Glasgow hooker Kevin Bryce admitted his World Cup call-up came completely out of the blue after he replaced the injured Stuart McInally in the Scotland squad.
Bryce - who was not even named in Vern Cotter's initial 46-man training squad - was given the surprise news on Monday afternoon after McInally failed to recover from a neck injury.
Bryce won his first call-up in Scotland's 2014 summer tour, but did not feature off the bench after being called up as cover ahead of their warm-up win over Italy in Turin last month.
And the 27-year-old did not suspect anything despite being told on Sunday to report to Murrayfield on Monday morning.
Bryce, who played in Glasgow's Guinness PRO12 win over Connacht on Friday, said: "It was quite a shock and it's not quite sunk in yet.
"I have been on the fringes and went away to Italy but I never thought I was going to get the phone call.
"I always thought it was an outside bet. I never thought I would be going away to a World Cup."
Bryce was stunned when Cotter delivered the news.
"His exact words were: 'You're in, congratulations'," he said. "I wasn't quite ready for it.
"I got a phone call on Sunday to come in today. I had a couple of niggles from the game on Friday so I had to come in and see everything was all right.
"The Scotland doctor wanted to see I was all right but I never thought anything of it. I trained in the morning and got told at lunchtime."
Bryce has one full day to prepare for Scotland's departure for their first base in Gloucester on Wednesday morning, ahead of their opener against Japan on September 23.
And his tasks include letting down his son Leighton ahead of his eighth birthday celebrations.
Speaking 15 minutes after getting his call-up, Bryce said: "I got a quick call in to my old man. He was on a building site and was quite taken aback. He wasn't quite ready for it but he was happy and overwhelmed.
"I've got one day to get everything ready, I have loads to get organised. I've got a wee boy and I've just booked his birthday party. I might need to miss that. I will need to let his mum know and get him a Scotland strip.
"To be honest I don't think he cares that much, I don't think he understands yet."
Bryce still appeared to be in a state of shock as he spoke about his call-up but he is determined to make the most of it.
Bryce, who has two caps, said: "He (Cotter) did say keep myself fit and play well for Glasgow and hopefully an opportunity would come my way. It has and hopefully I can grasp it with two hands.
"I have had a good pre-season with Glasgow and have played a couple of games so I'm match-fit.
"I can get excited now. That's the pinnacle of a career, to reach a World Cup squad."
Cotter felt Bryce's versatility made him the right replacement.
"Our hookers can play loose-forward and Kevin as an ex-loose-forward ticks the boxes, he can cover two positions," Cotter said.
"He came with us to Canada last year and played loose-forward in a game and came with us to Italy as back-up. He knows the squad.
"He's a very good ball-carrier, he's an aggressive chap and works hard. We know he will give us everything he has got."
Like Bryce, Edinburgh's McInally only has two caps, with injury and illness delaying his Scotland debut until the victory in Turin.
"I'm really disappointed for him," Cotter said. "He has worked hard and to not be able to take part in this year's World Cup is very tough on him.
"He's a great rugby player, a good character. He's a leader and we hope he recovers as quickly as possible."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here