hear what one departing member said was one of the best talks he’d heard at GROGS. John McGuigan, the Chairman of Scottish Rugby Ltd., the ultimate authority in Scottish rugby, lived up to every expectation in being such an engaging, interesting and authoritative speaker. He had gained considerable business experience in high profile positions in both the public and private sectors before being appointed to his current position. He believes that things had started to turn around from the parlous state Scottish Rugby had been in when he joined in May 2023. By way of achievements, he cited:- the number of favourable commercial agreements now in place; the promotion of Murrayfield as an entertainment venue (a few muttered “hear, hear’s” were heard from the Oasis fans present); the significant reduction in the loss carried forward and the successful appointment of David Nucifora as High Performance Director who is, curiously, based in Australia. John also spoke passionately about the plans to develop Murrayfield into more of a community facility by using the adjacent spare acreage to the stadium. However, he wasn’t blind to the fact that many Scottish rugby fans and clubs had lost faith in the way the sport had been administered in recent times and acknowledged that the Siobhan Cattigan affair should have been handled more effectively and Gregor Townsend’s part time appointment with Newcastle Red Bulls should have been made public more clearly. On that point he stressed that Gregor is still under contract to the SRU which can still exercise control over his actions and he is confident that the decision to reappoint him until the next World Cup is the right one. Without doubt John held the interest of his audience which was clearly impressed with his real sense of commitment to his role even though many might have been described as sceptical before the day. There was a sense of anticipation for the inevitable questions, some of which were quite forthright, but John answered them easily and honestly. In presenting him with a bottle of Special GROGS whisky our own Chairman, Johnston Sime, who had handled the event with skill and polish, wished John every success in his future work with the SRU.