I write this as news breaks that deaths from coronavirus in Scotland are nearing the four-figure mark, so it is with the proviso that everything in sport, and I mean everything, is an inconsequential matter of trivia at this time that I venture to suggest that some sports in Scotland, and especially rugby union, could do with a little image boost.

As the world of Scottish football has found out in recent days, when there isn’t any actual sport to write about, subjects that normally would be buried deep inside newspapers suddenly make back-page headlines.

The comings and goings at the headquarters of the Scottish Professional Football League would not normally fill five or six pages of the sports section, and blow-by-blow accounts of who said what to whom at what time in the SPFL would never see the light of day.

Yet with the coronavirus wrecking the sporting calendar, the sports pages still have to be filled and suddenly a lot of sportswriting chums of mine have had to become instant masters of the minutiae of administrative and legal detail the like of which they have only ever looked at sniffily in the past, if at all.

Normally sportswriters just like to write about sport. They glory in describing the beauty of a Brazilian free-kick bent into the postage-stamp corner, or the ferocity of a Springbok tackle, or the sound of leather on willow – I always like that one – or the failure of yet another Scot to win a game of golf. Now the whole clan is reduced to home quarantine, watching re-runs of old events or writing pieces of diatribe against the administrators or organisers who can’t get things sorted – I mean, anybody would think there’s a pandemic killing people out there, wouldn’t they?

It’s been even worse for the small and much-dwindled band of rugby writers in this country. At least the fitba’ hacks have been able to have a field day over the issues of who is going to get what dosh and win what league or who is going to get relegated, and every Scot, John, Murdoch or Stewart has been able to have their say. Yet most fitba’ clubs in the country have tried to at least keep their names in the papers. It is after all, nearly time for season ticket renewals, and it will need an almost insane loyalty for people to fork out for them.

Yet rugby is hardly making a headline, except when, quite correctly, the professional players and staff of the Scottish Rugby Union took a wage deferral. And it’s because I have already expressed my admiration for the way that the SRU has generally handled itself in this crisis - the fiasco of the Wales match was down to the Welsh Rugby Union – that I’m offering them some advice.

It’s time to open up and not give the impression that Murrayfield is full of control freaks. For instance, I would really like to know what the players of the national team or Edinburgh Rugby or Glasgow Warriors are thinking about this situation. What are they doing to cope with quarantine or self-isolation, how are they dealing with the sickness or, God forbid, the deaths of close ones? What do they think will happen when rugby re-starts, as it will? Most modern players are social media and tech savvy – could there not be Skype or other video conferences and interviews?

I asked the SRU for their comments on the almost complete invisibility of players in the media in recent weeks and was told this: “We will be issuing guidance to media shortly based on what the impact of furloughing all our contracted players means in terms of media access.”

In other words they will react too little, too late. Now it is a given that contracted players must always deal with the press through the media teams of Scottish Rugby or their clubs. That’s in the rules, or code of conduct, that each player signs up to. So even if the players are allowed to be interviewed you can bet they will have been given the script beforehand – fair enough, that’s the modern game for you.

What will happen if the SRU don’t get players up front is this – the admin and ‘backroom’ stuff will come under scrutiny as never before because the press abhors a vacuum.

More and more people will look into such matters as the Governance Task Force which President Dee Bradbury recently set up. Some 38 clubs sent a letter to her last week demanding that she stand down the Task Force. She replied yesterday saying it was going ahead anyway – big mistake.

That would also encourage those clubs about to get votes of no confidence flying into Murrayfield – mentioning no names at present but believe me, they are on their way.

So my advice is get the players and coaches out and talking. Just ask Neil Doncaster what happens if attention switches off the pitch.