As he offered a blunt critique of what he encountered on taking over as Edinburgh's head coach, Alan Solomons yesterday hinted at deep failings within Scottish rugby's headquarters.

Ever since starting in the job, the South African has said that he, his management team and, as a consequence, the playing squad he has taken charge of, are playing catch up with their rivals.

However, the detailed explanation of why that is, which he offered, suggested that they have uncovered some major problems.

"The functional part of the conditioning is busy going in at the moment because there was no functional conditioning done prior to the arrival of Omar [Mouneimne, the assistant he brought with him from Super 15's Southern Kings]," he said.

"That's no reflection on any of the conditioning that was done before [this summer] because that wasn't the brief. The brief was to put in some base fitness and Neil Potts [the SRU's head of fitness and conditioning] did an excellent job, but from a coaching perspective particularly the defence and the breakdown, you need that functional conditioning."

By which he means what is more commonly thought of as match fitness in terms of readiness and ability to react to what confronts players in game situations and, on the face of it, his comments could be interpreted as simply reflecting the lateness of his and Mouneimne's arrival in camp.

Solomons added: "Put it this way, I can't comment on what's been happening here in the past but from a functional conditioning perspective we needed work.

"But I think you've got to back, as I understood it - and I wasn't here - that the science conditioning left a great deal to be desired full stop."

"That is absolutely fundamental and what would normally have after that period is the coaching transfer's over. Obviously what we will do when we have a full pre-season together is that will be completely integrated."

Plenty of caveats in there designed to avoid apportioning blame to anyone presently on the SRU staff, but the reality is that if his assessment is right, a great deal seems not have been done properly within the professional team that plays on the governing body's front lawn and which contains many Scotland internationalists.

Given the experience of the past decade or so it would, meanwhile, be understandable if those of a cynical disposition interpreted these comments as merely the latest attempt by an in-coming coach to buy additional time for himself by casting aspersions upon the previous regime.

Certainly all the available evidence is that Solomons is likely to need as much time as he can get to turn things around at the club that is separated from its Scottish rivals Glasgow Warriors by the full length of the league table.

Given the rapidity with which successive SRU regimes have discarded professional coaches over the years there is no guarantee of that. However, if Solomons is the right man for the job, as most believe the tried and tested trouble-shooter to be, the current SRU hierarchy are under additional pressure to give him extra breathing space.

They, after all, took full ownership of his appointment only a few weeks ago so have little choice but to accept his assessment of what he found when he arrived.

To frustrated supporters who were muted as the side slumped to a home defeat to the Scarlets last weekend, none of that will offer much in the way of solace at the time of the season when, as evidenced by the Cardiff line-up for tomorrow's match, most teams are getting up to full strength.

Furthermore, given all the conditioning work they are still undertaking, Solomons warned them not to expect miracles of their own leading players such as Greig Laidlaw, the captain who makes his first competitive appearance of the season tomorrow and Matt Scott who is set to do likewise from the bench.

With the Heineken Cup just a week away, his essential message was that any further wins before the end of October will fit very much into the bonus camp.

There will, this season, be no repeat of the Heineken Cup heroics of two years ago and it looks as if it may be some time before they start to clamber their way up the RaboDirect Pro12 table.