THE club rugby season just ended saw a significant improvement in the standard of play, at least towards the top of the league structure. Individual coaches will, as ever, spend a lot of the summer trying to think up ways of improving their own teams, but when it comes to ensuring that the game as a whole keeps getting better, there is one obvious thing to do if at all possible - increase the involvement of professional players.

This may seem counterintuitive to those who objected to the impact made by Edinburgh pro Neil Cochrane for Heriot’s in the Scottish Cup final, when he scored two tries against Melrose in his first outing for the Goldenacre club. And certainly, there are undeniable flaws in the system as it works at present.

But abolishing something just because it is flawed is not always the best course of action. Indeed, in this case it would only widen the gap between the pro ranks and the club game, making it more difficult for even our most promising players to graduate from the latter to the former.

If your aim is to have a club game which is entirely amateur, fair enough: refuse entry to the pros. But at present it is semi-professional - not in monetary terms, because the players do not pick up a wage, but in terms of the time and effort they devote to the sport.

Last week, for example, the Heriot’s squad had three rugby sessions in addition to whatever gym work individual players found time to fit in. That is close to the same workload as the likes of Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh would have, so there is no denying the commitment of the club players. Many of those players have the ambition of being offered a pro career, while some of the country’s leading club coaches would also jump at the chance of becoming full-time.

Of course, the first responsibility of a club coach is to his own team. But probably an overwhelming majority of them, particularly in the upper echelons, are also convinced that the wider purpose of the club game is to bring through players for the pro teams and in time for the national team itself.

In that context, it surely has to help to have experienced professionals turning out alongside those younger, ambitious players as often as possible. The question is how best to integrate them.

Heriot’s were entirely within their rights to pick Cochrane for the cup final, and for their Premiership final victory against Ayr last weekend. John Dalziel, the Melrose coach, had no complaints about the hooker’s selection to play against his own club at Murrayfield - and pointed out that in George Turner he had another Edinburgh hooker, albeit a less experienced one, in his own ranks.

But understandably, it still rankled with many that a player who had contributed nothing to a club’s progress to the final should be parachuted in for the big day. The solution to that? Ensure that there is a closer connection between a pro and the club he is attached to, so we no longer get the impression that he is just popping up out of the blue in search of glory and a gong.

As far as possible, pro players should be attached to their clubs of origin - so if Stuart Hogg, for example, needs game time before returning to the Warriors first team, he turns out for Hawick. Pros such as WP Nel who did not grow up playing rugby in Scotland could then be attached to clubs who, for whatever reason, have produced fewer or no current internationals.

If pros feel committed to a club, they can only help improve the standard of the game. And that, in turn, will surely help increase attendances above their present, pitifully small level.

Driving up standards should help close the gap between the pro teams and the best club sides - and indeed between the few clubs at the top and those towards the bottom of the Premiership. It does the game no good at all to have a club like Selkirk win promotion and then, as almost everyone expected, go straight back down again to the Championship. Judicious allocation of professionals can help make the top flight more competitive.

Having said that, it should also be noted that Heriot’s in particular have grown in stature as a squad, and not just when Cochrane has been available to them. In each of their four big games, the semis and finals of the two competitions, they were able to turn in a display that was at the same time relentless and composed - a combination of qualities that should come as second nature to seasoned internationals, but is often beyond the powers of club sides.

The champions have now been pencilled in for a home-and-away tie with their Italian counterparts, probably on consecutive weekends in November. It should provide them - and us - with a fascinating comparison of the strengths of the club game in the two countries.