What Scotland really need to reach next level in rugby - but can they find it?

It is generally agreed that Antoine Dupont is a global star, the outstanding player today, as fine as any there has been. There seems to be no weakness in his game. He is fast and strong, passes off either hand, kicks off either foot, has an eye for the slightest opportunity, reads the play splendidly. The Frenchman is the complete rugby player.

We've often argued about the most important position in the team. It's a silly argument, though an enjoyable one. Players in our 1984 Grand Slam opted for Iain Milne, the tight-head prop. Not a glamorous choice, but he was the foundation on which the victory was made. It remains a key position even though the IRB is doing what it can to devalue the set scrum.

Many will go for No 8, more for the fly-half. Number 10 is the glamour boy: Jacky Kyle, Cliff Morgan, John Rutherford, Barry John, Phil Bennett, Jonathan Davies, Rob Andrew, Gregor Townsend, Johnny Wilkinson, Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton, Finn Russell - and that's restricting the candidates to the Six Nations.

Antoine Dupont inspires France at every rugby level.

There was a time when Barry John, "the King", could tell the Lions forwards "I don't tackle - that's your job". An exaggeration doubtless, but for a long time fly-halves were rarely expected to tackle except in cover defence. Wilkinson was perhaps the first who seemed to delight in tackling.

All fly-halves have to tackle now. Finn Russell was a poor or reluctant tackler in his early days with Glasgow; he's pretty good now. Owen Farrell has always tackled with enthusiasm, sometimes too much careless zeal. If there's a worry about his England successor Marcus Smith, it's because he's fragile in the tackle. He reminds me of a Scotland fly-half who was told by his captain Jim Telfer "if you can't blank blank tackle, you might at least get in the way".

Putting it very simply, the history of rugby is the move from a general scrimmage to specialization in different positions, and then beyond this. The special requirements of every position on the field are still there of course, so much so that the wearer of every jersey has a particular job, and if he can't do it well enough, he won't last long. But now he has to go beyond this.

Huge front five forwards are required to handle deftly, to off-load in the tackle, run good lines and so on, while backs are regularly required to win the ball at the breakdown. Sixty years ago Bill McLaren used to chortle when a prop or lock found the ball in his hands and space in front of him and didn't seem to know what to do with it. No longer.

Jamison Gibson-Park is one of Ireland's talismen.

Yet the scrum-half position is different Of course he has to have all the skills that the position requires. That's self-evident. But his are various, more so that in the case of any other player, but if your scrum-half has a bad game, or he and his replacement are both injured, you are likely to be in serious trouble. His is not a position anyone else can slot comfortably into. He has to make more decisions, and make them immediately, than any other player.

The French have always seen the scrum-half as the team's general, the commander-in-chief, and they are right to do so. Players in other positions can be a bit off their game, but a good team can endure this; not so, if the No 9 is in trouble. Ireland have been the best team in the Six Nations in recent seasons, but their most important player, their director of operations, has been Jamison Gibson-Park at 9. He doesn't have Dupont's strength and pace; perhaps his vision isn't quite as keen, but his judgement is excellent and he rarely makes a wrong decision

Scotland have always been well-served at scrum-half - one thinks of Roy Laidlaw, Gary Armstrong and Mike Blair. The present crop of Ben White, George Horne and Ali Price are pretty good too, but they haven't quite taken on the role of Commander-in- Chief. I suspect, or hope, that in a year or so, Jamie Dobie will do so. What I'm sure of is that until we have a 9 who takes on that controlling role effectively, and is the team's general, we won't have a championship side.

We may not look for an Antoine Dupont who is, I think, the best 9 I've ever seen, but we can reasonably hope for a 9 as intelligent and capable of running a game as Gibson-Park, someone who can and will be the General on the field.