Scottish rugby is 10 years behind Ireland in terms of player development pathways, according to Glasgow Warriors attack coach Nigel Carolan, who is ideally placed to make that comparison as he was academy manager in his home province of Connacht between 2004 and 2017.

The 48-year-old says he believes that Scotland can catch up with his homeland, who are ranked the top team in the world, and who completed Six Nations Grand Slams at both senior and under-20s level last weekend, but stressed that it will require time, effort and money to be invested in the whole pathway rather than focusing purely on the elite players already in national age-grade and academy programmes.

“The systems they [Ireland] have, especially at age grade, is a little bit ahead of Scotland at the moment,” he said. “When Scotland catches up, they’ll get there through local, indigenous players again, so they just need that foundation.

“Ireland are maybe 10 years down that road having invested in players as 14 or 15-year-olds, and the under-20s over the last three or four years have been successful off the back of that. But that’s just a by-product of the system – it’s not like they invested in the under-20s. It just so happened that the 20s happened to be good and those guys are coming through now into the senior team.”

Carolan accepted that a big part of the challenge Scotland now faces as it strives to close the gap on Ireland – or at least prevent it growing wider – is to somehow ingrain success into the national psyche.

Since the turn of the century, the Irish national team have won the Six Nations championships five times including three Grand Slams, while their provinces have won the European Champions Cup six times and the URC (or its forerunners) 13 times. They have only twice finished outside the top three of the Six Nations, when they ended up fourth in 2008 and fifth in 2013, and on both those occasions they bounced back to win the championship the following year.

During that same period, Scotland have never managed to finish higher than third in the Six Nations table and their success at pro level is restricted to Glasgow Warriors winning the PRO12 (as it was then known) in 2015.

It is a stark contrast given that pre 21st century these were two closely matched rugby nations with Scotland tending to have the edge in one-on-one clashes (60 wins versus 45, with five draws).

“They’re in a golden era now and all they know is winning, so it’s become part of their DNA,” acknowledged Carolan. “It’s all a by-product of getting them early but it will come in Scotland once they get the right foundations in place and the investment is put in the right area which is the young lads.

“There’s no point investing in the middle and hoping that the 20s are going to win. You have to invest in them as 15-year-olds and then you’ll get a product that will come through and rise to the top eventually.

“The desire is definitely here to get that through. You need all the pieces joined up. There has to be an understanding that patience is required, and you have to start at the beginning. It’s not a top-down approach. It’s actually a bottom-up approach that has brought that success in Ireland.

“I was part of that in my previous role as academy manager at Connacht 10 year ago when these systems were put in place. It needs joined-up thinking, investment in the right areas and then patience. It will take time as there’s no quick fix to it. It’s work and buy-in from everybody that’s required.”

Carolan will be involved in another match-up between Scottish and Irish rugby this weekend when Glasgow take on Munster at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday. There is plenty at stake for two teams battling for a home draw in the URC play-offs, with Warriors occupying that all-important fourth spot in the table, but Munster are only two points behind in fifth.

“Munster are at home this weekend, then go to South Africa for their final two games, whereas we’re on the road and then at home for our final two games, but we’re going there to win,” said Carolan.

“I’ll give it to Munster, with a fresh broom, a new coaching staff last year, they had a slow start to the season as they implemented a new style and DNA – these things take time – but if you watch how they’ve played since Christmas their game is starting to bear fruit. They move the ball around a lot more and it’s working for them.

“But we won’t go there fearing that. We just have to stop that and impose our own game like we did against Stormers. Against Munster you need to be at nine or 10 out of 10 in the physical tank but also bring your own game. Without the right mindset you’re not going to get a result there.”