He stopped short of describing it as a Damascene conversion but Gregor Townsend admitted that his perspective on the matter of trawling the world for Scottish qualified rugby players has changed since his playing days as he took part in a charm offensive aimed at explaining the scale of the SRU’s Scottish Qualified (SQ) programme.

The Scotland coach was accompanying Mark Dodson, his chief executive, in meeting members of the English media yesterday as they sought to outline the thinking behind an initiative that was first announced at the Scottish Rugby AGM in June.

In effect it is industrialising a long-established process of identifying players with Scottish heritage who might wish to pledge allegiance to the homeland of parents and grand-parents.

Traditionally the route for English-born players was the London Scottish club which has produced more Scotland caps than any other, however since the sport went professional there has also been increasing effort made to recruit Southern Hemisphere based players.

That has generated considerable controversy in the past, most infamously when a group of senior players, including Townsend, protested about the way New Zealand-born Brendan Laney made his Scotland debut just days after arriving in the country in 2001.

However Townsend seemed to acknowledge that different responsibilities encourage a different outlook when asked if he now sees things differently.

“Yes, well I wasn’t coaching when I was playing,” he observed, while also indicating that he would not insist on players spending a minimum time involved in the Scottish scene before being selected.

“Not really. Huw Jones is a good example of someone who was playing Currie Cup and then about to play Super Rugby and then had a great impact with Scotland,” he said, referring to the centre who made a major impact when introduced last year.

“It’s even better now that he’s signed for Glasgow. I think playing at a high level, showing the ability to play at a national level is key.

“The rugby world’s got a lot smaller in the last few years. You’ve got more movement between countries and coaches, between Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, so if it fits then it’s not an issue.”

Townsend acknowledged that the need to identify players with Scottish ancestry and make them aware of the opportunity that offers them is all the more urgent because of global rule changes that will reduce the opportunity to recruit what have become known as ‘project players’, by raising residency qualifications from three to five years.

“This newly enhanced programme really helps us to identify more players and more opportunity for players to be noticed by us, to come on our radar, to potentially play for Scotland,” he said of what is now an extensive network of coaches in England and the Southern Hemisphere.

“We want to find as many players who are qualified either through birth or grandparents to see if they are ready to play for Scotland at age group level or the full national team.”