Jeff Probyn: Scotland’s slump is so bad for Northern Hemisphere

I know it may sound strange but I am really saddened by the Calcutta Cup game last Saturday, not the result but what it represents. Over the years there have been games that have been won and lost by bigger margins than the 20 unanswered points scored by England, but somehow Scotland‘s capitulation was both disappointing and unexpected.
During the long history of games between Scotland and England there have been times when each country have fielded a weaker team for whatever reasons but there was never a lack of passion, enthusiasm or effort from both sides.
The Scots have had to make some tough decisions since the advent of professionalism and chose to go down the regional route that should have given them the financial muscle to compete with the best.
Funding just two elite teams should have allowed the SRU to concentrate all their resources and remain near the top of the tree, but they have somehow managed to create a divide between themselves and their clubs and seem to be doing a great impersonation of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
Scotland’s results in the past few years have been declining at a slow but steady rate and they now rank tenth in IRB rankings.
The problem is I can’t see how they reclaim their former glories even when new coach Vern Cotter finally takes up the reins.
With just two professional teams playing in elite competitions (RaboPro12 and Heineken) that are both under threat, there are not many options open to them in their efforts to develop more elite players.
Finding those players will be hard enough, given the declining number of participants in the Scottish game and even if they go on a worldwide trawl of the rugby playing nations looking for Scottish grandparents, it may be difficult persuading young talented players that their future lays north of the border.
With cash rich France and England pushing up wages, it may take more money than they are prepared to spend to sign the players they need.
If the Scots can’t raise their standards, it may be that the two-tier Six Nations contest I wrote about a few weeks ago, has come a step closer.
Unlike Italy (who have a number of clubs based around companies), the SRU will find it difficult to go back to a club-based league  given the efforts and structures that were put in place and the bridges burned with their clubs to build the two professional sides.
Even if they managed to find some players, funding a worthwhile professional league may be beyond them given the size of the player base while funding, let’s say up to eight clubs, could disperse the talent too much and actually lower standards.
As much as the memory of the Scottish team cheering and supporting Australia in the 1991 World Cup final will always make me happy when they lose, I do recognise the importance of having a truly competitive Six Nations particularly if we want to have more Northern Hemisphere World Cup winners.
The loss of Scotland as a competitive partner diminishes the collective quality of the Six Nations and even if we had the two- tier system encompassing Eastern Europe and possibly North America, it would take time to become a truly competitive structure, with Scotland or Italy yo-yoing between the leagues for a number of years.
As for England, I have to be honest and say that the challenge they faced last Saturday was not anything like the standard that should be expected in Europe’s premier international competition and certainly nowhere near what they are going to face next week at Twickenham.
Because of that, can we really judge whether or not England had improved their game from the previous week?
The conditions and opposition were so bad that no matter how England played, they were bound to win, but, despite scoring 20 points, the failure of England to convert many of the opportunities they created must be a concern for the management.
Against Ireland, it is likely that England will get far fewer scoring opportunities than they wasted last week and if they fail to convert every one into points, it will make the task of winning that much harder.
The news that the Australian game has financial troubles is also a surprise given that they had the benefit of a Lions tour last summer.
A profit of just 10 million Aus. dollars (£5.5m) from revenues of around 100 million Aus. dollars would at first sight seem like poor financial management, but it’s not only the ARU, virtually all the Australian Super rugby teams have financial problems, despite substantial Union funding.
In fact, the whole of Super Rugby (including New Zealand and South Africa) is set to run at a loss at least until a new TV contract is negotiated. Many of the problems have been exaserbated by sponsors moving on to other sports.
And despite all centrally contracted players taking a pay cut, former Wallaby captain, now New South Wales chairman Nick Farr-Jones, has pointed out that paying over a third of revenues to players in wages, is unsustainable.
All this should be a salutary warning to our Premiership, who recently announced an increase in the wage cap to £5m plus an unspecified amount for a marquee player. With a majority of clubs still running at a loss and with doubts over a European competition, is now the time to increase spending?