Carruthers: SRU have eyes for Edinburgh

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Carruthers' one-year tenure has been marked mostly by an ongoing dispute with the SRU. The club resigned their associate membership of the SRU on Monday, so the SRU subsequently claimed they would be unable to play Magners League or Heineken Cup fixtures next season and that their players were uninsured "by the governing body scheme for the purposes of training or playing".

In a further statement, and reiterated at a press conference in the capital on Tuesday, Carruthers maintained Edinburgh would fulfil fixtures and that their players were insured, while adding: "I think the SRU would love to have Edinburgh back because there is no vision for professional rugby in Scotland and that's the problem."

He added: "There has been a concerted campaign to undermine Edinburgh almost from the day that we bought the club but that's life, we have to get on with it."

The conflict centres primarily on the distribution of Magners League and Heineken Cup fees. Carruthers contends the SRU owe Edinburgh a six-figure sum, which the union deny.

Edinburgh escalated the row when they prevented 12 of their World Cup-bound players training with their Scotland team-mates last week.

But Carruthers added: "We think there is a better strategy for rugby in Scotland and sometimes you have to take a bit of pain if you care about what you are doing.

"We could have bought a club in England but we wanted to support professional rugby in Scotland played by Scottish players in Scotland."

Carruthers also called for immediate mediation to end the dispute after saying that the SRU's actions have "trashed the reputation of Scottish rugby around the world".

Carruthers was scathing of the SRU's handling of the situation, while appealing for the governing body to meet and resolve the situation.