Meeting of the Parliament 12 February 2026 [Draft]
Daniel Johnson is absolutely correct. When I was at Marr college playing rugby, 36 schools in Ayrshire played rugby. Last time I looked, there were six. Grass-roots access to playing rugby is limited. My eldest grandson now plays for Marr college and he is on the Scottish Rugby pathway. He got on to that pathway by playing at the Marr rugby minis, and his coach was the captain of Kilmarnock rugby club, which I played with once I had retired from track and field. That coach has taken the school team right the way through to some fantastic results.
That whole system is now missing. I am not going to say, “In my day”; I think that those are dangerous words to use, because it is not that this is not my day. However, we have to find a different way. Daniel Johnson rightly talked about the impact of participating—the confidence and resilience, the aspiration, the teamwork and the discipline that sport brings to a rounded person. However, there has been a huge reduction in opportunities to participate, and there is now a cost associated with participation that many cannot meet.
If we really want to tackle poor physical and mental health and Scotland’s poor health record, we should start with community sport and community activity, because they are the foundation of how we tackle those things in the long term.
I will be really interested to hear what the minister says in responding to the debate. The Government always says, “We are putting more money into this and there is more money for that”, but in this case that is not true on the ground. I am still involved as a performance coach. When we look at what is happening on the ground, we see that, these days, sport is becoming the bastion of the middle class and private education. That has to change.
I am really thankful that Daniel Johnson has given me the opportunity to come out and say again the same thing that I always say, because it is hugely important.