Scotland set for trying time

MY congratulations to Martin Hannan (“Dealing with failure should top our list of priorities”, Herald Sport, May 12) and David Barnes (“Scottish Rugby need to get real and devise long-term plan”, Herald Sport, May 10) for their critiques of Scottish rugby, both at club and country level.

We seem far too ready to accept the excuse of “building for the future” and allowing failure to be a part of that. It seems to have been lost on everyone within the sphere of Scotland’s rugby that winning is a habit, and it is one that cannot be under-estimated.

Having watched Finn Russell’s spectacular try for Racing ‘92, and then a video of his best contributions since his move to Paris, it begs the question: is the Scottish rugby set-up actually holding him (and others) back from producing their best? We are 15 months away from the Rugby World Cup and with the recent failure of Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby, are we (as a nation) likely to be ready for that tournament? With South Africa and the resurgent Ireland in our group, we are likely be embarrassed by yet another failure.

I hope to be proved wrong on all aspects of the above, but no matter the outcome for the teams, we all hope for nothing but a positive outcome for Scott Hastings.

Francis Deigman, Erskine.