“HUGELY IMPRESSED”

Glasgow,” he stressed. “Whenever we’ve played Glasgow, I’ve always spoken to Gregor and had a beer, and he’s always kept in contact by texting me before games and after them to wish me luck or say hard lines, so it’s not like we didn’t speak after I left. “I was hugely impressed by Gregor as a coach, particularly as he was a relatively new coach – I was impressed by his ideas and his enthusiasm, which was infectious.

“You can see what he’s done with Glasgow. He’s pushed them up there very well. He’s probably developed as a coach but he has that same enthusiasm that I saw when he started at Glasgow. “He phoned me to say I’d be in the squad and then after Greig was called up [to the Lions] he asked me whether I’d like to do it [the captaincy] and I was obviously very, very happy to do so.” Townsend’s ascension to the top job means a Scot is once again in charge of the national team for the first time since Frank Hadden departed in 2009 and was followed by Englishman Andy Robinson, Aussie Scott Johnson and the New Zealander Vern Cotter.

Not that Barclay makes too much of that factor.

“As a player it doesn’t bother me. You just want to do well,” said the skipper. “The guys had a lot of respect for Vern and by the end I guess Vern was an adopted Scot – you see the reception he got when he left. You want a coach to be motivated and driven and to be fair on you, and I think Vern was all those things, and I think Gregor is too.

Scotland face Italy in Singapore a week on Saturday before subsequent Tests in Australia and Fiji. Barclay was born in Hong Kong and is looking forward to leading his country back to the region of his birth – “my brother was born in Singapore and we grew up all around there”.

All three games, have their challenges and attractions but, on paper, it is the clash with the Wallabies in Sydney that forms the centrepiece of the tour.

“The last time we played in Australia [a shock 9-6 win in rainswept Newcastle, New South Wales] it was atypical weather and more like playing back at home,” recalled Barclay.

“I didn’t play in the 2015 World Cup game [a dramatic 35-34 quarter-final loss at Twickenham] and watched that one from home, while the game in the autumn [a 23-22 loss at BT Murrayfield] was hugely frustrating.

“We can take some confidence going down there from the knowledge that, if we play well, and play with speed, energy and accuracy, that we can compete.”

“I was hugely impressed by Gregor as coach... You can see what he’s done with Glasgow. He’s pushed them up there very well. He’s probably developed as a coach but he has that same enthusiasm that I saw when he started at Glasgow”