WHEN people talk about the collective improvement in the Scotland team – and it has been there for all to see over the last few games – they usually have the defence in mind. But, while that aspect of the team’s play is markedly superior even to a few months ago, there has also been every bit as big an improvement in attack.

Moreover, it is an improvement that is just as important as the greater solidity shown in defence. And it is right to call it a collective improvement because, while some tries still come from individual breaks, and all tries are finished off by one individual, the attack as a whole is more dangerous, and at the same time less frantic, than it once was.

Scotland are calm assassins now when it comes to finishing off moves. And they can finish those moves off in any number of ways, with a sizeable group of individ- uals all being capable of supplying the coup de grace.

It is a far cry from the days of a few years ago when the team was close to incapable of scoring any tries at all. Back then they would occasionally exert so much pressure that at last an overlap was formed and one of the wingers would flop over for a score. Now, the score can come from close to the breakdown, from Finn Russell, one of the try-scorers against Japan in midweek – or a bit further out Mark Bennett, who got two in that game – as well as from the wing.

It is a change for the better in the team that Tim Visser, who starts on the left wing this afternoon against the United States, has observed from a particularly useful vantage point. When the Dutch-born Edinburgh back qualified for Scotland on residency, a lot of pressure was on him to deliver, as he was seen as an out-and-out finisher. Now, while he is as eager as ever to get on the score sheet, he is also happy to see the tries being shared around.

“There are some genuine try- scorers, with both Tommy Seymour and Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland as well. Mark Bennett has started to figure out how to score tries as well; he’s doing it constantly, which is great to see. There are threats all over the place, and that’s only going to make us better.

“The way Mark Bennett and Peter Horne have been playing, there are some real threats in our backline. It does mean you get more space and I don’t get as ball-watched as I used to back in the day.”

Having scored five tries against dangerous opponents on Wednesday in Gloucester, Scotland are short odds to do something similar today in their second Pool B game. The United States lost their opening Rugby World Cup match against Samoa last Sunday, and, while solid enough up front, looked pedestrian when they tried to do anything more imaginative in attack. Nonetheless, Visser is wary of the potential threat from some of their backs, above all Takudzwa Ngwenya, the winger who is still dining out on the time he outstripped Bryan Habana of South Africa for sheer speed.

“He’s pretty quick,” Visser acknowledged. “I’ve never played against him. From what I’ve seen, I probably won’t give him the outside because he’ll take that.

“He’s obviously used to open rugby, so we’ll try to close them off so they don’t get those open spaces. They obviously want to try to find space, especially for their quick wingers, so we’ll try to do what we did against Japan and shut that off and not give them the opportunity they’re looking for.

“They’re probably less organised than Japan, but they’re probably more explosive runners. They’ve got a few boys from the sevens programme who are really good, and a few islanders who are very powerful. Japan were surprisingly organised and I think America will be less so, but they’re more dangerous in their one-up runners.”

When one team is notably superior on paper in a tournament such as this, conversation invariably turns to the quest for bonus points. Having got one against the Japanese – and seen South Africa pick up two when losing to the same opponents – Scotland are epected to claim another one today.

When looking ahead to a game like that, players always insist that they do not allow themselves to think so far ahead. Even Visser, at times more outspoken than most of his team-mates, delivered the mantra on cue yesterday.

“The opportunity is obviously there,” he said when asked if Scotland would go in search of another bonus point. “It just depends what we do with it. We’re not going into the game looking at that: we’re going in trying to win first of all.

“If we do manage to score tries, we’ll be looking to score as many points as we can.

“It was encouraging to see those tries [against Japan] towards the end – that was something Vern [Cotter, the head coach] was particularly delighted about.

“We’re not going to force the game, but if we get chances to score tries, we’ll take them.”

They will get chances, and they should convert several. Just how many will depend on how well they have recovered from the Japan match.