Hogg looking to build up some momentum

Stuart Hogg feels victory in France could kick-start a “special” World Cup campaign for Scotland.

The Scots begin their warm-up programme on Saturday night in Nice in the first of four Test matches to prepare for the tournament in Japan.

Gregor Townsend’s side are playing double-headers against both France and Georgia to get ready for their first World Cup encounter against Ireland in Yokohama on September 22.

Scotland’s training squad have been in preparation for about two months with 40 players now competing for seats on the flight to the Far East.

And Hogg is itching to step up the pace and get back into action.

The full-back said: “We’re getting ready to fire into the games now, we’re kind of getting bored of having no games at the weekend and training incredibly hard.

“But this week it’s completely different - it’s back into Test week, a chance to pull on the Scotland jersey and go across to France and hopefully get a good win and set us in a good place to just kick on and hopefully achieve something special at the World Cup.”

ON THE BALL: Scotland’s Stuart Hogg during training