I would like to say that I was at Murrayfield for a chinwag with SRU chief executive Mark Dodson on Monday, but as I don't want to receive any more death threats from his communications department I am obliged to use the stadium's married name and tell you I was at BT Murrayfield instead.

 

And maybe that's no bad thing. As flogging off the naming rights last year netted the Union a sum close to £20 million, and as they have inexplicably resisted my suggestion that the greater proportion of that sum should be spent on an executive lounge for visiting media, the new moniker has meant a hefty wedge of cash for the grassroots of the game.

As Dodson stated, with a turn of phrase that made me wonder if he might have watched one too many episodes of The Office, the priority when it came to spending all that lovely loot was to "future-proof" Scottish rugby. In other words, there's no point widdling it all up the wall by buying half the All Blacks team and asking them to play for Edinburgh for a season or two.

Yet as we were talking less than 24 hours after Glasgow had been dumped out of Europe by Bath, and as Bath had recently spent something close to the gross domestic product of a medium-sized country on getting Sam Burgess to come and sit on their replacements' bench, it was still topical to ask if Scottish rugby has what it takes, or is willing to spend what is needed, to live with the big boys of the game these days.

After all, the quarter-final lineup in the Champions Cup makes grim reading for those - and I'll admit I've been amongst them at times - who have argued that the Guinness PRO12 is the equal in terms of quality of its counterparts in England and France. Of the eight teams who have gone through to the knockout stage, only one - Leinster - is from the Celtic/Italian competition.

That may be no great surprise, as the push for revamping the European competitions came mostly from the Anglo-French axis in the first place.

"The tournament is now weighted in favour of teams with the biggest squads, and they tend to be French and English," said Dodson (although a number of French and English sides would probably take issue with that claim). "But I think it has made a more exciting tournament and a truly meritocratic tournament.

"The reason I agreed [to the new European format] was that it future guaranteed Scotland a place at the top table for the next eight years. But more importantly, it took away any excuses we could have. If we want to get to the top we have to be in the Champions Cup."

And for that, of course, you have to have players who are capable of getting you there. Yet only a few days before their visit to Bath, Glasgow received confirmation that Sean Maitland, believed to be their highest-paid player, would be departing for London Irish at the end of this season. The impression given was that Glasgow did not, or rather could not, push too hard to keep the wing/full-back, preferring instead to spread the money his departure frees up a little wider.

To some extent, the Warriors have been victims of their own success, their wage bill swollen by the fact they have brought a number of players up through the ranks, picking up increments every step of the way. They have also supplied a disproportionately large number of players to the Scotland side and they have paid a heavy price for doing so.

Is it a coincidence that Glasgow have suffered mid-campaign dips two years running? The December doldrums has become a feature of the Warriors season and it is easy to conclude that the exertions their Test players have suffered over the previous month have played a significant part in that pattern. And an expensive part as well.

Forget that achingly close match at the Rec on Sunday. Glasgow's European ambitions were thrown off track by their back-to-back losses to Toulouse in the weeks before Christmas. Toulouse's contribution to the French squad in November had been a fraction of what Glasgow gave to Scotland.

Dodson, to his immense credit, has recognised the importance of having thriving, competitive pro teams in a way his predecessor Gordon McKie never did. It is even more important now that the Scottish sides are allowed to build on their foundations.

AND ANOTHER THING

Glasgow press officer Jeremy Bone was Twitter's busiest man on Sunday, sending out running updates on the play. But his by-the-minute nuggets of information - a lineout here, a penalty there - were in danger of creating a diplomatic incident when he sent out one saying "Bath scum in our 22." Thankfully, the social media service provides a delete function these days.