Scot exiles threaten pay strike

Scotland's World Cup preparations have been disrupted by a pay dispute which has prompted a strike threat by players based in England and France who are angry at the Scottish Rugby Union's proposal to offer more World Cup money to their colleagues who have accepted playing contracts with the Edinburgh and Glasgow clubs.

The exiles, who form the majority of Scotland's squad, pulled out of a training session at Murrayfield this week but their lawyer, Paul Cairns, believes the dispute will be settled within a week. "We are negotiating amicably with the Scottish Rugby Union," he said. "I would hope that the problem would be sorted out by the beginning of next week at the latest."

A spokesman for the SRU confirmed that the problem was confined to players earning their livings outside Scotland. "We are talking about the payment structure for the coming season," he said. "It affects players outside Scotland and we do not wish to go into detail as they involve the relationship between an employer and an employee.

"Given that our exiled players were discussing the issue with their lawyer, it made it impractical for them to take part in the national squad session earlier this week. We want matters to be resolved as quickly as possible."

The Scotland squad is not due to assemble again until a week today and Simon Choen, the agent for Gary Armstrong and Doddie Weir, said the proposed system was unnecessarily divisive.

"This dispute is not about money," said Cohen. "It is about fairness. Players would be happy to represent their country for nothing, but offering some more than others creates all kind of problems. There should be no differential: all players should receive the same wherever they are based."

Most of Scotland's leading players, including Armstrong, Weir, Gregor Townsend, Tom Smith, Scott Murray, Kenny Logan and Jamie Mayer, have resisted the temptation to join Edinburgh and Glasgow who next season will compete in the Welsh Premier Division.

The move has divided Scottish rugby and the SRU decided that the best way to keep players within their borders was to offer them more lucrative national contracts than those who moved to England or France.

Contrary to their Scottish counterparts, Ireland's prospective World Cup participants have already resolved their additional financial arrangements with the IRFU for this autumn's World Cup.

On top of the existing retainers, the same pay structure per match will also apply, with match fees of £1,000 and £2,000 for home-based and foreign-based players augmented by win bonuses of £3,000 per match. Further bonus schemes for reaching the knockout stages, and per round thereafter, have also been agreed upon.

Meanwhile, one of Scotland's exiled players, the Bath number eight Eric Peters, may miss the World Cup anyway because of the knee injury he sustained in April. "I have no idea when I will be back," he said. "It could be that I need a second operation."

He is rehabilitating in Bath and said: "I had one operation to pin the knee back together but the problem has not healed properly.

"There are still some bits and pieces which may need a second operation."

Peters is back working on exercise bikes and receiving constant physiotherapy from Bath's medics.