The year of destiny is underway, the one in which we find out whether those running Scottish rugby are true strategists, wishful thinkers or, perhaps, merely desperate bluffers.

Albeit last night's result cost them the pleasure of seeing a Scottish team at the top of the Pro12 table it was, in its way, symbolically encouraging for the governing body that the year began with an underdog triumph in the 1872 Challenge Cup.

That Edinburgh have shown enough this past week to suggest they are at last ready to contribute more to the national cause, while the once free-scoring Tim Visser last night rediscovered his nose for try opportunities is, then, the latest reason to enter a New Year full of hope.

This one, though, is meant to be particularly special. This is the one in which the SRU hierarchy will find out whether its strategic target, set three years ago, was any more achievable than the vast majority, if not all including those who set it, thought it to be when it was announced.

There is an argument, heartily adhered to by Ian Baraclough the Motherwell manager who, soon after his recent appointment, expressed his belief that he could lead the club to a first ever Premiership title, that there is no point in being involved in a competition and not believing you can win it.

Even after those of us who, on Ne'er Day, watched Motherwell discover just how far away they are from being the best side in Lanarkshire when they were slaughtered 5-0 he is to be commended for his ambition.

It is, after all, little more than half a year since his club ended the last full season as the second best in Scotland.

Baraclough is, then, merely engaging in what might be considered the "Moneyball" argument based on the low-budget Oakland A's baseball team of the early part of the last decade and glorified in Hollywood, that with innovative thinking leading to maximal use of resources, it is conceivable for a good little 'un to occasionally triumph over the big boys.

It was the sort of mentality that saw Jim McLean's Tannadice "corner-shop" out-compete the Old Firm supermarkets of the eighties.

Admittedly, having spent a lot of time in the United manager's office back in those days, his outlook seems, let's just say, a bit different to that of the Englishman who has arrived in wee Jim's native Lanarkshire via Irish football, given his determination to find some sort of positive from Thursday's experience, in highlighting the way the youngsters he had been forced to introduce had set about their task and perhaps earned themselves further opportunities.

Yet the principles are the same and in terms of whether his ambition is achievable his predecessor Stuart McCall proved that a club of Motherwell's resources can out-play every other club in Scotland across a campaign. There is, in effect, only one other team to beat.

Perhaps the SRU is doing no more than the same thing but in making that strategic statement the comparison, in SPFL terms, would surely be with the likes of Alloa Athletic or Livingston at the lower end of the Championship table, or maybe more accurately, Dunfermline, who are currently fourth in the third tier but were in the Premiership as recently as 2007, the last time Scotland reached the Rugby World Cup knockout stages.

Lord help John Potter - the Pars' 35-year-old manager for any wondering - were he to claim right now that he could see his club winning the Premiership.

Yet the failure to accept repeated invitations to step back from that target means it is that context that the SRU must be measured and as we move into 2015 it is right to question whether it is any closer to achievable than it was when its announcement invited and duly drew such ridicule, not least from the World Cup host nation.

Great encouragement has been drawn in some quarters from the performances of Glasgow Warriors and Scotland this past year and, as ever in Scottish rugby, the cheer-leaders have done their bit while attempts have been made to marginalise those daring to offer realistic analysis.

However Scottish rugby really does need that analysis and must continue to get it since far too many dreamers and chancers have been allowed to get away with far too much for too long.

This year marks the silver anniversary of the last Grand Slam and Triple Crown wins, Scotland's only appearance in the World Cup semi-finals having come off the back of that a year later.

Since then, in spite of vast sums being paid to administrators, competitiveness on the international stage has steadily declined to the extent that the Six Nations era has seen the national team repeatedly fail in annual bids to get into the top half of the table in a closed shop that protects its status.

In the autumn creditable wins were achieved over Argentina - a first in Edinburgh in a quarter of a century - and the men of Tonga, who had been responsible for the departure of the previous Scotland coach.

However, as has been customary since Scotland rightly felt forced to field an under-strength side against them in the 2007 World Cup pool match, New Zealand used their visit to rest the bulk of their Test team in mid-tour and still maintain their more than century long stranglehold that is just one of the obstacles to a Scottish World Cup triumph.

Another is the small matter of almost certainly having to beat England at Twickenham, something Scotland has done just four times in more than a century.

As to what can be drawn from this latest round of domestic derbies the ending of six years of Glasgow Warriors dominance in these derbies also offers encouragement that there may be a shift away from a deeply unhealthy dependence on one feeder teamWe will learn more over the next few weeks as Glasgow bid to take advantage of it having been made easier to reach the quarter-finals for the first time, but also seek to ensure they avoid finishing bottom of their European pool for the first time in three years.

The steady, odds-defying progress of preceding years in the Heineken Cup having stalled so horribly in the past two this, then, is the year in which Scottish rugby must prove itself capable of stepping beyond the internecine battling of the 1872 Challenge Cup, the only trophy a senior Scottish professional team has won this Millennium.