THE last time Scottish Rugby made a public statement demanding that a match go ahead, the upshot was a £70,000 fine for bringing the game into disrepute.

That was at the 2019 World Cup when the national team’s pool final fixture Japan was in doubt because of an approaching typhoon, and although in the end the match was played, the whole affair did nothing for the reputation of the SRU or its chief executive, Mark Dodson.

There may well have been some trepidation inside Murrayfield, therefore, when on Monday night another statement was issued insisting that Sunday’s Six Nations game against France should - health and safety permitting, of course - go ahead as scheduled. But this time either the strategy has worked or Dodson was pushing at an open door anyway, because yesterday the Championship’s Testing Oversight Group (TOG) ruled that the match could proceed as planned.

Two daily rounds of negative tests within the French camp have convinced the TOG that a situation which earlier, counting players and backroom staff, saw 15 positive tests for Covid returned is now under control, and the green light was given at lunchtime yesterday in a single-paragraph statement. “Further to a meeting of the TOG this morning to review the latest tests results of the French squad, the Six Nations confirm the plans to stage the France v Scotland match as originally scheduled this coming Sunday,” the statement read. “We continue to monitor the situation very closely and are in regular contact with both unions.”

While 11 players are unavailable to France after testing positive, a postponement by a week - which was the Six Nations’ preferred back-up option - would have denied Scotland coach Gregor Townsend a similar number of his players as they would have been on club duty. Options later in the year would have run into similar difficulties, according to most interested parties, hence Dodson’s strong desire that the game should go ahead this weekend. Hence, too, his feeling of vindication when the TOG agreed with him.

“We’re delighted that the game’s going ahead,” he said yesterday. “We made our case quite clear to the Six Nations about why we wanted the game to be played this Sunday. We look forward to a great contest.

“It's important that we’re allowed to prepare properly for it. I was in [the Scotland squad’s training base at] Oriam earlier this week, and preparations have been very good. All the boys want to play and the French want to play too.”

The threat of postponement that had been hanging over the France game is just the latest of many pandemic-related problems to be dealt with by the SRU, and is sure not to be the last. The governing body themselves provided a reminder earlier this week of how far away we still are from a return to how things were before, when they confirmed that next month’s Championship matches at home to Ireland and Italy will take place behind closed doors, and the loss of revenue from the lack of crowds has been tough for the organisation.

“The hardest thing is not being able to plan properly,” Dodson added. “The situation can change in an instant. It can change from one month to the next for different reasons, and what we've got to do is keep our players as safe as possible and make sure we abide by all the protocols.

“But it is always at the back of your mind that you never know what might happen. It is fragile. But touch wood, we’re ready to go on Sunday.

“The Six Nations behind closed doors is something we planned for given the impact of Covid. But it does make a substantial hole in revenue. We’ve had a material grant from government that has allowed us to repair our balance sheet to a certain extent and that has been enormously helpful. We’ve also done some refinancing, and the business is in a strong position going forward now.”

The grant of £15million from the Scottish Government has now been received, and there is also a loan facility of £5m that the union can draw on. In addition, there is the imminent prospect of a substantial fee from private equity company CVC, who are close to buying a stake in the Six Nations itself.

“The conversations are going really well,” Dodson said. “We’re at the tail end of those negotiations now and I expect a successful outcome. Again, it’s just it’s a hugely complex deal. There’s six unions and four tax jurisdictions and we need time to get that thing in place. In real terms, talks are progressing well.”

The money from Holyrood, the prospect of more from CVC, and the expectation that crowds will be allowed back at matches from the start of next season have all encouraged Dodson to believe that the SRU can emerge from the pandemic in pretty good shape. Perhaps most importantly, they are factors which should help him adhere to his stated aim of holding on to all staff who want to stay.

“This financial year we’re not expecting to make any redundancies,” he added. “We’ve made the appropriate cost savings we said we’d make - in fact we’ve exceeded those as well. We take a tough line on costs and make sure the business is sufficiently refinanced to get us through this period. The government grant has helped tremendously.”