Greig Laidlaw believes his side are in line for a 15 to 20-point winning margin against Canada in Toronto today, so long as they can hammer home the advantages that have created a gap of eight places between the two sides in the world rankings.
The Scots rose two rungs to eighth with their 24-6 victory over the USA in Houston a week ago. On the same day, the Canadians squandered a 25-9 half-time lead against Japan in Vancouver and lost 34-25, a result that saw them drop to 16th place.
In fairness, Laidlaw did not volunteer the 15-20 point margin, but he agreed when the suggestion was put to the captain.
"I'm not a bookie, but I fancy Scotland tomorrow," the scrum-half admitted. "We had a good basis last week against the USA in tough conditions, but the conditions are more favourable this week.
"If our defence steps up to the plate again then I'd like to think we be would up there."
The weather in Toronto is certainly far more akin to what the Scots are used to than the stifling heat and humidity they were battling against in Texas last weekend. As a consequence, Laidlaw reckons that the errors that cost them points against the US Eagles should not be such an issue.
Laidlaw said: "I don't want to keep going on about the heat, but it was incredible and the ball was very slippy. If the chances come up again tomorrow the boys will be very keen to take them.
"There have definitely been fewer errors in training. Vern was working the forwards pretty hard the other day. He is keen to bring the workrate up a level and just play a bit more expansively, and that needs us to be pretty fit."
Given that Kelly Brown is back in the side, Laidlaw's selection as captain is a strong vote in confidence in the player, who will join up with his new team-mates at Gloucester after the tour.
"I'm delighted to be doing it again," he said. "I have always said it's a huge honour for me, and I'm very grateful to Vern to be giving it to me for another game.
"Consistency is good, but I'm delighted to have Kelly back in the team as well because he is a leader. Along with guys like Sean Lamont, he makes my job a lot easier."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article