SCOTLAND’s respectable results in their four Rugby World Cup warm-up matches have been only one source of encouragement to the players. According to Ryan Grant, every training session provides evidence that they are now far fitter and more skilful than they were before joining the training camp at the start of the summer.

Of course, good form in training is no guarantee of good form during actual games. But it is a lot more encouraging than poor form, and, when allied to greater strength, can be a crucial source of self-confidence.

The cause of the good form, Grant believes, is Vern Cotter, the head coach, who has driven up standards to a level that the players would have thought unfeasible just a few months ago. “I’m definitely a better player for working in the camp,” said the Glasgow prop, who is now fully recovered from an ankle injury that saw him carried off during the first warm-up match, the 28-22 defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

“I can still remember coming into camp and working through a few drills Vern wanted us to do and the balls were going left, right and centre. Some of the sessions we went through were so hard, but if we did that now they would be some of the easier sessions. That’s the level of skills we have now. The boys were being asked to do things which they wouldn’t normally have been expected to do. Skill wise and fitness wise, all of the boys are a lot further forward.”

As the party flew out of Edinburgh yesterday en route to their base near Gloucester, Grant had more cause than most to be relieved that, after those months of preparation, the action is at last about to begin. That injury in Dublin was quickly diagnosed, and the medical staff were confident that he would recover in time to take part in the tournament, but the forward still had an anxious couple of days before receiving a reassuring prognosis.

“When it first happened, it was frightening. A lot of things go through your head and you hope for the best. You try to convince yourself that you’re all right, even when you know something’s wrong.

“When it first happened I thought I was done - I thought I’d done something really bad. When you suffer that type of injury you get a buzzing feeling in your ankle that goes away after a while, and then you think you can stand up. So by the time the stretcher came over I said to the doctor that I was capable of walking off the pitch.

“The first 48 hours were pretty agonising. The ankle was badly swollen and I just hoped for the best. I was thinking the worst, but James [Robson, the team doctor] and his team were very positive.

“When I watched the video of the incident it looked a lot worse than it actually was. Fortunately the staff in Dublin sent me for a scan straight away, so we knew right off the bat that there was no fracture. Then we had to wait for the MRI results when I arrived back in Scotland, but once we received the results the staff here were more than confident they could get me back fit in time.

“You know your own body and I’m fine now. It’s a credit to the medical team, who have been great with me over these last three weeks. I’ve barely had a moment to myself, but they’ve got me back fit to start the World Cup and I’m nothing but grateful for that. I’m ready to face Japan.”

Grant may be fit to start, but whether he is on the field from kick-off against Japan is another matter, as Alasdair Dickinson is the first-choice loosehead prop as things stand. But, with only four days between that game and the second pool match against the USA, both men seem sure to be involved at some stage over the two fixtures.

“I would have liked to have played more games, so it’s not ideal,” Grant conceded. “But I’m just delighted to be going, as I believe I’ve got off lightly with the ankle injury. I’m grateful to be ready for the start of the World Cup, and the first game will be tough for everyone.”

It will be especially tough for Scotland if, as Cotter has suggested, the Japanese rest their best players when they face South Africa in Brighton this weekend, and instead throw their first team into action in Gloucester next Wednesday. The coach is sure that his counterpart, Eddie Jones, will target the Scotland game as the one in which his own team have the greatest chance of pulling off an upset.

“Due to the fact I’ve been injured it’s given me an opportunity to have a look at them, and they are a good team,” Grant said. “They’re getting a lot better and they have the capability to surprise in them. It’s going to be the case in every World Cup game that every team will throw the kitchen sink at you.”