Scotland failed to handle dawn of professionalism

Without a clear plan and pathway our nation has suffered and we must try to address a vicious cycle

Ibelieve all sport works in cycles. So in football, Liverpool dominated the 1970s and 1980s. Then Sir Alex Ferguson took over Manchester United and they were the top team for the next 20 years. Now the roles are reversing.

Nothing lasts forever, unless you are a Scotland supporter, in which case it feels like an eternity since we were successful. And by successful I am referring to results on the pitch, not any nonsense about financial results or the number of social media followers.

A lot has been made of the fact it is the 30-year anniversary of our last Grand Slam. That wait will go on another year after our loss in Dublin last weekend. Even after the 1990 slam, we continued to compete with the best teams in the next decade, finishing in the top two five times with our last championship in 1999.

As I love to tell everyone, we are still reigning Five Nations champions. At the World Cup we reached the semi-finals in 1991 and made the quarter-finals of the next two tournaments.

We have failed to make the knockout stages at two of the past three World Cups. There have been some magical moments along the way, not least the match against New Zealand in 2017 and the last Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield, but that consistent run of results has proved elusive. Our faces have been lit by a lot of false dawns without ever feeling the sun on our cheeks. So what happened? The most obvious explanation is that I played my last game for Scotland in 2000. After that we have been rubbish!

A more serious analysis, though, would look at the impact of professionalism. Scotland have two professional clubs, England have around 20 including the Championship. England also have 10 times the number of players Scotland does. When you look at it like that, it is a miracle that we have kept hold of the Calcutta Cup for the past two years.

The disparity in playing numbers also existed in the 1990s, but the difference was that we were able to punch well above our weight. Jim Telfer and Ian Mcgeechan were so far ahead of the curve as coaches and our players, generally, had a reputation for being really smart and tenacious. We out-thought a lot of teams. Professionalism wiped out that advantage. In fact, I would say we have gone backwards. There is too much paralysis by analysis. Players are losing the ability to think for themselves.

Of course, Ireland and Wales have won plenty of Grand Slams and Six Nations titles since 2000, despite having similar playing bases to our own. Even then there is a key difference between having four professional teams and two. Aside from the few guys playing in England and France, Gregor Townsend effectively has the choice of two starting hookers, two scrum-halves etc, playing at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

No country handled the dawn of professionalism perfectly. Scotland handled it less perfectly than others. What was needed was a clear plan and pathway, with the right investment to back it up.

Calcutta Cup win would paper over the cracks for another year

Scotland failed in both departments. With Ireland, there is a clear funnel from the junior clubs to the provinces to the national team. Everyone is pulling in the same direction. Sadly, Scotland never had the same level of collaboration. Too many people fought to protect their fiefdoms and the whole game suffered.

I may be incredibly biased because of where I am from, but the decision to disband the Borders in 2007 was foolish in the extreme. That is Scotland’s true rugby heartland, the one place where everyone grows up wanting to play rugby rather than football.

We also lost our pathway from junior rugby to club rugby and on to the national team. Everything is centred around two city teams and their academies. The gap from club to professional rugby is just too big. The Scottish Rugby Union has tried to address that with the Super6 but, arguably, that has come 20 years too late.

There are societal issues, too. Children have so many other distractions nowadays. Most prefer to play on their Playstation than head out for training. Melrose, my old club, used to have five teams; now they are struggling to field two. These are not unique issues to Scotland, but if you do not have the absolute numbers to start with it is going to have a greater effect.

Of course, if we win the Calcutta Cup today then everyone goes home happy and the cracks are papered over for another year. Maybe that is part of our problem.

Ireland and Wales no longer define themselves by their relationship with England. To a certain extent, we still do. If you were to offer the man on the street the choice of beating the auld enemy today and losing the other four games I am fairly sure they would bite your hand off. There are a lot of great, intelligent people at the SRU, who are trying to turn the cycle back in our direction.

Like with my motor neurone disease, you have to live in hope that day will come, otherwise you would have nothing else.