Tom English: New SRU regime must invest in pro teams

So, no more treating the supporters like idiots, no more treating the media like we've all come down in the last shower, like simpletons, stupid and gullible and prepared to accept the spin that has been the stock-in-trade of the SRU for far too long. Last week, when The Scotsman broke the story of heavy turbulence in the SRU it was dismissed by Allan Munro, the SRU chairman, as "unhelpful media speculation".

Now that everybody knows it wasn't speculation but reality, we have some questions for Mr Munro. Do you stand over your assertion that "our great sport is developing at all levels"? And do you really expect us to believe that "Scottish rugby remains in excellent health"? If you do, then you have been asleep at the wheel all this time. The professional game in Scotland is on the brink.

In so many ways it is about 15 years behind Ireland, a country of a similar size. Scotland's pro teams are in crisis; woeful results, falling attendances, insufficient budgets, top names departing every season, no future and no hope. In increasing numbers, the very players that the SRU need to build their future around don't want to be here anymore. There is a chronic over-emphasis on the Test side to the detriment of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There will never, ever, be any sustainable improvement in Scottish rugby unless the two pro teams drive it. That is the way it has been in all other countries and that is the way it has to be here, too. If this new era in Murrayfield is to count for anything then the SRU needs to address the twin disasters that are Edinburgh and Glasgow. That's the big issue. All other things are secondary, including the Test side.

Edinburgh think that having fans standing at the side of the pitch at Murrayfield is an "innovative" measure to improve the most ghostly atmosphere in professional sport. It's feeble. A pathetic sign of the times.