Ian McLauchlan, the president of the Scottish Rugby Union, has warned the Scotland head coach Andy Robinson and his players that they must start winning matches when the RBS 6 Nations gets under way against England at Murrayfield tomorrow.

McLauchlan, a former Scotland captain, described last year's World Cup results as "disgraceful".

The Scots failed to reach the quarter finals for the first time in the tournament's history, losing to Argentina and England and failing to score a try in three of their four pool matches.

The World Cup flop continued Scotland's poor competitive record under former England coach Robinson, who has won just two of his ten 6 Nations games in charge of the side. In both of the last two years, Scotland finished fifth in the table, just ahead of Italy.

Speaking ahead of the Calcutta Cup, which he won both as a player and captain, McLauchlan said: "I make no bones about it, I was bitterly disappointed about the World Cup. For us not to beat Argentina and then not to beat England was disgraceful; they were two ordinary sides.

"We didn't play well against Romania and we certainly didn't play well against Georgia because we should be blowing these sides away. We've got some fantastic players and these boys need to wise up and start winning. I told Andy in no uncertain terms I was really, really disappointed. He mirrored that view and I presume he would pass my thoughts on to the players."

McLauchlan does not dispute that performances have been better than results, and believes that the Scots would have beaten England in New Zealand had the win alone been good enough to see them through to the quarter finals. Even so, he is frustrated by the side's failure to convert potential into wins, which is largely due to them not taking their try-scoring chances.

"This game on Saturday is a big one for both sides," said McLauchlan, who played 10 times against England, four of them as captain.

"The danger for Scotland is that the new England coach, Stuart Lancaster, has got a much more feet-on-the-ground approach to the game."

The SRU president, who was a member of the 1971 Scotland side which beat England twice in eight days, also has his sights trained on the administrative staff at Murrayfield following the botched attempt to have London Irish centre Steven Shingler available for Scotland in the 6 Nations.

No sooner was the player named in Robinson's initial training squad for the opening matches against England and Wales, than the WRU counter-claimed that he was tied to them. The International Rugby Board has backed Wales' case, although Scotland have refused to let the matter drop and have lodged an appeal.

That has left Shingler, who was born in Wales, and played many times for their under-20 side, in international limbo. Had the IRB ruled in his favour he might have been in the squad for tomorrow's game, especially with centre Joe Ansbro injured, but instead he is ineligible for Scotland and will find it difficult to return to the Welsh fold.

Asked if the SRU had a duty of care to the player, whose mother is from Dumfries, McLauchlan replied: "Yes. It is a case of maladministration, and that is what Mark Dodson (the new SRU chief executive) is in there to sort out.

"After the David Hilton affair, which was massively embarrassing, we should have had a situation where that could never happen again – but it has happened at least twice since.

"The latest case is a young boy who has quite clearly said to Wales he doesn't want to play for them, he wants to play for Scotland. I think that should be enough, but there has to be a protocol that if it happens again we have to make sure the person we are after is available to us before we make it public.

"I feel very sorry for Steven Shingler, but everybody I know has told him that we will look after him and do our best to get him up here."