Running On Empty the Last Word the Last Word Alasdair Reid On Murrayfield's Absent Fans

Summary

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EVERY age has its defining images, and it would be hard to tell the story of the modern era of Scottish rugby without recourse to those stock shots of empty stands at Murrayfield, where tier upon tier of vacant seats around the great bowl of the Edinburgh stadium seem to line up as monuments to indifference and a game in sharp decline.

Yesterday's Test against Romania will have added a few more such snaps to the photo-libraries' collections, as the 12,128 spectators who turned up were not exactly short of elbow room in a ground built to accommodate 67,500. Things will presumably look a little better when the Pacific Islanders pitch up at Murrayfield next weekend, and a lot better when the Australians arrive a week later, but even the less embarrassing figures still suggest Scottish rugby is losing the numbers game.

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Extract

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Running On Empty the Last Word the Last Word Alasdair Reid On Murrayfield's Absent Fans

But wait haven't we been told time and again that a successful international team are their own best advertisement?

That a winning Scotland side will have supporters flocking to watch? Of course we have, but in a year when Jason White's men could hardly have offered ...

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