King out to rule World
Blair Kinghorn has vowed to use Scotland’s transatlantic trek as a springboard to the World Cup.
The speed merchant will line up in the summer tour opener against Canada on Saturday – and aims to show boss Gregor Townsend he deserves to stay in the side for clashes with the USA and Argentina.
But the Edinburgh utility back made it clear he has set his sights on the biggest tournament of all in Japan next year.
Kinghorn said: “The World Cup is definitely the end goal.
“Everything from now on is building towards that. So I will be concentrating on performing strongly and training hard.
“This is the first time I have been away with Scotland.
“It’s a challenging time and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in over the next few weeks and learning from the more experienced boys.”
Former Scotland skipper Kelly Brown hopes the young back-row hopefuls seize their big chance to shine in the upcoming Tests.
First choices John Barclay, Ryan Wilson and Hamish Watson will not be touring.
That opens the door for uncapped duo Matt Fagerson and Jamie Ritchie to impress.
And Brown said: “The way Fagerson has come through this year at Glasgow has been impressive while Ritchie is a clever player.
“They can show Gregor and the forwards coaches what they are all about.
“When Scotland have headed into World Cups before we had quite a settled squad to pick from.
“But you can see from the first year of Gregor’s tenure that he is trying to create a wider pool of capped players.
“There are now seven uncapped players on the tour.
“Most of them wil l get game time. If they do well they can push for Autumn Test places and beyond.”