His birth certificate might say he was born in England but don’t make the mistake of thinking Arron Reed isn’t as Scottish as haggis, kilts or any of his teammates born and brought up in this country.

He played at underage level for England as an U18 and U20 player but he’s been hoping for Gregor Townsend’s phonecall since the Scotland head coach first made contact with him two years ago. Townsend did make that call last week before he named his squad for the Guiness Six Nations, and told him to discuss it with his family before accepting it, but Reed didn’t need to do much of that. The 24-year-old was quick to accept after discussions with his family and his girlfriend – who is also Scottish. His uncle also played professional rugby for Edinburgh before switching careers so there’s plenty of family history north of the border.

There were a bit of nerves for the Sale Sharks winger when he joined up the squad for camp when he had to introduce himself with some interesting facts, but he’s not worried about the post debut ritual of singing for the rest of the squad when he gets back into camp next week after Sale’s game against Gloucester on Sunday.

He said: “All of the boys are really good and made me feel very much part of the team already. I had to do an awkward stand-up and tell interesting facts about myself, and they made that as awkward as possible. But there were a few of us doing it … and I can’t reveal my interesting facts! Happy to sing first song [as debutant] though as I think I’m quite a good singer, so looking forward to that.

“Gregor got in touch two years ago to let me know I was o his radar and around December time he came down to Manchester and said he was seriously looking at me because I was playing quite well at Sale. A few days before selectin he called me up and said we want you in the squad so talk to your family and make a decision, but it was a np-brainer for me to take the chance when it was there.

“My whole family are Scottish anyway, so they were like ‘obviously, you’ve got to play for Scotland’. Even my girlfriend is Scottish and all of her side of the family are Scottish, They’re from Isle of Skye – she’s Fiona Lockhart so that’s a pretty Scottish isn’t name isn’t it?

“My dad was born in Edinburgh, my gran was from Coldstream and every summer we’d go up to Scotland and see them [grandparents], and I always knew my Scottish side was there and it was pretty influential through my childhood.

“Every time I go up to my gran’s she does ask me ‘when are you going to play for Scotland?’ so she was always very keen for me to play. My dad’s a proud Scotsman as well as so he was obviously keen and it’s always been talked about, so hopefully I can make them very proud and play for Scotland one day.”

Darcy Graham has been ruled out of the first two games and it could open up a chance for Reed to show what he can do and he admits that the Edinburgh star is an example for him that you don’t need to be massive to play on the wing in international rugby.

He’s got the speed that is needed to play at the top level having previously been a sprinter in school, with an impressive personal best of 11 seconds for the 100m when he was 16 years old and he has no concerns about adapting to life under Townsend.

He added: “Because the way he plays is quite similar to me and he’s similar size and speed, it makes you think you don’t have to be massive to play on the wing in international rugby. You can be a … not a little lad, but maybe medium-sized lad and still do well, and use your speed and footwork to play to play in a international side.

“The way Scotland play it makes it difficult not to be a fan, and whatever team they’re playing I support them, and supported them growing up.

“For me, it’s quite easy because that’s how I want to play - get my hands on the ball and make line-breaks. But the difficult point is all the information you have to take in over two/three days. You have the same calls but different words for the same calls, and now I’ve got to go back to Sale to play Gloucester on Sunday, and switch back to the Sale calls again. But in terms of the way they play it will be easy to slot in because that’s how I want to play.”