Scotland went down to Newcastle this week to try out their base for next year's Rugby World Cup and I found myself hoping that someone had bothered to introduce a fellow by the name of Ally Hogg to Vern Cotter.

I say so because there are claims that Cotter is his own man, yet there is a real possibility, given the events of recent years, that the latest Scotland coach knows very little about Hogg's ability. If so, it would have been impossible to imagine a few years back.

Hogg was a survivor of the horrors of Scotland's first experience of hiring an antipodean head coach when he was capped as a 21-year-old under Matt Williams a decade ago.

Thereafter he became a fixture in the Scotland team, earning 48 caps for his country and, in an interview five years ago, one of the finest compliments I have ever heard given to a Scotland player.

The man issuing it was Andy Robinson, invited to outline his rugby philosophy before, as I correctly anticipated, his elevation to the post of Scotland coach a few days later. He spoke of Hogg's importance, comparing his abilities to those of none other than Richard Hill, the England World Cup winning flanker.

Like Hill, Robinson contended, Hogg was a player who functioned as "the glue" in a pack, someone who could spot holes where other players had been diverted from their duties and fill them, while also looking after his own.

Yet, after an operation on a hip injury which partly seemed down to the fact that he played almost every game for club and country, then a move to Newcastle Falcons, Hogg was never selected to play for Scotland under Robinson and has never done so again.

Given that there have frequently been reports of good form for Newcastle while players who have made far less of an impact on either side of the Border have been selected for Scotland's back-row I, for one, have never heard a satisfactory explanation for his disappearance from contention.

So much so that when I bumped into his dad in the summer I asked him if he had any idea. He has always struck me as a straightforward sort and said he genuinely did not. I believed him, so if Ally knows he has not even told his father.

It would be more understandable if Scotland had spent the last five years ripping teams to shreds with their rampaging play around the park but, well...

Another who like Hogg was, on his arrival in the professional game, instantly dubbed a "future Scotland captain" was meanwhile named this week as captain of Llanelli's Scarlets.

It seems the management there like what they are seeing from John Barclay but, as with Hogg, his star has faded to the extent that he has started just one Test since the match against Tonga that got Robinson sacked in 2012.

What makes all of this all the more odd is that we have heard an awful lot over this decade that has been dominated by imported Scotland coaches, about the lack of leaders in the national squad, yet these were two players who were seen as such from the earliest of ages.

Leaders, of course, tend to be people who do not merely accept things and are prepared to challenge even those with greater authority.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary you have to wonder whether Hogg and Barclay have dared to question those above them.

The experience of recent years has strongly suggested that doing so is not something to be encouraged within the current Scottish rugby union regime.

On which note, rumours abound regarding the position of another former flanker within the organisation.

There are those who believe that Fergus Wallace would, like brother Murray, have represented Scotland in the nineties if, as an upstart from one of the unfashionable parts of the country in rugby terms, he had had a bit less to say for himself.

He had to make do with winning Scotland A caps and captaining Glasgow, often to against the odds victories.

When he took on an administrative role at Warriors three years ago I wrote a piece outlining how proud he is to be known as "Mr Glasgow" to the rugby community in Scotland's biggest city and beyond.

However the word is that his face no longer fits and once again I cannot help wondering whether Fergus may have said the wrong thing to someone who cannot cope with alternative views.

I sincerely hope that is not the case because Wallace is one of the good guys and along with club captain Al Kellock - another whose influence appears to be on the wane - one of the very few within that organisation, who still have a genuine understanding of the rugby community in Glasgow.

We await developments with interest.