MORE or less midway between two Rugby World Cups is the ideal time for any coach to take over a national team. With a couple of seasons ahead of him before the tournament, he has the chance to get to know his squad, iron out a few selection issues, make the inevitable mistakes that anyone in a new job commits, and settle on his first-choice 15 well before the tournament itself.

In the specific case of Gregor Townsend and Scotland, who will learn their pool opponents for 2019 when the draw is made today in Kyoto, the circumstances could not be better. The former Glasgow coach has taken over the top job at a time when the squad is steadily getting better and key players are still two or three years away from their peak, and his introduction to the post will be made all the more simpler by the fact that he already knows half the squad very well from his days with the Warriors, and has experience of coaching against the others.

The state of the squad is one reason why the role appealed so much to Townsend at this point in his coaching career. At 44, he could easily have gone away to work in England or France, New Zealand or Australia for a decade and come back a far more experienced coach, but one still young enough to have the energy needed for the job. But, seeing how well the squad has begun to play over the past couple of years, believing there is every likelihood that he can help them continue to improve - and perhaps also reckoning that such a talented group is unlikely to come along again any time soon - he believed the time was right to take on the task now.

What is more, as he explained at Murrayfield on Monday after announcing his squad for the summer Tests against Italy, Australia and Fiji, Townsend is convinced that the vast bulk of players who are in that group of 34 are ready as things stand to give a good account of themselves in a Scotland jersey when the 2019 World Cup does come around. He is equally sure, of course, that they are ready to play Test rugby now, and by contrast that other, younger players are not. That latter category includes the likes of Adam Hastings, Blair Kinghorn and Matt Fagerson.

“I believe they would have had to persuade us they were ready now,” Townsend said when asked why he had not called up that trio and others like them. “Everyone in the squad will be available in two years’ time. Blair Kinghorn had a solid season; Matt Fagerson has been starting for Glasgow. These 19/20 year olds will be 20, 21 by the World Cup and hopefully playing regular pro rugby.”

Fagerson in particular has been making such rapid progress that it may not be long before he joins older brother Zander in the senior national squad. But Townsend’s assertion that the 34 players who are going on tour are contenders for 2019 suggests that the Warriors back-row forward, like Edinburgh full-back Kinghorn and new Glasgow stand-off Hastings, will face stiff competition for a place in the Scotland team.

When you add Scotland’s three Lions - Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Greig Laidlaw - and include players who are either injured just now or are unfortunate to have been left out this time, the number who are seen as being obviously ready now to compete at the next World Cup rises to well over 40. That is how tough it will be for teenagers, no matter how prodigiously talented they may be, to break into the squad.

In fact, and even though Townsend has yet to choose his first starting line-up, the first-choice Scotland side to go into the World Cup looks pretty predictable. Certainly, few of us would have any quibbles about a team along these lines: Forwards: Allan Dell, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Richie and Jonny Gray, John Barclay, Hamish Watson and Ryan Wilson. Backs: Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar, Tim Visser, Finn Russell and Ali Price.

The main questions in the pack would be the combination at six and eight, where Josh Strauss would also come into contention, and whether Fagerson is ready to take over as first-choice tighthead from Willem Nel. And at openside, while Watson has been extremely impressive this season, John Hardie will still only be 31 in the autumn of 2019 so should still be fighting for the No 7 jersey.

Behind the scrum, Laidlaw will hope that his leadership and goalkicking ability as well as his strengths as a scrum-half will stave off the challenge from Price. But he turns 34 late in World Cup year and will be hard-pressed to keep the Warriors No 9 at bay, especially given the rate at which Price has progressed this season.

Some competition for Dunbar at inside centre would be helpful, too, but on the whole that back division, like the pack, looks pretty potent. Two years with that lot, and Townsend has to fancy his chances of making an impact at the World Cup, whichever pool opponents Scotland get when the draw is made this morning.