Matt Scott feels the fittest he’s been since he made his Scotland breakthrough, but the centre knows that he’s one error away from missing his World Cup dream.
The Edinburgh centre lines up alongside Richie Vernon – who is likely to be a rival for one of the precious spots in the final squad of 31 in a new powerful midfield combination for tonight’s meeting with Italy in Turin.
With a new half-back pairing, back row and a new cap on the wing in Rory Hughes, Scotland have another makeshift look about them but this could be the only chance for some to impress with just one more game until the squad is cut to the final number.
“If you think of it that way it is a scary prospect,” he said. “You think ‘Wow, I drop a couple of balls this weekend that might be me’. It’s definitely not the best way to look at it psychologically.
“You can’t go in thinking like that – you’ve got focus on your own performance and work your hardest.
“Vern Cotter’s big on your attitude and work rate, so that’s going to be top of my list – make sure I’m doing those correctly and just trust the fact that if I play well enough I’ll hopefully be included.”
And that would be a dream for Scott, who has been targeting the World Cup since he started playing the game before his teens.
“For me probably the 2003 World Cup is the one I remember the most. I can probably remember pretty much every game from that World Cup I bought the DVD after the World Cup and me and my brother just watching it to death.
“I remember seeing Scotland just beat Fiji to scrape through to the quarters, then getting beat off Australia in the quarters. It was a great tournament, apart from the winners of course!”
Scott was brought into last week’s squad when Tommy Seymour dropped out having recovered from two shoulder surgeries feels as good as he has since he first broke into the Scotland set-up.
“This is probably the best I’ve felt going into a game in a couple of years if I’m being perfectly honest,” he said. “I’m feeling strong, I’m feeling fit – I feel like my rugby has come on a hell of a lot in the past two months, just training in this high-intensity environment.
“Vern’s attention to detail is unbelievable in training. He literally lets nothing slip. I feel my standards have been raised and it’s good feeling this way going into a game.
“It’s been a really tough couple of years both physically and mentally, but I do feel good this week so I’m really excited for the game.”
Scott’s most happy this week for his long-time friend Stuart McInally, who finally gets his first cap tonight.
“Stuart was the outstanding player at our age group – he was head and shoulders above the rest of us in terms of his playing ability – and it must have been tough for him to see many of us go on and gain caps for Scotland,” said Scott
“He’s probably the only person in the squad who’s resilient enough to cope with the change from back row to hooker.
“He’s worked so hard to do it. I’ve got huge admiration for him and I’m sure this is the first of many, without a doubt.”