They are not finished articles. People are questioning whether we should be in the Six Nations, even though we finished third last year. Nicol, who was capped 23 times, does not believe Scotland is in danger of losing its place in the tournament but the rudderless showing against England has him worried.
It was a really depressing day. On Scotland's Six Nations future, the former scrum-half continued: "There is a lot of discussion about promotion and relegation; the bottom team playing off against some of the emerging countries like Georgia or Spain or Portugal. Scotland has just over 15, Here in the Borders, the cradle of the Scottish game, a mere 1, adults play the game regularly. Nationally, just 57 of the country's state schools put out teams for four or more year groups.
But the professional teams are an hour and a half away in the cities. There's not really anywhere for kids to aim at. It's hard for them to get in there and develop. The opportunities are few and far between. One or two make it through, and a few go down south, but we need more systems in place so that no-one slips through the net.
We need better pitches and more of them. Scotland players were once raised at Hawick's storied Mansfield Park ground, schooled in its famous green kit.
Now the top level is as narrow as can be: only with the artificial amalgamations of Edinburgh and Glasgow can players test themselves against the elite.
An hour and a half north, cold and concrete in the capital's south-western suburbs, is Murrayfield - physical home of Scottish rugby, scene of both triumph and disaster in its 90 years of blue-shirted battles.
On those Grand Slam afternoons of long ago it rang loud and fierce. On this bleak Thursday it is silent, the wind careering round the empty car-parks and chasing paper round the grey pillars. Scotland have won the Triple Crown 10 times in their proud history. But in the 70 years since World War II they have won it only twice; in that same period Ireland have won it eight times, England 12 and Wales Despite that, Scottish Rugby Union chief executive Mark Dodson has set targets of winning not only the Six Nations by but also - and you may wish to re-read this - the next World Cup.
Ambition is one thing. Ignorance of precedent and logic is quite another. Can the non-bombastic really envisage a time in the near future when Scotland - 52 of 72 matches lost since Five Nations became Six in - can win another title? We're going to have the structures in place, we're going to have the coaching set-up right. So much for the brave words. What of dispassionate balance sheets? There aren't terribly many people who are open to taking on a professional franchise in Scotland. It's something we'd be very open to, but at the moment we have to make the best of those two.
It's a challenge for us. The SRU has just announced funding for a new academy system, which with time and cash will see the establishment of four regional centres designed to find the best talent, hothouse them and bring them into the international set-up. Whether this laudable aim can bear fruit is another matter.
Of the 52 players in Edinburgh's squad, 17 are from overseas. Along the M8 in Glasgow, only 36 of the 43 players are Scotland-qualified, many of them only irregular starters.
Fly-half Tommy Allan starred for Scotland at under level. Unable to get a contract from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, he took his ambitions elsewhere. He is playing in these Six Nations all right, but as Tommaso Allan, in the blue shirt of Italy, where he was born to an Italian mother and Scottish father. And there is the conundrum. Pro teams must, by definition, be set up to succeed.
What if cheap imports give you a better chance of success than the local natives? If they come into a team that is struggling, we will stunt their development. If the team is performing well, they will develop rapidly. We're not in a position to do that. But we are building a club, not a team, and we have to build it through our academies.
If the system is operating properly you should have a steady stream of players. But we are always going to augment that with players from outside. The lean Solomons, as passionate at 63 years old as he was in guiding Ulster to a three-year unbeaten home run in the Heineken Cup, cites the examples of year-old scrum-half Sam Clyne and year-old winger Damien Hoyland as two talented young Scots who are being carefully managed into the first team.
There are also numbers further down the chain: in the last eight years, the number of youth players in Scotland has climbed from 15, to 31, But I will fail unless I have a good team to bring them into.
Surround them with experience. It's a win-win situation. It wasn't always this complicated. When Doddie Weir was winning his 61 caps, he could be part of both a successful amateur club side at Melrose and a dangerous national one. Now 44 years old, the old mischievous grin still on his chops, he is back in the Borders, up high on a green hillside in a landscape that feels more like New Zealand's South Island - sheep, snow, silent valleys - than easy urban Britain.
Early on a chilly morning, teapot on the go in his farmhouse's kitchen, he is as avuncular as ever. Neither does he want to rake his studs over a sport already in trouble. Contact us. Taylor announces retirement read more. Podcast: Jim Hamilton read more. Scottish Rugby Statement read more. Scotland v Japan. Scotland v England. Scotland Men.
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