Scots ready to send World Cup reminder - Kinghorn

Blair Kinghorn (left) thinks Scotland will benefit from their rest week

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Blair Kinghorn has heard the chat from home about Scotland being the forgotten team at this World Cup, how the two-week gap between their game against South Africa and their second game against Tonga on Sunday has robbed them of momentum.

Speaking on the latest podcast, Kinghorn is here to say that Scotland are only getting started here in France. "Our focus has never been higher and the boys are raring to get out there," he says. "It's frustrating that we've had this big down-time, but I think it has only made us better. We're going to come out of the blocks firing."

Kinghorn was in good form on Thursday. Go through the story of his international career and you see a guy who has scored Test tries while playing full-back, right-wing, left-wing and fly-half.

He has scored one Six Nations hat-trick with an 11 on his back and has another Six Nations hat-trick wearing 10. If he plays the next three games in France, Kinghorn will win his 50th cap in the World Cup Pool B denouement against Ireland in Paris next month.

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Once upon a time he was a tyro in the Edinburgh set-up, a teenage wonder with size and pace and a skill-set that shone like a beacon. He was still a relative sprog when he played for Edinburgh for the 100th time, the club's youngest-ever centurion.

Actually, it's still tempting to see him as a youngster now, when he's actually 26. Young enough, but there are 11 younger ones in Gregor Townsend's squad in France. How did that happen?

"I'm still one of the youngest," he laughs. "I'm not getting old, but I'm mature, amn't I?"

Like everybody else in the Scottish squad, Kinghorn was stifled by the Boks in their opener in Marseille. "Everybody wants to get back out there and right some wrongs," he suggests. "We didn't play our best against South Africa, but this is a great opportunity to bounce back and show everybody what we can do.

"It's quite strange that Ireland will have played three games and we've only played one game. It's weird having this two-week break. It's been good and bad. You kind of just want to get out there and play and get on with it, but it's been good in the sense that we can recover and connect with each other."

Part of that connection process was what looked like a monster team barbeque with the South African contingent in the squad at the helm, Duhan van der Merwe - "the only one who was topless" - and WP Nel "sweating away".

The analysis of the Springbok game will have been hot and heavy in itself. "For 70 minutes, we kept them try-less and then it was a 10-minute period where they scored two quick tries and then all of a sudden the frustrations that you're feeling about things not going so well kind of creep in a bit more," Kinghorn says.

"We come in 6-3 down and we've not played our best rugby and we're like 'we can grind this out and get a try from somewhere' and then that 10-minute period happens. There's massive positives to the game. Defensively and physically we were outstanding, so we're looking to build off the back of that."

The sheer size of their Sunday opponents is a factor. As is a running game that wasn't unleashed last weekend but still exists.

"Definitely, they've got some fantastic ball-carriers, some very elusive runners and, if they get their tails up, they'll be tough to stop," he admits. "It's all about staying focused for 80 minutes.

"It's a massive motivation for us. We're at a World Cup, playing for our country. It's a massive privilege. They've got their goals they want to achieve and we've got our goals we want to achieve and we'll come out and give the performance that's needed for a big win."

After years spent flitting about the backline from first-choice wing to utility back to occasional starting full-back to the famous Blair Switch Project and his move to 10, Kinghorn has had a nomadic Test career.

Stuart Hogg's retirement has given him back the 15 jersey and he owns it now. The truth is that, even if Hogg hadn't left the stage, Kinghorn would still, almost certainly, have started these games in France. His form in the Six Nations demanded it.

"I'm just happy getting a shot in what I think is my best position," he says. "I'm really excited to get back there. I feel comfortable there.

"I've got the ability to cover stand-off if needed, but full-back is where I can offer the team my strengths. It's something I don't want to let go of and something I don't take lightly. Every day is about trying to get better and holding on to that jersey."

In a parallel universe, it might have been different, of course. Kinghorn was a handy footballer and a devotee of Heart of Midlothian back in the day. He's self-mocking when he talks about his ability with the round ball, but the word was that he had a chance had he stuck at it.

"I don't think I was actually that good at football," he says. "I was just a big lump at the back who was pretty fast and could header the ball. So far, it's been a good decision [to play rugby], but we'll never know for sure [how it would have turned out]."

It didn't stop him singing the Hearts song in the ice bath the other day. "Catchy. It was me and Gilco [Grant Gilchrist], but he's a Rangers fan. Schoemy (Pierre Schoeman) might be a Hearts fan as well. I'll have to clarify that."

They're a long way from Tynecastle and Edinburgh here in Sophia Antipolis in the Cote d'Azur and they'll want to hang about in the country for a while yet. A critical first-step is putting Tonga away by a big score that will fuel their campaign and feed their belief.

If South Africa was a false start, this is the real deal now. No safety net, no excuses.

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