David Collier took office as chief executive of the Rugby League International Federation only last month but the former England and Wales Cricket Board boss has wasted no time in outlining an ambition vision for the sport's future which can only be good for the development of the game in Scotland.

His appointment itself represents a step change in thinking by those running the sport since its international game has tended to be something of an after-thought down the years, as best demonstrated by the erratic intervals between and structures of its various World Cup tournaments down the years.

The 13-man code beat its 15-a-side rival to creating a global tournament by more than 30 years but in failing to give the competition a proper identity allowed union to seize the initiative.

While there is now significant catching up to do the 2013 Rugby League World Cup was a major advance on what has gone before and Collier believes it will build on that in two years time after which his plans will kick in.

"The game has expanded hugely over the last decade," he said, speaking exclusively to HeraldSport. "We've now got over 50 nations playing, so it's spreading very rapidly internationally.

"You go back 30 or 40 years ago and league was far ahead and sometimes rugby league doesn't shout about itself from the rooftops as much as it should.

"We were down in Australia recently and the strength of the NRL is enormous, absolutely dominant in terms of a sport in Australia. State of Origin (the annual Queensland -New South Wales series which is arguably the pinnacle of the sport) is part of the problem but also part of the opportunity, because when you see that level of enthusiasm for the sport, then say hang on a minute, we've got a World Cup now coming up in Australia and New Zealand so if we can now tap into some of that and take the game forward from where we were in 2013, if we can replicate that in '17 and take it forward another step then we've got a game that's on the world stage."

In saying so he appreciates that there is a difference between the sport being played and being played well in many of those 50 countries, but his plan is to increase regular competitive and revenue raising opportunities by borrowing from his past experience at the ECB with the introduction of a second major international tournament similar to cricket's Champions Cup.

"I think what we've got to do now is close some of the quality gap as well as the quantity gap and one of the key roles now of the international federation is going to be to create a second world event, other than the World Cup, to help drive additional revenue to help develop the game, but also to help close the gap between teams four and 10 and the top three," he said.

"I think if we can do that the game can only flourish."

After the team's heroics at the 2013 tournament with their shock appearance in the quarter-finals where they put in a creditable performance against then champions New Zealand, that second tier group very definitely includes Scotland and Collier recognises that there is work to be done to capitalise upon that.

"The European Federation has been world leaders in terms of continental development and all credit to the RFL in England who have helped fund that until the International Federation matured," he said.

"So there's got to what's almost a hand-over period from the RFL and the NRL (in Australia) who have done similar work with the Pacific Islands, for us as the International Federation to be able to create the development funding to help the European Federation support Scotland far better than they have done in the past and the same in France.

"The thing that really excites me about the game is that the giant has awoken and what we've seen is that everyone who watched the 2013 World Cup realised it was a really entertaining sport to watch and we've got nations now playing. What we've now got to do is close that quality gap which needs funding, so when I came on board I said one of the first things we've got to do is get that right and to do that we've got to get the calendar right first of all.

"We get an eight year calendar that has attractive events, not only two world events but we've also got to put other games into context, so what we want is Scotland playing meaningful qualification games on a regular basis to qualify for those two world events. "

Collier sits on one of UK Sport's grant aiding bodies so knows that is the sort of schedule that can allow national teams to provide evidence of development, in turn attracting funding and if that becomes available he envisages rapid growth.

"It's our department to assist countries like Scotland advance and improvement and one of the best ways we can do that is give context to matches and then funding," he said.

"Those are the two aspects that are on the International Federation's agenda. I honestly believe Scotland, Wales, France can progress to the next level quite quickly. All the basics are there. The 2013 World Cup was a really strong performance (by Scotland), as strong as any national team sport."