Moffat acknowledges development difficulties for front row Scots as Niven is handed his first start

He was offering his opinions on props after naming Lewis Niven for his first start in an Edinburgh jersey against a strong Cardiff side unchanged from their win at home to Castres for tonight's final Heineken Cup pool match at Murrayfield. The 22-year-old, who emerged from Trinity Academy and Edinburgh Accies, impressed Moffat and forwards coach Tom Smith off the bench at Northampton.

"We thought he did well when he came on last week," said Moffat. "With a young front row player it's working out when to integrate him and get him in, and we thought this was a good time alongside Ross Ford and Allan Jacobsen.

"He has been training well and now it's about giving him game-time and seeing what he can cope with. He has worked really hard, but it is hard for props. Physically in Scotland we seem to be a year or two behind. We don't have 17 or 18-year-old boys built like they are in other countries. I'm not as qualified as others to say how much is the natural development of Scots, the culture, our nature or whatever, and how much is how we develop them, but South Sea Islanders at 15 and 16 are so mature, yet some have never been near a gym in their lives; they are just built like that. We don't have many young guys like that or as many big lads as they do even in England."

Challenged on why strength and development was an area identified many years ago as being where Scottish rugby was lagging behind other nations, yet still there appeared to be no improvements, Moffat admitted he was not an expert but insisted that a lot of work was being carried out within the SRU specifically on this area.

Neill Potts, the SRU's head strength and conditioning coach, is an expert. He explained how the strength of pro rugby players had changed dramatically in the last decade, and that with an unprecedented force now being exerted through a front row - packs now weigh over a ton - comes a greater responsibility on properly managing front row forwards.

He said: "We have been doing a lot of work at the SRU in recent years to improve the development of our young players and props like Lewis are light years ahead of where Allan Jacobsen was in strength terms when he started in pro rugby, for example, or even where Kyle Traynor was at the same age, but it's a gradual process.

"You can't turn Scottish teenagers into players able to cope with professional rugby overnight, and while we're improving year on year so are the players in England, South Africa, Australia and elsewhere, so the improvements aren't always noticeable.

"Ten years ago, top players in the UK were trying to get into what they called the ‘100 club', an elite group of strong, mainly English forwards, who could bench-press 100kgs. Now our boys are lifting 165kgs and any player, in any position, who can't bench-press 100kgs is considered weak. About five years ago our top international props were squatting 200kgs; now Geoff Cross at Edinburgh is squatting 250kgs."

Recognising the different raw material pro teams in other countries receive in 18-year-olds to Edinburgh, he added: "We are behind countries such as America, and the southern hemisphere nations where they incorporate weight-training into their school curriculum from the age of 12 or 13. But we have lost a lot of PE from our schools over the last 20 years and if we're to remain a competitive nation at world level, working with the ‘X-Box Generation', that is a serious issue the Scottish government has to address."

Tonight, however, the focus is simpler: finishing the Heineken Cup with another Murrayfield victory and potential second place in the pool, which after the defeat at Northampton will need a high degree of physical and mental strength from the entire squad.