SCOTLAND’s loss to Spain in the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifying tie at the weekend was clearly a significant setback. A place in the biggest tournament in the sport would not only have given the current squad more experience of playing against the best teams on the planet, it would also have been a massive boost for the profile of women’s rugby in Scotland, providing it with greater exposure than it has had at any time this century.

But although, when judged in isolation, the aggregate 25-15 defeat might look like just one more sorry chapter in a lengthy tale of failure by a team which has not won a Six Nations match since 2010, the bigger picture paints a different, more optimistic story. And, to get a more accurate idea of where the national team is heading, we not only need to assess the current squad’s results and performances, but also remind ourselves of how far they have had to travel even to come close to competing with opponents such as Spain and their Six Nations rivals.

When international women’s rugby got going in the mid-1990s, Scotland were among the pioneers. The key members of the team in the five years from the first Test against Ireland in 1993 to the winning of the Grand Slam were not only excellent rugby players, they were strong characters too. Many were in their mid to late 20s around that time, and already had significant experience of leadership in their working lives; in some cases they either set up new rugby clubs themselves or established women’s branches at existing men’s clubs.

In other words, while the international game was a novelty to all concerned, women such as winger Sue Brodie and scrum-half Sandra Colamartino were far from being complete novices when it came to team-building. The pack, too, could boast some very self-reliant characters, and in tighthead prop Ali Christie, lock Lee Cockburn, and back-row forwards Jenni Sheerin and Donna Kennedy had a formidably strong spine. Needless to say, the coaches, Mark Francis and Roddy Stevenson, had a significant role to play too, not only tactically but also in preparing the squad psychologically.

So how did we get from that position of strength, with a team that won a Grand Slam and was a regular contender at World Cups, to the present situation? Two reasons really. Quite simply, other countries moved on. And Scotland did not.

By the time that Grand Slam was won in 1998, it was obvious that other nations were becoming more professional in their approach. The men’s game had gone professional three years earlier, and although women’s rugby had only a fraction of the money to help it develop, it was able to learn from a lot of the expertise that the men were acquiring, especially in areas such as sports science.

Or at least, it was able to do so in those other countries. In Scotland, coaches and players moved on, a slow decline set in, and nothing was really done to address it. Individuals, invariably volunteers, did what they could to hold things together, but they often felt that they did not receive anything like enough support or encouragement from the upper echelons of Scottish Rugby.

That decline was allowed to continue for far too long. The first turning point was the appointment of Mark Dodson as chief executive in 2011. The second was the recruitment in 2014 of Sheila Begbie from the Scottish Football Association. She became head of women’s and girls’ rugby, and a year after her own appointment she made Shade Munro head coach of the national team.

Since then Jade Konkel has become the country’s first professional female player and the national academies have made it easier for girls and young women to develop their skills long before they come into contention for a place in the Scotland squad.

In other words a structure is in place, some funding is there too, and a promising squad is being built up. So why, given those improvements, are the team still waiting for their first competitive win since a World Cup qualifier against Sweden in 2013 and their first victory in the Six Nations since they beat France six years ago?

Firstly, because by the time it was decided to stop the rot they had an awful lot of ground to make up on their nearest rivals. Second, because some of the most important members of that squad, such as 19-year-old centre Lisa Thomson and 21-year-old Chloe Rollie, are still relatively new to the highest level of competition. Contrast that inexperience with the facts that Stephanie Johnston, who had been the team’s most experienced player, retired earlier this year, and that Konkel was ruled out of the two-leg tie against Spain because of injury.

There is a long way to go, and no-one will be thinking of another Grand Slam for a few years. But steady progress is being made. That elusive win in the Six Nations should come next year, and if the current squad keeps developing at the current rate, they will not only be capable of winning World Cup play-offs next time round, they should be ranked high enough to qualify by right.