The Scottish Rugby Union's chairman has offered the National League club Cumbernauld an "unreserved apology"
for the distress caused to them by their ejection from the Scottish Cup this year.
In an extraordinary move, Allan Munro has also offered the club a veto on who will be involved in a working party that will decide how the governing body's championship committee rules are to be redrawn, which appears to be a clear attempt to compensate the club.
Cumbernauld have campaigned relentlessly since they were thrown out of the competition, along with StBoswells, another National League side, without being allowed to play their postponed third-round ties.
Faced with a modest fixture pile-up, the SRU's championship committee decided those ties on the basis that their opponents were from higher leagues so would have been more likely to go through.
That was more than two months ago and caused a minor public outcry, including condemnation of the decision by MSPs from all parties.
While the manner of the apology may be belated, it is given added weight by the chairman's proposal that "a short life working group" be formed to deal specifically with the matters raised by the way they were removed from the tournament.
It is to comprise personnel agreed with Cumbernauld, including two nominees from the club, representatives of the committee and board members. Munro has also indicated that this must all be addressed ahead of the SRU's annual meeting in June.
Club officials are believed to be pleased and impressed by Munro's intervention, but the timing of his apology and offer may be significant, as the deadline for submitting motions to the governing body's annual meeting passed on Thursday.
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