Scottish Rugby is failing the next generation of players - Allan Massie

Last week Edinburgh became the first northern club in the URC to win in South Africa, and, if they beat the Lions today, they will have brought off a notable double.

Glasgow disappointingly let what should have been a commanding lead slip in Cardiff. Nevertheless they, like Edinburgh, sit well up in the league table. Given that, to some extent anyway, positions in this table reflect the strength or weakness of any nation’s professional game, this is pleasing and should be encouraging.

I insert these qualifications for an obvious reason: so many of the Scotland team now play their club rugby in England. Not all these players have moved south of course. Some have always played for English clubs. Nevertheless others – Stuart Hogg, Jonny Gray, Rory Sutherland and Duhan van der Merwe – have all left Glasgow or Edinburgh for English clubs, just as Finn Russell moved from Glasgow to Paris. However, there was a pleasing reversal this week, the news that Sam Skinner is leaving Exeter for Edinburgh.

So it’s quite an achievement in the circumstances for both Scottish clubs to be riding high. However, one can’t but observe that they are doing so thanks to intelligent recruitment of players from Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, most of whom are not Scottish-qualified and never will be. A good deal of this season’s victories have been made possible by try-scoring Argentinian wings.

Well, that’s fine. Yet it’s just a bit worrying – or should be – that there have been weeks when no more than twenty of the players starting for the Scottish clubs are, or ever will be, available to Scotland. If we had three or four pro teams this might be no cause for anxiety. As it is, one wonders about opportunities for the next crop