At the end of a chastening month for our top teams in the international arena comparing Celtic's challenges with those of the Scotland cricket and rugby teams may seem odd but there is surely a common denominator.

In each case there is an issue regarding intensity of preparation, not on the training ground, but because all three are, in different but overlapping ways, hampered by their domestic environment.

The most complex conundrum faces the best resourced of them.

What seemed evident, as Celtic suffered the extraordinary experience of being knocked out of the same European competition three times in one season, was that they were at least a match for Inter Milan in terms of personnel and conditioning but needed what proved to be a decisive quarter of an hour to adjust to the pace of what confronted them.

They went on to "win" the remainder of the two-leg tie 3-2, in spite of playing much of the away game in the San Siro down to 10 men after their best defender was red carded, but what preceded and followed those encounters surely undermined them.

In nine domestic matches ahead of and in between the meetings with the Italians Celtic won the lot scoring 22 goals and conceding just one. Three days after that potentially demoralising European exit they met Aberdeen in a match billed as a potential title decider and cruised to a 4-0 win.

Strolling through matches week-in/week-out cannot possibly prepare them for the sharpness of Continental opposition which at the very least contributed to the way that match started at Celtic Park.

If domestic life is too easy for Celtic, however, what about how some of our international cricketers spent part of their last season before their failed attempt to win a first ever World Cup match as the home-based lads continued to play in a league which, as recently as the previous year, was so poor that it was graced by a man of 50-something who was not good enough to play top flight Scottish cricket when in his twenties? (The use of deduction should be sufficient to establish why that can be stated with no risk of anyone taking the slightest offence.)

Admittedly a new inter-provincial competition with their Dutch counterparts was introduced last summer, but that domestic schedule, ahead of a combination of tour and warm-up matches, was no sort of preparation for 90 mph pacemen, mesmerising spinners and bludgeoning batsmen and ways must be found of ensuring that every contender is consistently playing real professional cricket as most of Ireland's squad, who performed so much better, now do.

Then there's the rugby team which is in a far more advantaged situation when it comes to domestic competition thanks to guaranteed involvement in the Pro12 and the European tournaments which are also the breeding ground for the Irish and Welsh international teams that have dominated the Six Nations Championship in recent years.

The problem there, however, is that failure to implement policies which clubs voted to introduce six years ago and that have been championed by Frank Hadden, the last homegrown head coach of Scotland and still the only man to steer the national team through a winning Six Nations, has amplified the lack of intensity that plagues Scotland in all sport at youth level.

Over the years one imported coach after another has been shocked by the skill deficit among homegrown youngsters coming into the professional game which is down to the inferiority of our youth rugby when compared to that in Ireland and Wales where intensity of competition helps players generate the capacity to perform skills under pressure.

Apparently Hadden, to his great credit, is finally making headway with his efforts to bring about meaningful integrated competition between the country's best schools and club youth teams as the SRU's clubs directed it to do all those years ago.

Sad as it is that an entire generation of youngsters has worked its way through secondary education since then, it is better late than never because whereas Celtic FC look trapped by what amounts to legalised restraint of trade and our cricketers need other countries to let them play regularly at the right level, rugby has both the financial and competitive wherewithal to address its problems, if the will is there to do so.

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And Another Thing...

After Scotland's capitulation by a record margin to Ireland effectively helped their Celtic neighbours defend their Six Nations title a haul of 16 wins from 20 and four successive second places for England was deemed "not good enough" by their Union's chief executive, despite an epic 55-35 defeat of France completing a campaign that saw them score 18 tries and lose just once.

Compare and contrast with all the talk of progress this side of Hadrian's Wall, particularly about the attacking play, after six tries were scored while yet another coat of whitewash was applied, bringing the Six Nations tally to three wins in 20 matches under the current SRU regime.

Time to get things in perspective methinks and take measures to regain some self-respect by understanding where Scottish rugby is in global terms while setting realistic strategic targets and, quite differently, identifying effective ways of raising aspirations.