SCOTLAND should be in the top seven of the world's rugby nations, not just when it comes to the full national side but across the board from Under-16 level right through to the full Test side.

That is a goal that Scott Johnson, the director of elite rugby, believes can be achieved and he says the new academies he is helping set up are the key.

In his first media briefing since leaving his post as interim Scotland coach and moving upstairs to the director's role full time, Johnson was upbeat about the prospects for improvement once the new development system is up and running.

"Where we sit in all our world rankings throughout our age groups, we have to acknowledge we are not where we want to be," he said. "I want to set the target for Scotland to be a top- seven nation. If you are in that top seven you can beat anybody on any given day regularly. If we sit in the top seven all across the board I think we are in quite a good place. That is where we need to get to."

For the national side, it may seem not that big a leap. A friendly set of summer fixtures and rivals beating each other mean they currently sit eighth in the official International Rugby Board rankings. That, though, is a bit misleading, and historically, this is about as good as it gets. There is a gap between Scotland and France, the team immediately ahead, and although the side did make one brief foray into the top seven under Andy Robinson, they quickly dropped back again and spent longer outside the top 10 after defeat to Tonga in 2012 dropped them to 12th. Since the rankings were started in 2003 Scotland have mostly hovered around ninth or 10th.

Therefore, to get to seventh and stay there would be a considerable achievement, and even more so when you look down the age grades; the Under 20s are 10th and have never been better than ninth and the Under 18s are fifth in Europe. While the Under 16s do not have an official ranking, they were comfortably beaten by England in their most recent outing.

Part of the issue is that when these youngsters head into international tournaments, they are being asked to step up a huge level in speed, power and intensity.

"We need greater strength in competition at all age groups," Johnson said. "We are way off where we want to finish, but with the right people and the right energy you can do anything."

The backdrop to his comments was the opening in Aberdeen of the first of the four regional rugby academies that the SRU are hoping will address this issue. The plan is to identify players between about 14 and 17 and give them all the training, development expertise and medical aid they need so they are capable of taking on full-time professional contracts as they emerge from their teenage years.

"If your quality comes through that means you are not filling in holes. It puts pressure on players at both Edinburgh and Glasgow to make sure their performances are really good. It is all about quality of competition, quality of player, quality of facility. It could re-ignite the system," was Johnson's view.

"If we get a couple that come through the system pretty quickly and have ample opportunity, you might find it starts to produce players quicker than we first thought. It would be good to get a couple of good role models through."