One might imagine Phil Smith, the Heriot's coach, would be a happy fellow at this stage of the season.

After all, the Goldenacre club finished ten points clear of the opposition in the BT Premiership and regularly demonstrated their winning combination of passion and pragmatism.

However, Smith isn't smiling as he contemplates this weekend's inaugural play-offs, which will pit his team against Currie and Ayr against Melrose, with the victors meeting in the final on April 25. That just happens to be three weeks later than was originally scheduled; the consequence of so many matches being postponed after clubs with Scotland U-20 players in their ranks were granted dispensation by the SRU to switch fixtures to later in the calendar.

At the outset of the league campaign, the play-offs were meant to generate a dramatic climax to the winter's action and also provide the participants with some (always welcome) additional revenue. But, ever since the start of the Six Nations Championship at the beginning of February, the grassroots programme has been about as easy to fathom as quantum physics. Currie, for instance, only sealed their qualification last Saturday with a nerve-shredding success over Glasgow Hawks. Heriot's, meanwhile, who finished all of 20 points in front of their Malleny Park rivals, have effectively been twiddling their thumbs for the last three weeks and, even should they prevail this weekend, they will only have played twice in six weeks with another three weeks to wait for the denouement.

"I was in favour of the play-offs when the idea was suggested, but it has turned into a shambles and all this chopping and changing is a shocker," said Smith. "If it had been a terrible winter and matches had been getting cancelled and we were all in the same situation, that would be one thing. But the dispensation issues have created a bit of a mess. I don't really understand why so many of these games were moved. If clubs are relying on teenagers to win matches for them, that's a bit strange in the first place. But that's exactly what has happened.

"Good luck to Currie for getting into the play-offs and we know we can expect a tough time of it from them, because they have built up momentum in the last few weeks. But I also don't understand why we all have to wait until April 25 for the title outcome to be settled. I get it that the Scottish Cup final is on April 18 [at Murrayfield] and that is a big day for the clubs. But why couldn't we have staged the final on April 11? Yes, I know it's the Melrose Sevens on that day, but the fact is the play-offs were meant to have been played on March 28 and April 4 on two successive weekends. That would have got people talking and sparked a lot of interest, whereas we have ended up with something which is totally different.

"It will be the same for all the clubs and this hasn't lessened our desire to win the overall title. On the contrary, having just missed out on a place in the Cup final [Heriots lost 6-3 to Hawick], the boys are desperate to make sure they get some reward for all the hard work they have put in throughout the season. But this hasn't worked out the way I was hoping and I hope we look again at how we plan this in the future."

April shouldn't be the cruellest month for Smith's personnel. After all, Heriot's are meeting the Barbarians in a contest to celebrate the 125th birthday of both these august institutions and it would be bizarre if their Premiership domination yielded nothing. But that possibility has certainly increased, considering how the three other teams in the play-offs have enjoyed regular on-field action in recent weeks.

None the less, Smith isn't interested in using that as an excuse. "These matches on Saturday should both be crackers, and we will be training with a real intensity in the days ahead," he said. "I have no doubt that Currie will bring a big travelling support with them to Goldenacre and we will have a healthy crowd and, once it gets to 3pm on Sunday, I'm sure the competitive juices will be flowing and it will be an exciting spectacle. Of course, we want to win. But all four sides have put in a big shift to get to this stage."

Ultimately, though, it hasn't turned out the way he envisaged, nor in the fashion which would have made the most sense.