Scotland's unusual trait will help at World Cup - and should Finn Russell be captain against South Africa and Ireland

If the Italy game was short on sparkle – except for Darcy Graham’s tries – and there were too many handling errors from the Scots, it was a better start than the first warm-up matches four years ago.

Darcy Graham is one of a number of try-scorers in this current Scotland team.

I imagine none of the players other than those fringe ones hoping to make a compelling case for inclusion in the final care greatly for these matches, any more than did those on the Scotland side against The Rest in the old days of Trials before what was then still the Five Nations in the now long distant amateur days. Looking at the French side selected for today’s match, it’s almost as if Scotland are playing The Rest again, with only the difference that this time it’s the rest of France, Still, there are some mighty fine players in this French team today.

On the contrary, today’s Scotland team certainly looks close to the one likely to take the field against South Africa in the first match of the World Cup next month. Indeed, unless someone has a shocking match today or in the return in Saint-Etienne next week or suffers an injury which keeps him out of the first weeks of the tournament, one wouldn’t think there is little uncertainty in Gregor Townsend’s mind about his preferred first XV. That said, the composition of the bench is almost as important nowadays as the selection of the starting XV.

Probably the one problem question concerns the back row of the scrum. Against Italy that had Rory Darge and Luke Crosbie on the flanks with Matt Fagerson at NO 8. Today sees Fagerson moved to the blindside flank with Hamish Watson at openside and Jack Dempsey at No 8. The one missing is of course this past season’s captain Jamie Ritchie, whose minor injury is expected to clear up before next week’s return game against France. I would imagine all six will be in the final party, though there is some question whether Hamish Watson is quite the formidable scavenger and carrier that he has been for so long.

Finn Russell takes the Scotland captaincy in Jamie Ritchie's absence this weekend.

Everyone recognises that we are faced with the stiffest possible test to reach the quarter-finals. Nevertheless, this is surely the most experienced team we have taken to any World Cup, except arguably the 1999 one, and, as John Rutherford used to tell me whenever I suggested some fresh faces might be a good idea, “there’s no substitute for experience”. This is perhaps the only thing that may count against Rory Darge.

It is not only experience this team has but, importantly, experience of winning against everyone in the northern hemisphere except, sadly, Ireland. Moreover, we have proven try-scorers, and this is unusual, even almost unprecedented. Graham and Duhan van der Merwe on the wings, Huw Jones at 13, and Blair Kinghorn – whether at full back, on the wing or at fly-half – have all scored lots of tries against high-quality opposition, while Finn Russell and Sione Tuipulotu are wonderful creators of tries for others. Scrum-half Ben White has also shown his ability to score sniping tries in the opposition’s 22. There were World Cups earlier this century when we found it very hard, even apparently impossible, to score tries against good teams and had to rely too much on penalties and drop goals kicked by Chris Paterson and Dan Parks.

Nevertheless, while our starting scrum is capable of holding its own against anyone, there are inescapable doubts about the reserve strength. Our best and most experienced locks, Richie Gray and Grant Gilchrist start today. It is surely imperative that Gray is fit and both physically and mentally ready to play against South Africa in the first round of the World Cup. He is not only our best jumper on our own ball but on the opposition’s throw also. Disrupting the Springbok line-out is vital for any team. As for the set-scrum, we may reckon our first-choice front row is capable of at least holding its own, but there are doubts about the replacement one.

It is good to see Russell named as captain today. I think he will thrive on the responsibility and in the engagement with referees deemed necessary today, he will surely do this with a beguiling smile on his face. There’s a case for naming him captain in the matches against South Africa and Ireland. It’s not that Ritchie has done badly as skipper, but my impression, perhaps mistaken, is that the responsibility has taken the edge off his game. Finn, I suggest, is to Ritchie as Ben Stokes to Joe Root – and Root has flourished again since the captaincy was passed on to Stokes.