Things can only get better: Iain Morrison offers a ray of hope after a difficult year for Scottish rugby

The national team won three matches on the road including a first victory in Australia for 30 years but a freezing, flooded Tuesday night in Newcastle was as good as it got. The team were whitewashed in both the Six Nations and the autumn series to leave them with a miserable record of played 11, won three, lost eight.

If anything, the women were worse, not scoring a point in their opening four championship matches and, while they managed two tries against Italy, they still lost comfortably, if that is the appropriate word. The U20s managed to register one victory, scoring a try after the hooter against Italy (naturally) when some poor Azzurri player had the opportunity but not the gumption to kick the ball into the back of the stand. Still, it was Scotland’s only win throughout the three tiers of the Six Nations Championship so let’s not be too sniffy about how it was secured.

Highlights were few and far between and Scottish rugby ends the year without a national coach or a high performance director, although the latter may be a blessing.

In just five weeks the team faces a daunting trip to Twickenham, the graveyard of Scottish dreams, but here are a few reasons why things might not be quite as bad as they appear…

1. 2013 will be a better year than 2012

It’s not that tall an order but at least Scotland have some fundamentals in place, namely a big athletic pack and a decent goal kicker in Greig Laidlaw. Most teams get a boost from the appointment of a new coach and Scotland should win a couple of matches in the Six Nations (they haven’t won more than one since 2006).

Oddly enough, one of those victories could come at Twickenham. After beating New Zealand, England have forgotten that the All Blacks squad had been laid low by a virus and were dead on their feet in the last 20 minutes. Scotland’s pack bullied England relentlessly last time out at Murrayfield and they will hold their own in London.

2. Scott Johnson will leave Murrayfield before 2013 is up

He may not be the original but Johnson is surely one of those rambling men that Hank Williams was warbling about. Since 2007 he has been employed by a veritable menagerie: the WRU, the Wallabies, the Eagles, the Ospreys and the SRU. He does not seem to settle in one place and, arguably, is at his most effective in the short rather than the long term. A head coach needs to build upon a deep-rooted rugby philosophy and rock solid convictions. It’s not obvious that Johnson can call upon either.

3. Three Scots will make the initial Lions touring party

All three of them will be forwards. All three of them will be overlooked for selection in the first Test but all three of them will earn a Test cap before the series is over.

4. The Lions will lose to Australia

For the simple reason that their coach, Warren Gatland, has told them it will be easy. He didn’t quite say that, he said that Australia were the easiest of the Lions’ opponents but all anyone heard was the “easy” bit and it will stick in the tourists’ minds just as it sticks in the craw of the hosts. Deep down the Lions think the Wallabies are talented but soft and they might yet be surprised… just as England were at Twickenham a few weeks ago.

5. French success in the Heineken Cup

If any team can stop Clermont Auvergne it looks most likely to be one of the twin south coast giants of Toulon or Toulouse. The French clubs have deeper pockets than most and they can field stronger benches than most clubs’ starting XV. More of them now care about Europe than was previously the case and that is certainly true of Nathan Hines’ Clermont team that did the double over Leinster.

6. The Heineken Cup format will change

It has almost been forgotten amidst all the good will and seasonal cheer but both aspects are in short supply whenever the various bodies from club and country get together at an ERC meeting. While you have to despair at the sheer, unadulterated land grab of the English clubs, who need the money in order to hold on to their best players, the dispiriting sight of Connacht and Zebre in the same Heineken pool does suggest the cup is in need of a modest makeover.

7. France will win the Grand Slam

They have a pragmatist at the helm and they dismantled, with clinical efficiency, an Australian side that had just held the All Blacks to a draw. When Les Bleus are in that sort of mood they are all but unstoppable.

8. Kenny Murray’s Ayr side should secure the league title in Scotland, Muir for the automatic drop, Watsonians for the automatic promotion place

Admittedly Gala are hot on their heels but the men from Millbrae have beaten the Maroons both home and away and they have a five-point cushion, although Gala still have a match in hand. It could come down to the final round when Melrose make the short hop to Galashiels and Craig Chalmers’ side would love nothing more than to spike the championship hopes of their nearest rivals.

9. Michael Bradley will return to Ireland in the summer

The SRU has pumped money into the club and for what? This Edinburgh team has shown us what they can do and they are now operating at something like 60 per cent of capacity. While SRU boss Mark Dodson may feel he has no choice but to select a foreign coach for Scotland, he will look closer to home for Bradley’s successor with the likes of Stevie Scott, Tom Smith, Carl Hogg, Shade Munro, Ian Smith, Alan Tait and Bryan Redpath all in the frame.

10. Sale will get relegated and Richie Gray will move on

The big man will probably move across the Channel to France but it’s a heck of a long season over by and his agent is a good friend of Gregor Townsend’s so there is at least an outside chance of his returning whence he came and turning out for Glasgow.

And with that cheery note I’ll bid everyone a Happy New Year when it arrives.