Scottish rugby has a 25-year problem to solve but Glasgow and Edinburgh depth is encouraging

The problem of how to bring on young professional players, providing them with enough meaningful rugby to enable them to make consistent progress has bedevilled Scottish rugby for more than a quarter of a century.

There have, of course, been many individual successes, but we have been less successful in managing this than Ireland, though arguably, in recent years, better than Wales, these two being, along with Italy, the countries most like us. Recently astute management by Franco Smith at Glasgow has done much to bridge the gap. Of course, players are coached while in age-group rugby but there too often follows a fallow field, especially among forwards who naturally take longer to develop physically. Now David Nucifora, the new Performance Director at Murrayfield seems already to be addressing the problem and we now have the concept of an Emerging Scotland team, ages 20 to 25, following the equivalent project he launched in Ireland, and it will play its first match on Saturday against an Emerging Italy side.

Nucifora makes the point that to be valuable, the matches must be demanding enough to stretch the players. Such opposition is not always easy to find. Everyone after all has a crowded calendar. But it's important. For too long our younger pro players have found too few dates on their calendar, too few certainly that were hard enough to stretch the players. Summer tours, like this years one in the USA and South America when more than half the Scotland squad were left at home can do this, as will next summer's in the Pacific when we may with unusual confidence and good reason expect perhaps half the Scotland team to be on Lions duty. But such tours are, I suppose, just a step beyond what is envisaged for the Emerging Scotland squad.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend with new performance director David Nucifora. | SNS Group / SRU

Meanwhile, we have European Cup matches, Edinburgh at home to Bayonne on Friday, Glasgow away to Toulon on Sunday. Edinburgh in the Challenge Cup lost away to Gloucester last week, but given that, for protocol reasons, they were resting most of their Scotland players, a 5-10 defeat was more encouraging than disappointing. They should be too good for Bayonne, even though it is no longer the case that French clubs mostly struggle away from home. Still last week Bayonne managed only a one-point home win against the Scarlets. Edinburgh should win, boosted by the news that Duhan van der Merwe has signed a new two-year contract, but, having won one match, Bayonne will surely feel that they have a real interest in this Cup.

Glasgow, however, face a very stiff task, away to Toulon. Today Toulon may not be the glamour club, full of international stars from South Africa, New Zealand and England who dominated the European game almost 20 years ago, and reading their team-list only those who follow the Top 14 close will recognize many of the names, but they are not to be taken lightly. Quite the opposite indeed, for last week they went to South Africa and beat the Stormers 24-14 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, doing so after being 14-10 down at half-time.

That is a result which might - probably would - have daunted a Scottish club a few years ago, but Franco Smith's team are not to be daunted by anyone. They know, after all, what it is to win in South Africa themselves having secured the URC title last May in the play-off on the Highveld. That was a performance that won them respect from everyone. Now is surely the year for them to make their mark in Europe too. They were near their best in the first round of the Cup at home to Sale last week. Victory assured with a four-try bonus point well before half-time. If the second half, playing against the strong wind was less spectacular, it was, in an important way, nearly as impressive, one try apiece.

George Horne evades Arron Reed's tackle to score the second try for Glasgow against Sale. | SNS Group

None of us now doubt Glasgow's attacking brilliance, but to see them so secure, accomplished and self-confident in defence was in its own way every bit as satisfying. If the star of the match was scrum-half George Horne who at his best, as he was last week, snaps up tries like an eager boy presented with a plate of jam tarts, it was the skill and power of the forwards, especially the Fagerson brothers and Rory Darge, that was so satisfying, especially since there was no falling off when replacements for half the pack came on in the 54th and 57th minute. Time was, not that long ago when replacements for Glasgow, Edinburgh and indeed Scotland used to have us feeling nervous, fearing a falling away but it's different now.

Nevertheless, even while one delights in Glasgow and the way they are playing, it is clear that competition in the Champions Cup is as stiff as it has ever been. Saracens beat the Bulls 27-5 and the figure 5 is significant. Leinster after a sloppy first half in vile conditions recovered to win in Bristol. The English champions Northampton thumped Castres, and on the Sunday Bordeaux-Begles beat Leicester while scoring seven tries, while, well, Ulster are as hard and determined as they have ever been, but Antoie Dupont's Toulouse scored nine tries - 61 points - and were so far the better team that they made lots of careless mistakes, either losing concentration or just having lots of careless fun. Toulouse aren't unbeatable, but it will take quite a team to win against them, Happy Days. Fears that the European Champions Cup might be losing its clamour now look silly. What next? Better weather, for one thing, I hope.