THESE are sorry days for Scottish Rugby, and I fear, things will get worse before they get better. Glasgow lifted the spirits with their win in Cardiff on Saturday night. It wasn't pretty, the side continues to make too-many basic mistakes, but, at least in the journeymen squad which was on-duty, there is a collective spirit which isn't always obvious when the so-called big guns are in there.
George Clancy was - well George Clancy; I always feel Scottish sides have, in boxing parlance, to win by a knock-out to get a points decision when GC has the whistle, but, in the end the better team won.
Which begs the question: what is it about the Welsh? Their Rabo teams are even more-shite than our two teams, but, when the pull on a red shirt - they seem to grow in stature. With our guys, they look the business in Glasgow and Edinburgh colours, but, put them in navy blue and they shrink.
It cannot simply be the coaches - can it? I have no doubts, SJ is nothing more than an over-promoted water carrier, but, I don't think Gatland is as good as some people think he is. I mean, if he was really top quality, he'd be, at the very least, coaching one of the major New Zealand franchises.
Meanwhile, what of Edinburgh? I appreciate Connacht, this season, have moved-on from being the whipping boys of Irish rugby, but, I see the fourth Irish province as, perhaps, the "par" team of the Pro12. You have to beat them to have a chance of getting into the play-off mix; fail to do this - you're shite.
Interesting to see how up for it and interested Lee Jones was for Glasgow on Saturday - yet he is apparently surplus to requirements at Edinburgh. Lee bopy should maybe stick a van in there, become Lee van Jones, learn a word of two of Boer and, who knows, he might get a game.
BUT, to our tale. I had a wee private go at David Ferguson of The Scotsman, via a private email this week, in which I made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the Borders Buddie "get with the program" and join the 'Taxi for Johnson' movement.
David hit back; his position is that, he will not jump on board a screaming "sack the coach" bandwagon, but, that the problems in Scottish rugby go far deeper than that and it will take more than ditching SJ to put things right.
I concur with that, but still feel, getting rid of SJ would be a fair start.
The truth is, the SRU never wanted professional rugby; they have never got their heads round it and, after 20-years, I feat the Murrayfield Mandarins never will.
Maybe we're just too-thrawn, too-clannish, too fond of an argument with the folk next door to ever raise our eyes from out of our own wee midden, gaze at the bigger picture and start to put things right.
This, in spire of my firm intention to vote "Yes" on 18 September, remains my single, nagging doubt too about independence.
The great Willie Shankly once said: "The secret to success in English football is to have enough Scots players to make a difference, but not so-many that they start fighting with one another and derail you."
That's maybe what's wrong with Scottish Rugby - at club level, we've got too-many Scots, fighting among themselves, while at professional level, we maybe haven't enough to make a difference.
Can we square this circle?
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