Fast forward a few years and Scott’s Porage Oats Capitals are taking on Tunnock’s Tea-Cakes Warriors in a derby between Scotland’s two professional rugby teams at Scottish Gas Murrayfield in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

Sound far-fetched? A bit ridiculous?

The way rugby is selling off the family silver for a quick promotional pound - Twickenham will be called the Allianz stadium from next month - it isn’t out of the question that the names of Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors could be sold by the SRU to the highest bidder.

Scottish Gas has the naming rights of Murrayfield and the United Rugby Championship that both professional clubs play in is sponsored by Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT),a tyre manufacturing company based in  Mumbai in India.

So the only thing in my opening sentence factually inaccurate is the made-up franchised names of Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors but a sponsored name change could happen sooner than later.

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I would be perfectly happy if it did, and not just because I am partial to the odd teacake or two and breakfast regularly with porridge (Scott’s spell it porage on their boxes) and honey.

Scotland Rugby, who are currently laying off 35 people to try and reduce a deficit of £10m, needs every penny it can get to help develop the game. 

Changing the names of Edinburgh Rugby and/or Glasgow Warriors to bring in more cash may not sit well with some but makes sense. It's not like they have a long-established history as both professional clubs only started around 30 years ago.

Selling the club naming rights to two well-known Scottish brands, for example the ones I mentioned, is one of the few avenues left to the SRU to bring in big money through commercial deals. 

Edinburgh Rugby’s stadium is sponsored by Scottish Gas and called The Hive after one of their products so that box is ticked. Glasgow Warriors can’t sell off the naming rights to Scotstoun as it is owned by Glasgow City Council. Car company Arnold Clark has their name on the front of the Scotland men’s national team shirts with other sponsors names on the ones worn by Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.

Arnold Clark will also be the title sponsor of the men’s and women’s Premiership and National Leagues from the start of the 2024/25 season.

Last year The Famous Grouse signed up to become the official whisky partner of Scottish Rugby through to at least 2026.

The SRU business development team works hard but there are only so many rugby-related things they can have sponsored to bring in cash.

As I said selling naming rights does not sit well with everybody. Former England head coach Sir Clive Woodward went off on one when he heard that the English Rugby Union had sold the naming rights to Twickenham in a £100m deal that runs over ten years. 

Figures aren’t available for how much Scottish Gas paid the SRU for the naming rights of Murrayfield for the next five years but one thing is for sure, they aren’t splashing out anywhere near £10m a year for the privilege of having their name on the stadium.

Sir Clive said the English Rugby Football Union had ‘sold their soul’ following the renaming of Twickenham to the Allianz stadium and were duty bound to keep its famous name for historical reasons. He wanted no naming rights to be sold.

A commendable but outdated stance Sir Clive because money is needed to keep English rugby running and there is no reason to criticise the RFU for selling the naming rights. That new extra cash will be well spent on improving grassroots rugby and the women’s game among other things down south.

Twickenham will be known as Allianz Stadium under a new sponsorship agreementTwickenham will be known as Allianz Stadium under a new sponsorship agreement (Image: Mark Kerton/PA Wire)

The one point Sir Clive can’t be taken to task over for raising  - and on this one the SRU come out smelling of roses- is the actual stadium name.

Calling it Allianz Twickenham would have worked and kept the original name in place rather than dropping the word Twickenham completely. Calling it just the Allianz stadium, like many football grounds around the world are known, is sad.

There is something about rugby that financial companies clearly like as the Ireland national side no longer play at Lansdowne Road after selling the naming rights to insurance giants Aviva and they play at the Aviva Stadium.

The Welsh play at the Principality stadium, named after the Welsh building society, in Cardiff and the days of Cardiff Arms Park are long gone. That makes Scottish Rugby's stand to keep the Murrayfield name still in there when they sold the naming rights all the more commendable. 

The national stadium became BT Murrayfield when the naming rights were first sold back in 2014.

Scottish Gas took over as the sponsors of Murrayfield last summerScottish Gas took over as the sponsors of Murrayfield last summer (Image: SNS)

Scottish Gas took over as stadium sponsor last year in a five-year deal that also included them sponsoring the women’s national team front of shirt and also giving support for all age grade teams within the women’s set-up.

Long may the name Murrayfield remain regardless who ends up having the naming rights to the stadium.

And if one day the SRU sell the naming rights to Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors to bring in more cash let’s accept it as the next inevitable step to raise money for Scottish Rugby.