by 
John Jeffrey’s “betrayal”, in his own words, shone a spotlight on the governance of the Scottish Rugby Union on the most high-profile stage and at the most inauspicious time.
Jeffrey, a member of the World Rugby council since 2010, is a former chairman of the SRU and the Six Nations Council and, in May last year, was elected unopposed as deputy chairman of the governing body after Bernard Laporte was forced to withdraw. ignominy after being found guilty by a French court of corruption.
Jeffrey’s manifesto to succeed Bill Beaumont as president was described as a “1,000-day action plan” and the Borders farmer, at the heart of Scottish rugby as a player and administrator for more than 30 years, had planned to run for a single term.
But Jeffrey announced on Wednesday that he had been “betrayed” by the SRU. The reasons would be better suited to an episode of House of Cards than a rugby meeting room. Much like the Rugby Football Union council and executive committee, the SRU is run by two different groups: Scottish Rugby Limited, the executive and operational arm; and the Custodian Board, the oversight body which represents Scotland’s grassroots amateur clubs. It is this last group with which Jeffrey proved himself.
Telegraph sport understands that members of the custodian group had issues with Jeffrey over past disagreements during his three-year tenure as SRU president. The 65-year-old was chairman of Scottish Rugby Limited from 2020-23 and a schism developed between the executives paid to run the game and their community counterparts.
During this period, Jeffrey was criticized for the SRU’s handling of the Siobhan Cattigan tragedy. She died aged 26 with her family, claiming undetected brain damage linked to rugby had triggered the decline in her health. The SRU apologized to the family.
The SRU also faced criticism over former chief executive Mark Dodson’s remuneration and post-Covid business strategy which led to a £10.5m loss.
In deciding to run for the presidency of World Rugby, Jeffrey always had the support of Scottish Rugby Limited, now run by John McGuigan, but it appears the Custodian Board did not get the same, a body Jeffrey s is opposed to creation.
The blocking of Jeffrey’s candidacy demonstrates a divide between the businessmen of Scottish rugby and those at the helm of community football. The latter group clearly feel aggrieved by the manner in which Jeffrey ran Scottish Rugby Limited between 2020 and 2023 and seized his chance for revenge, in a way that is not really about Scottish rugby, but world rugby.
