WINNING is everything in professional sport, and anyone who denies that assertion clearly doesn’t understand the nature of the beast.

Oh, sure, there are lots of people in sport who practically made a career out of being runners-up, but its winners we remember, and rightly so. Take Jack Nicklaus for example – the Golden Bear is reckoned to have been the greatest player ever, a legend for his 18 Major wins as a professional. Yet did you know that he finished second in 19 Majors? Who mentions that when they talk about Nicklaus? See what I mean?

When rugby union, for example, was an amateur sport, supporters of the various nations, districts and clubs were disappointed when their side was beaten, but as long as the players and coaches gave of their best, everyone shook hands and moved on. Not now. These days professional rugby players and the men who coach them simply do not get the time to lose and, quite rightly, losing sides and coaches quickly get questioned as to why they lost. Ask Gregor Townsend. The Scotland head coach found out last weekend just what a poor performance by his team can do to a reputation, and even though it was a friendly and a warm-up for the World Cup next month, there were eejits calling for Townsend’s head. Yep, that would have been a good solution – switch the boss when the gang is already in bits. It would be like parachuting in Boris Johnson to try and save the Tory Government’s neck over Brexit – oh, they did that and it’s going really for the good ship Brititanic (sic), isn’t it?

Clearly, like BoJo outside of England, Scotland have a problem when playing away from Murrayfield, and as far as I know, Murrayfield is in Edinburgh – it had better be as I’m going there as a fan today – and not in Japan. And that is the problem. Scotland have to travel afar for this World Cup and miraculous Twickenham comebacks apart, they have looked shaky on the road for quite some time. Townsend loves the expansive game, and when his players step up to the mark and move themselves and the ball quickly, Scotland are a joy to watch.

In attack, they are running the angles that Townsend himself exploited in his glory days as a player, and there is enough inventiveness and creativity in his first XV to beat any team in the world – if they are all on their day and playing at Murrayfield.

The trouble is that Scottish rugby demands a winning team as well as an attractive one, and while I would love it to be the case, I’m beginning to believe you can’t always have both at the same time, especially if they are not at home.

Today’s return leg against France and the home and away prep matches against Georgia were designed, I believe, to show the Scottish players just how physical the competition in Japan will be. I just hope our best players – Hogg, Laidlaw, Russell, Barclay, Gray, McInally, WP Nel – stay uninjured and that the forwards improve greatly against France to give the backs some kind of platform, and then we ‘go tough’ upfront against Georgia and get enough ball to beat them in the backs. That didn’t happen against France last weekend, but hopefully, it will happen today, though some of those French backs look to be quite excellent match-winning players.

The problem is that Townsend’s “fast game” isn’t guaranteed to be a winning one. France leaned all over the Scots in Nice and squeezed the life out of the Scottish game plan – and worryingly, there did not appear to be a Plan B which other nations always seem to have. Especially when protecting even a narrow lead. How many times have we seen the All Blacks, Ireland and England in recent years just switch to safety first, phase-after-phase, ball-up-the-jumper rugby and playout time to protect a lead?

The worry with Scotland is that they even if they can get ahead in games, they can lose the plot – Italy in last season’s Six Nations was a case in point. And don’t forget, Scotland actually got into the lead against England at Twickers and somehow contrived to let the home side snatch a draw. It is no secret that in some parts of the sport here, Scottish rugby is not an entirely happy ship at the moment. There are rumbles of discontent over the various shenanigans among the Murrayfield blazerati, the worries over the Super Six are genuine, and there are continuing concerns over the state of the club game, but if Scotland go to the World Cup in Japan and qualify from the group stage then I suspect the pressure on those at the top of the sport will disappear overnight.

Make the semi-final, and even the final and the current leadership will be lauded to the heavens, and all the problems will be forgotten about, though that would be a mistake as the various internal situations need to be addressed.

The SRU’s main responsibility in the eyes of most Scots is to put out a winning team. They are doing so at Murrayfield, mostly, but have yet to find a winning formula furth of west Edinburgh’s finest acres. Scotland needs to learn to win home and away because this is the World Cup, and the price of failure is doom.