IAN BARNES, one of the most forthright figures in Scottish rugby, will appear before a Scotish Rugby Union disciplinary panel tonight charged with bringing the game into disrepute following an attack on the governing body in a recent Edinburgh Accies club programme.

The Accies' head coach, who has never been shy of courting controversy during 40 years in the sport, used his "Coach's Comments" column, which appeared when his side met Selkirk on February 27, to criticise those whose behaviour at Murrayfield, he believes, has brought the sport to its knees recently.

The first part of his criticism concerned the decision made by the interim executive board to guarantee the future of the country's three professional teams. "Just when you think the stink coming out of Murrayfield cannot get any worse it does, " wrote Barnes. "The temporary executive board, appointed by the discredited general committee, presume the authority to commit to funding the three socalled professional teams for another three years. It is like coming home to discover that the babysitter has painted your front room."

Barnes then turned his sights on one of the key figures in bringing about the removal of David Mackay, the former SRU chairman, from office.

He wrote: "If that is not bad enough you then discover that Norman Douglas is representing the clubs at the meeting with the Scottish Parliament's enterprise and culture committee. This is the same Norman Douglas who pulled every trick in the book to promote a third 'professional' team. The sooner the working party on governance comes through with its proposals and we get rid of these clowns the better."

In calling him to account for his actions, the SRU cited a complaint received from the Stewart's-Melville FP club, whose actions provoked the third part of Barnes' attack. He claimed: "The SRU Championship Committee, in pathetically opting out of our dispute over front-row cover, has effectively created a cheat's charter."

Curiously, though, in that correspondence from Murrayfield they enclosed a photocopy of the article at the top of which, Barnes noted, is Douglas' fax number.

Stewart's-Melville is home club of McLeod, as well as Allan Munro, one of the nonexecutive directors appointed by the general committee after the ousting of Mackay, Phil Anderton, the then chief executive who is an Edinburgh Academical, and the other nonexecutive directors.

Barnes, who as an international lock was part of Hawick's Green Machine, which dominated the early years of national league rugby, has employed the advocate Roddy Dunlop to represent him.

Barnes said yesterday: "He has advised me that I am entitled to make those comments and the club is allowed to publish them and if they want to sue me in a court of law then they should."