The reality is you don’t get stand offs who are expert kickers as well as top drawer runners. The trick is to find a balance but Phil is putting a lot of guys into gaps.

Thankfully, I’m not superstitious.

The first international squad session is due to take place on October 3 and it would be expected that the new coach determines who takes part. That means giving players notice and from that point of view it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect an announcement next week.

The French have generated a level of consistency over the last half a dozen games that has perhaps been missing from them in the past. We're aware that they've got a formidable array of talent available to them, but we think we've got a pretty good side as well and we'll be going into the game with some expectations and a high level of confidence.

You only had to hear the players talking about Andy Murray's victory in the tennis earlier in the week to appreciate how much they believe that Scotland can compete on a world stage. All these things add up. We are where we are in the rankings because of the limited nature of our resources. But what's important is to believe that when we go out against the big guns of world rugby, such as England, that we have a genuine chance of winning. And we do.

The reality is you don't get stand offs who are expert kickers as well as top drawer runners. The trick is to find a balance but Phil is putting a lot of guys into gaps.

Thankfully, I'm not superstitious.

I didn't think we'd continue to play so poorly, that sooner or later we'd start to execute better. We know that if we are going to crack the nut of an away win in the Six Nations we are going to have to execute with more accuracy next week in Rome.

In Scotland, we can't afford to get too far ahead of ourselves and our entire focus will be on the first game. If we are as successful as we'd like to be in the first game, that can generate tremendous momentum.

I'm confident where we are. We have laid some very important foundation stones. We were never going to make dramatic progress in one season. I never thought we would win the championship this year, but we have done enough to make people believe we are a good side.