Talent pool looks deep. Now it’s time to prove it...

These are heady days for scottish rugby when it comes to the strength and depth of Gregor Townsend’s squad. You look at the team picked last weekend against Tonga — it was pretty strong on paper and they then delivered with a thumping 60-14 demolition of the south sea Islanders.

eight players made their debut and all coped with their first experience of international rugby, thus increasing Townsend’s options even further.

That game was outside the international Test window, so any players not plying their trade in scotland were ruled out. Granted, an understrength Tonga were nowhere near as good as they once were, but it was a good performance from the home side, with some players really making an impact.

When a team scores 60 points, including ten tries, six of which were scored by the wingers, the stand-off has to have had a good game and Blair Kinghorn certainly did that.

The edinburgh man attacked the line, he distributed very well with one long pass setting up one of the early scores and he kicked for touch beautifully.

In days gone by, and not that long ago, a performance like that would guarantee you a start in the next game. Not now. Not when you have Finn Russell and Adam hastings to come back in the squad.

Kinghorn has gone from the main man to the 24th man in the squad. Tough school.

There are other examples; Rufus McLean scores two tries on debut — not in the match-day squad; Kyle steyn scores four tries, the first scotsman to ever do that at BT Murrayfield in an official Test match, and he can only make the bench tomorrow.

Let’s move up front and into the second row. scotland’s best two locks, Jonny Gray and scott Cummings, are both out injured, so Jamie hodgson and Rob harley got the nod last week, with hodgson really impressing me.

his work-rate in attack and defence was incredible but he’s only good for the bench this week, with Grant Gilchrist and sam skinner selected for the Australia game.

It’s absolutely the right decision but what strength we now have as, when Gray and Cummings return, this means hodgson and harley are fifth and sixth choice locks, respectively.

having a strong squad with many options really challenges the coaches and the players. Townsend and his coaching team need to pick the right blend to play the opposition and this can get harder when you have so many options.

I remember Andy Robinson, who coached both, telling me how much easier it was to pick the scotland team than the england side. With scotland, he knew his best team because there were not many alternatives to consider due to the lack of depth. This made his selection quite straightforward.

Quite the opposite with england when he had so many players to choose from in each position. It sounds so simple but being a good selector is a very important role of the head coach in international rugby.

It challenges the players as well because they don’t get too safe or comfortable in the team. It is fair to say that, over the years, it has been harder to get out of the scotland team than it has to get into it.

Players would get picked for every game irrespective of how they played because there were no alternatives. Win or lose, they were in the team for the next game. This allows players to be in their comfort zone, it becomes too easy, and they take selection for granted. Not now. Not with the strength that we have. even the very best players know they are not guaranteed their place if they don’t perform.

even the star man Finn Russell. he knows he has to perform because hastings (left) is waiting in the wings. he is flying at his new club Gloucester but has to be content with a spot on the bench for now. he will be busting a gut in training to impress the coaches and this will bring a real edge to training, which is when you see the benefit of having such strength in depth.

Training gets more competitive and better quality as everyone is determined to make an impression. Better training usually delivers better results on the pitch. We shall see tomorrow.

I always look forward to games against Australia because I know they will be good and give scotland a real chance of victory. They don’t hold the same aura of the All Blacks or the same physicality of the springboks but they are still a very good side and will allow scotland to see exactly where this squad is right now.

It might be the strongest squad scotland have ever had but it now needs to use that strength and beat the best teams in the world, starting with Australia.

The Autumn series starts for real tomorrow!