THIS time last week, we were, truly, cringing Scots. The manner in which a promising Six Nations campaign had, if not quite crashed and burned, fallen apart at the seams, had been worse than discouraging and disappointing.
That was last Sunday. This morning, green shoots of recovery are showing. OK, Glasgow didn't beat Leinster at the RDS, but, they, in my humble opinion, took more out of the game than did the "Dubs". Glasgow left at least a couple of tries out there, but, after blowing a 20-point half-time lead, they battled back and thoroughly deserved to get a draw in a very difficult place to visit.
Then the slow transformation of Edinburgh under Alan Solomons continued with a terrific win at Llanelli - a marvellous result.
We are not yet a top nation, but, our two pro sides have shown, things are maybe not as dark as we thought they were.
YESTERDAY afternoon, I enjoyed watching a marvellous match, at Malleny Park, between Currie and Glasgow Hawks. This was no meaningless end-of-season fixture, one that had to be got out of the way for the neat winding-up of the 2014-15 BT Premiership.
This match was important for both sides; Currie HAD to win, to overtake Hawick and Gala into the fourth play-off place, while, Hawks, although they didn't absolutely HAVE to win, wanted badly to secure third-bottom spot and escape the end-of-season promotion and relegation play-off.
At the end of a game which demonstrated, yet again, that the Premiership is a better league and far-more competitive than some people think it is, Currie had triumphed, in the most-unbelievable manner.
They now go forward to Goldenacre, to face runaway regular season league winners Heriot's, while Hawks have to regroup for a crucial, winner stays up meeting with Stirling County, at Old Anniesland, on Saturday.
While all this drama was unfolding at Currie, down the road at the Greenyards, there was another crucial game, with Ayr needing to go there and win, to force 'Rose to travel to Millbrae on Saturday, for the other play-off semi-final.
This was: "A game of two halves", Ayr going out to a 14-3 lead, before 'Rose hit back in the second half, to leave Ayr holding-on for a single point win and home advantage in the semi-final.
SATURDAY'S two matches demonstrated the wisdom of incorporating play-offs into the BT Premiership. In any previous season, the match at Currie would have been largely irrelevant to Currie. Of course, they would have wanted to win it and finish fourth, while Hawks would still have wanted to win to clarify the play-off position at the foot.
The dynamic would have been different - the game would have lacked the edge which it had, and which made it so much more-enjoyable.
The upper echelons of the "amateur" game is one area which has caused the Murrayfied Mandarins problems ever since the game went professional. Scotland still has not properly sorted-out the difference between the players, to whom rugby is a job, and those to who it remains a hobby, albeit in some cases a paying hobby.
The play-offs is a start towards getting it right, but, we still have some way to go to get it right.
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