Could Scottish rugby have finally turned the corner?

Crowds up, Scottish teams winning in France, Heineken Cup final at Murrayfield already sold out, players returning to play in Scotland, RBS 6 Nations just about to start. Scottish rugby is on the way up and we should about it from the rooftops.

We deserve it after all the false dawns that we have seen since the start of professional rugby 13 long years ago. But what if this is another one of those false dawns we have become used to? Or maybe the mental fragility that Mike Brewer states is inbred in the current players is evident in former players that are now pundits.

I think we might have turned the corner and can look forward to the future with some optimism. In the past, we have enjoyed one bit of good news and clung to that as hope that things might have changed. Inevitably, that one bit of good news was simply that, a one-off, and quickly we returned to being the whipping boys of professional rugby.

Now, there are so many good news stories, they cannot be all coincidental. We must have got to this position by design and that means we need to use this position as base camp and push forward even further.

Never again can we drop back to the levels that we have seen when the teams were losing on the pitch in front of meagre crowds. The progress that Scotland made in the autumn in running the world champions so close would only be acceptable if the players have learnt from that experience. The same is now true for the pro teams.

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh achieved something in the Heineken Cup that Leicester, Bath, the Ospreys and Leinster failed to do: they won in France. That proves that the talent and the tactics are there in both teams. What they need to do now is win the tight games they lost which ultimately cost them any chance of progressing to the quarter-finals. Glasgow had chances to beat Bath home and away but they didn't. Same is true of Edinburgh when they played Wasps.

There have been a couple of big signings this week for the pro teams which are hugely encouraging with the promise of more to come. After Chris Cusiter and Scott MacLeod announced they are returning to Scotland there is intent at Murrayfield to get more of the exiles back with the Lamont brothers, Euan Murray, Simon Danielli and Rob Dewey the type of players being discussed.

This policy is being driven by the national coach so he can have as much control over his international players as possible. This is not a bad thing as Frank Hadden will have his fingers crossed that Sean Lamont comes through Northampton's game today unscathed and that Euan Murray recovers from a rib injury.

My concern with getting all these internationalists back to Scotland is that we will be cramming them all into two teams which will leave no room for any overseas players.

For the pro teams to make the next step, they must qualify for the knockout stage of the Heineken Cup or win the Magners League. I do not think they will be able to achieve this having only Scottish players in the teams.

Look at the qualifiers from the other Celtic nations for the Heineken Cup. Munster, Ospreys, Cardiff and Leinster all have a majority of their teams full of internationals from the country they represent. But they all rely heavily on overseas talent to take them to the next level. Munster aside, these teams would not have qualified for the quarter-finals without these overseas imports.

The English clubs have been almost world selects for a number of years because of the money they have but you still cannot underestimate the influence players like Nicky Evans had on a predominately English Harlequins side. Without him, they would have no quarter-final to look forward to.

So, as much as I am pleased to see Cusiter and MacLeod back in Scotland, I still hope there is scope for a couple of outstanding overseas players to be signed by Glasgow and Edinburgh. They could be the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle as our teams strive for success.

If this happens, maybe the next time the Heineken Cup comes back to Murrayfield, we will have a Scottish team in the final.