Tim Visser ready to make long-awaited step into Scotland squad

The 24-year-old RaboDirect PRO12 Players’ Player of the Year and leading try-scorer will, on June 12, be eligible for Scotland, qualifying on the grounds of three years’ residency following his move to Edinburgh from Newcastle Falcons.

Visser, who will be 25 on 29 May, will therefore miss the opening Test with Australia on 5 June in Newcastle.

After the cancellation of the only non-Test fixture, he may first pull on the dark blue jersey in the Test with Fiji on 16 June. Samoa a week later will offer the prolific wing another opportunity. After a 2011/12 season which saw early elimination from the Rugby World Cup and a RBS 6 Nations whitewash, Visser’s inclusion was perhaps more certain than it was that head coach Andy Robinson would tour Australia, Fiji and Samoa.

Robinson agreed to continue his contract, which runs until the 2015 World Cup, buoyed by the potential within the Scotland ranks and noting Edinburgh’s run to the Heineken Cup semi-finals and Glasgow Warriors’ march to the RaboDirect PRO12 play-offs.

Visser, who was brought to Edinburgh by Robinson in 2009, was a key figure in Edinburgh’s European adventure and scored four tries in eight appearances in the Heineken Cup this season, coupled with 13 RaboDirect PRO12 tries. “My ambition since I started playing rugby has been to play at international level,” Visser said recently. “My goal at the end of the season is to be selected to play for Scotland – it would be well worth the wait. The most exciting rugby is played at international level and that’s where I want to play.”

Visser’s commitment is a welcome boost for a Scotland side who have struggled to score tries and are seeking to arrest the worst run since 1998. Should Scotland suffer an eighth straight Test loss against a likely Australia second-string, it would be the poorest sequence of results since a 13-match winless run in 1977 to 1979, where a run of eight straight defeats was halted by two draws. In the 1950s, Scotland lost 17 successive Tests. Robinson will bid to end the current run relying on the core group of players who featured during the Six Nations, having seen them perform well for Edinburgh and Glasgow since.

It is something of a new era for Scotland, with Australians Scott Johnson and Matt Taylor coming into the coaching set-up in place of Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman.

But the 28-man squad will be without No 8 David Denton (ankle) and wing Lee Jones (shoulder), two of the few positives from the Six Nations, plus back row Kelly Brown (leg) and lock Jim Hamilton, who was banned for seven weeks for his part in a brawl.

Hamilton’s absence could offer an opportunity to Grant Gilchrist of Edinburgh, or Glasgow’s Tom Ryder and a likely return for Alastair Kellock in the Test XV, meaning the Warriors skipper could take the Test captaincy once more.