The SRU is headed by the President (Keith Wallace) and Chairman (John McGuigan), with Mark Dodson acting as the chief executive officer.

Although the RFU now represents exclusively English clubs, in its first few years it had members from outside England, there being no other national union.

The SRU owns Murrayfield Stadium which is the main home ground of the Scottish national team, though in 2004 international rugby games were played at Hampden Park in Glasgow and McDiarmid Park in Perth, as part of the SRU's campaign to reach out to new audiences outside the traditional rugby areas.

The four traditional districts—the South (renamed Border Reivers), Edinburgh, Glasgow and the North & Midlands (rebranded as Caledonia Reds)—were given the go-ahead to take part in Europe.

For the first two seasons, players were still released to play for their clubs in domestic competition, but eventually the districts became full-time operations.

Then financial difficulties – the SRU's high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield – called for retrenchment.

Furthermore, the SRU planned to have a world-class rugby side for each city or large town in Scotland, when financial circumstances permitted.

For several years, it was the final event in the annual Sevens World Series, but that distinction now belongs to Madrid.

The coat of arms is still in use today, but in the main the SRU use the commercial thistle logo on jerseys and stationery.

The head coach of the Scotland national rugby union team is Gregor Townsend, who began in June 2017.

On 28 March 2019, the SRU announced that it had taken a minority stake in Old Glory DC, a team set to begin play in Major League Rugby (MLR), the current top level of the sport in the United States and Canada, in 2020.