Some days in your life live long in the memory and last is now one of those – having been an avid Scotland rugby travelling supporter for 40 years and a fan for 50 years, Murrayfield last Saturday was one of the best days ever.

Scotland’s power, precision, passion and commitment saw England unceremoniously dismantled along with their annoying 'chariot'. Having sat through many chastening experiences – culminating in last year’s Twickenham embarrassment – I can’t tell you the depth of the feelings of relief and satisfaction at inflicting such a comprehensive defeat on the 'Auld Enemy'.

My business takes me into England for much of the time and 20-odd years of smug remarks after a Twickenham humiliation, or Murrayfield let down has been replaced with a sense of pride that I haven’t felt since 1990. So thanks, guys, you are now legends written into Scottish rugby folk lore.

The under 20s also beat England and the son of great friends of mine, Matthew (Matt) Currie, was picked for the Scotland U18s, so all in all it was a great weekend.

Surely the exploits of the national team can do nothing but inspire these up and coming young stars of the future. I’m told Matt has a great turn of pace and I can only imagine he gets it from his mum, Deirdre. I’ve known his dad, Alan, all our lives and the fastest I’ve ever seen him move was chasing a fish supper through a chippy in Gloucester, or maybe running out of a pub in Mullingar when he saw the size of the round he had to buy!

The remarkable thing about all of this is the comparison of resources both human and financial that England at all age levels have at their disposal, compared to Scotland, meaning that in reality we should never win. Scotland as a rugby team and actually as a nation are at our best when we play or act with belief. Belief in ourselves, belief in what we are doing, belief in each other.

Where we are at our absolute worst is where we play the old 'downtrodden and oppressed' card. “Oh we are only a wee country and these nasty English bully us”. Then, the blame game starts and it gets us nowhere, absolutely nowhere.

You may well ask what on earth this has to do with Scottish agriculture? Well everything actually. Last Saturday and the amazing Murrayfield atmosphere was not an out-pouring of anti-English sentiment as some may wish to portray. It was an out-pouring of pride and joy.

Pride in the excellence of our team performance against the second best team on the planet that have only lost once in 25 games and despite our limited resources to choose from. And the sheer joy at having planned a strategy to defeat these red hot favourites and then the confidence and ability to deliver that plan – and boy, did they deliver.

For too long in Scotland – particularly in agriculture – have we have sought to blame others. At one point it was the EU and for the last 10 years, it's been the English for what we can’t do as far as food or farming strategy is concerned.

More recently, this constant whinging and blaming the UK government has got us absolutely nowhere and it has to change as Brexit approaches if we want any crumbs from 'Longshanks', (or should I say Gove’s table) to come our way!

Fergus Ewing’s predecessor, Richard Lochhead, turned the blame game into an art form. Popular amongst farmers, he popped up at every agricultural show and dinner around Scotland saying nice things and chatting to everyone, but what did this actually achieve for Scottish farming? The answer in reality is, very little.

And, where Scot Gov does have policy, administrative or legislative control, what has really changed? Regulation and bureaucracy are as punitive as ever with cattle inspections now akin to a visit from the Gestapo.

The much aligned system for delivering support payments to Scottish farmers continues to be an absolute disaster. And even policies in our gift, like the Beef Efficiency Scheme, are in disarray, with poor take up – rumoured at less than 20% of the Scottish suckler herd – and no hope of moving our suckler beef sector one inch further forward, which is what it was originally meant to be for.

Although Fergus is making the right noises and I applaud him for his public support of food production as a 'public good' at the recent NFUS agm, he needs a change of tack.

This may be difficult as the First Minister seems intent on continuing to pursue this endless confrontational approach with the UK Government right through the Brexit negotiations. To be clear, I’m not advocating conceding our negotiating position to the UK Government, instead this is about prioritising what Scotland wants and fighting for it.

She (or her advisers) don’t seems to realise that sometimes, like Gregor Townsend, you have to have an alternative strategy to get what you want. And after the disappointment in Wales a few weeks ago, both he and the team took it squarely on the chin and changed things.

They didn’t seek to blame others for their problems or failures, they admitted they got it wrong and sorted them. This should be a great lesson for Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers ... stop blaming everyone else.

The question should be: "What do you want and what’s the plan to get it?" And we need a group of officials like Gregor’s Scotland coaches that are prepared to get on the front foot and put forward coherent positive arguments for change and plans as to how that will happen.

“Oh but, there are too few of us" ... “Oh but, we have no cash" ... “Oh but, we are too busy trying to sort a crap IT system ... “Oh but, the UK Government won’t let us ... “Oh but, the EU won't like it" seems to be the prevalent and it has to stop, and it has to change.

Fergus Ewing, I am sure, has the right instincts but with a civil service machine which appears to have lost its confidence and vision of the future and a First Minister that is a one trick pony, he’s got a hell of a task. But so did Gregor Townsend.

Two weeks ago not a single pundit, journalist or expert (mostly former players!!) gave Scotland a sniff of winning the Calcutta Cup, but won it they did. Not because the English were poor, but because Scotland earned it and made the English look poor.

Clarity of planning, execution and a single minded focus on the outcomes they wanted were the reasons Scotland succeeded.

That is exactly what Scotland’s farming industry needs from our political leaders – no actually it’s what Scotland’s farmers, food producers and processors deserve, just like the Murrayfield faithful did. We have watched and listened to excuses and mediocrity for far too long. It’s now time to get into the Brexit game with a clear idea of what we want as a country from these negotiations and start fighting for them.

Let’s make this Brexit process a time to remember like 1984, 1990 or 2018 on the rugby field. No-one remembers or forgives losers and Nicola should start thinking about that right now before agriculture becomes yet another sacrificial pawn on the Brexit political chess board.

She shouldn't want to become yet another Scottish leader who tried and failed like many Scottish rugby coaches holding a wooden spoon wondering where it all went wrong.