And the nation also suffered another blow as 22-year-old lock Richie Gray announced in November that at the end of the season he will swap Glasgow for Sale in order to ply his trade in the Aviva Premiership.

But Dodson has made an impact since arriving on the scene, opening the SRU chequebook for salary rises at Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as securing the services of Scott Johnson for Andy Robinson’s national coaching set up after the RBS 6 Nations.

And despite admitting there is no quick-fix, Dodson is reassuring fans that the ball is now well and truly rolling.

"I have not been here long, but, with the help of the staff here, the first thing that I identified is that you have got to create a virtuous circle in the professional game," he told The Scotsman.

"We start with the players on the pitch, get the teams to win, which puts bums on seats, which creates revenue and spectator excitement, which creates ancillary revenue, and that gets sponsors excited and wanting to become associated with the teams and the sport.

"That interest and success starts to encourage broadcasters and you get television revenue, and before you know it you are actually creating a surplus that you can re-invest into the teams. At the moment we're at the first step of creating that virtuous circle.

"I recognise that it was a difficult challenge and remains one. I'm not saying it's going to be easy or that we'll pull it off next week, but the more successful we are the brighter people feel about Scottish rugby, the more warm feeling they get and enjoy the experience, the more our teams win.

"We don't have all the answers here. We've got a difficult job. But I am excited about what is ahead of us.

“It's going to be a bumpy ride and we will have stormy times, but we can deal with that if we are together as a group, kicking the ball in the same direction and all understand what the strategic goals are."