Scotland v Ireland: Johnny Wattersontraces the decline of the Scottish game since the start of the professional era.

It has been difficult these last few months for Scottish players to keep their minds on rugby matters. More than that, it has been a difficult last few years for Scotland, a difficult last decade. Picture the current scene.

The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) find themselves more than €23 million in debt. At an SRU meeting a couple of weeks ago, the chairman, and boss of Scottish rugby, Gordon McKie, declined to guarantee any jobs when this season ends. Of the three Scottish franchises, one, Edinburgh, is privately controlled, by 45-year-old Bob Carruthers and his brother Alex; another, Border Reivers, has no better than a 25-per-cent chance of staying in business next year.

When the game first stepped from the amateur era Scotland had four professional teams. The likelihood is they will have just two professional franchises in 2008, Glasgow and Carruthers's Edinburgh.

That combination of grim realities has recently accelerated the exodus of elite players, most of them to England but a few to Ulster.

Rory Lamont left for Sale. Prop Euan Murray declared he was going to Northampton to follow the veteran frontrow and former Scotland captain Tom Smith. First-pick inside centre Rob Dewey, who faces Gordon D'Arcy today, and winger Simon Danielli will play with Ulster next year.

Imagine the outcry in Ireland if D'Arcy were to leave Leinster for Edinburgh or Brian O'Driscoll took up one of many offers to play in France.

Sean Lamont is in Northampton; secondrow Nathan Hines plays with Perpignan. Today's replacement halfback, Rory Lawson, and secondrow James Hamilton are contracted to Gloucester and Leicester respectively.

In Eddie O'Sullivan's XV only Llanelli's Simon Easterby plays his rugby for a non-Irish club.

Attendances in Scotland at non-international matches are abysmal at Border Reivers and poor elsewhere. Last September, for the kick-off to the Magners Celtic League, Borders attracted 1,293 fans to their match against Connacht in Netherdale. Glasgow got 1,653 at Hughenden for their game against Dragons.

That same weekend Ulster brought 8,265 fans to Ravenhill for their meeting with Llanelli. A few months later Leinster were able to attract 27,252 through the Lansdowne Road gates for their game against Munster, and a record-shattering 48,000 cheered Leinster and Ulster in the "Last Stand" at Lansdowne Road.

The recent defeat to Italy brought further shock to Scottish rugby. For those who had been watching and wailing for some time, it was a nadir seen by many as telling comment on a game that has badly struggled to fit into a professional world.

Last week that venerable daily paper The Scotsman printed a piece by David Ferguson about the recent Celtic League meeting between Edinburgh and The Ospreys.

"The bitter cold and rain which encircled Murrayfield at the finish of this match last night seemed an apt metaphor for the end of what has been a turgid seven days in Scottish rugby," wrote Ferguson before pointing out the financial chasm between the two teams. Ospreys featured two All Blacks, Justin Marshall and Filo Tiatia; three Welsh internationals, Sonny Parker, Brent Cockbain and Barry Williams; and the Springbok Stefan Terblanche.

Next year Scottish international names will also appear on opposition team sheets in even greater numbers than now.

"Yes, I think it is definitely going to get worse before it gets better," says the former Scotland and Lions outhalf Craig Chalmers. "I think unless they invest a lot of money it will get worse. Players are jumping ship and I don't blame them."

Chalmers, who played 60 times for Scotland, was part of the first Borders team that travelled to France in the brave new world only to ship an 80-point thrashing.

"We laid the foundations for a squad there, and the same had been done in the Caledonian region, but the SRU didn't give either of us a chance and merged the teams with Edinburgh and Glasgow," says Chalmers. "They went from four teams to two teams, which caused problems because there was no real identity between the clubs and the fans. In Ireland with Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht, they had always been there - the Reivers, the Gunners . . . I don't think it worked.

"People were sceptical and disillusioned and then started voting with their feet and you can see now the crowds for matches have fallen massively. I mean 2,000 people in Murrayfield, a stadium that holds 67,000. I remember 7,000, 8,000 were watching games at the start and even in the amateur days.

"The teams had a good following but there was so much change and uncertainty. Nothing is ever going to get better in Scotland until they go for something and stick with it. You have to have faith in people and teams. The SRU said we can't afford this, we can't afford that. Money is obviously a problem, but you wouldn't believe the money that has been wasted here in the last 10 years.

"Now there is no money. How are we going to attract players? Players don't know now what happens day to day and the clubs in England and Ireland aren't stupid. They see good players who are attracted to better wages and are worried about contracts, about the crowds. It's a bad thing."

Just where Scotland took the low road and Ireland took the high is difficult to pinpoint. But a number of factors are blamed for why it all began to fall apart when a nation the former Lions captain and Scottish openside flanker Finlay Calder says "muddled through in the amateur days and kept the system going" was asked to compete in a commercial world.

"Perhaps it was over-ambition from the start," he says. "Perhaps there was a lack of understanding of professional sport, which all combined to make the present situation untenable. And I think now that we have pretty well hit the skids.

"There was a complete lack of vision of the hard realities of commercial life. It was pretty easy even at the time to know that it was not sustainable. People then generally believed that it was the best thing to do, but it was flawed."

The problem now is that as the indigenous talents leave to play in England, France or Ireland, the SRU will have increasingly little control over what they do. It was Lawrence Dallaglio who first stood up to point out that the person who pays the wages is the one to whom players are loyal. While it's in a club's best interest to have squad members playing international rugby, there is often conflict. England remains a case in point.

Hopes of an abandoned Edinburgh or Glasgow trying to attract crowds without the players the public know seems doomed from the start. How the SRU would dearly love to be in the almost impregnable position of the IRFU, who can issue a sort of fatwa on players who leave Ireland. More importantly, what they would give now to have three professional teams like Munster, Leinster and Ulster, where the best Irish players prefer to play as a matter of choice.

On that count, the IRFU come in for some glowing praise from Scotland. Ireland didn't buy in big names to prop up the local market, and while they tried to trim costs, namely in cutting Connacht loose, they have kept all balls in the air.

"Ireland spent on home-grown talent," says Calder. "Looking from a distance, Croke Park has been a remarkable experience. It has been the most phenomenal marketing dream. Here we're green with envy.

"I'm sure Ireland has had pretty difficult meetings over these last 10 years, but of all the unions, they must be credited. I don't know who they (individuals) were but they must have had talent there to see where this was going."

Chalmers, who finally left Scotland and his club Melrose 10 years ago to play in England, regrets not doing so even earlier. He also regrets how the SRU spent money unwisely. Brendan Laney was, notoriously, flown in from New Zealand and was all lined up to play against Argentina four days later. It took the intervention of senior players to ensure that didn't happen, but the Kiwi did play against the All Blacks the following week.

"They wasted a lot of money on these players," says Chalmers. "They weren't good enough for their own country. They just jettisoned players . . . players who worked hard for shirts. To see someone get a shirt that cheaply - that was wrong, it was wrong."

Two weeks ago Edinburgh pulled back from a new confrontation with the SRU by leaving their frontline players out of a Celtic League team. But the problems continue to bubble under, though Graeme Stirling, the Edinburgh managing director, insisted relations with the union were "settling down" and "relaxed".

One recent announcements that illustrated how the Scottish game was withering on the vine came at around this time last year, when the union said the debt was to rise as a result of the failure to fill Murrayfield for Test matches. Astonishingly, the ground was short of its 67,800 capacity for the 2006 Six Nations match with France. It also had empty seats for the 2005 autumn internationals against Argentina, Samoa and New Zealand.

The shortfall from the French game alone cost £500,000, according to chief executive McKie.

The CEO damned employees, players, past players and committee members - who, he said, were "riddled with self-interest" - and again warned the back pitches at Murrayfield would be sold for housing if losses were not stemmed.

This year, it is the players that are breaking cover. Difficulties of the past few months, the last 10 years, are set, it seems, to run and run.