Blair is happy to have his seat on the roller coaster
Blair Kinghorn has ridden an emotional roller coaster in the Guinness Six Nations so far.
Picked on the wing for the opener against Italy, he became the first Scot to score a Six Nations hat-trick.
But the 22-year-old then had the disappointment of being dropped for the next game, with coach Gregor Townsend opting for the greater experience of fit-again Sean Maitland.
However, Kinghorn was introduced to the fray after just 17 minutes following Stuart Hogg’s shoulder injury and that knock looks sure to see him start in his preferred full-back position in the Stade de France on Saturday.
Townsend said the player was “quiet” after being told he wouldn’t start against Ireland, and Kinghorn admits: “It was frustrating, as you can imagine.
“You can’t really beat yourself up, that’s just the way it is sometimes. If you sit in a slump for too long it’s not going to help your development in any way.
“Obviously, you can be frustrated with some of the selections. But you’ve just got to pick yourself up and carry on, and prepare the best you can for that week.
“If I’d been in a slump sitting on the bench thinking I should have been on the park, then when Hoggy went down early on I wouldn’t have been in the zone.
“Gregor said I hadn’t done anything wrong in my performance against Italy, which is good. I was just happy I played well and accept that team selection is just how it is sometimes.
“You have to fight for your position. The only thing I can do is to keep working, week to week.”
Scotland’s loss to Ireland makes this weekend’s match a must-win in terms of their title ambitions but they haven’t won in Paris for 20 years.
“It will be a tough game, away to France, but our club form has shown we can win away from home with Edinburgh and Glasgow posting a couple of big wins in France,” says Kinghorn. “We are all going there with a really positive mentality to right the wrongs of a tough game against Ireland.
“We believe we can win every game that we go into if we play the right rugby.
“France is always seen as quite a hard game, but the boys have a lot more confidence now that we can go to tough places with our club sides and come away with a win.”
Winless France are in disarray and looked bereft of ideas while being thumped 44-8 by England last time out.
Kinghorn nods: “They definitely won’t be happy with the way they played.
“They’ll have had a tough week in training and will come out firing so it’ll be a really physical Test match.
“An away win would be massive. Our away record isn’t the best and we know that.
“So if we really want to put ourselves up there and be in contention for winning the Six Nations and moving ourselves up in the world rankings, then we need to go to tough places like this and put in a performance that gets a result.”