WHEN it comes to kicks in the teeth, there can be few as brutal as one dished out to Dougie Fife, the Scotland wing. Now he has been handed a chance to get over it and prove the coaches who doubted him wrong.

If he succeeds, it would be a remarkable comeback for the 24-year-old who played in three of this year's RBS Six Nations Championship matches, scoring his first international try against France, but then found himself left out when the 46-man World Cup training squad was announced.

The conversation with Vern Cotter, the head coach, to learn his fate would have been bad enough, but it must have felt even worse when the full squad was made public. After four years of playing increasingly consistent professional rugby, six caps, and 65 matches for Edinburgh running in tries at a rate of about one every four games, he was being overlooked in favour of a couple of players, Damien Hoyland and Rory Hughes, who had barely played in pro ranks.

Hoyland has plenty of experience on the sevens circuit but has played only once for Edinburgh; Hughes made his Glasgow Warriors debut 18 months ago but has managed only seven games, starting three, in all that time. Both are there for their potential, not proven quality.

"I didn’t expect anything because at this level you can’t expect to make any squad," said Fife. "I was obviously gutted when I got the call as the World Cup is a massive thing, but now I have a chance and I have to take it with both hands.

"It has given me a bit more hunger and I have to make the most of it. I also knew what I had to work on and improve. I spoke to the coaches and they told me why I had not made the initial cut. I have something to aim for. We have three weeks till the warm-up games, I have to take advantage of that."

After missing the main squad's trip to France, he got his chance out of the blue when Duncan Taylor, the Saracens centre, decided he needed surgery on a shoulder injury. Now one light on the squad, the coaches put in the call to Fife.

"I have been here for two or three weeks now and it is time to show that I should have been here from the start. I aim to force myself into the final World Cup squad," Fife said. "He [Cotter] told me I had just missed the cut but to keep myself fit and work hard with Edinburgh because it was a long way to the tournament with four games [the warm-ups] up to kick off. Anything could happen. Keep fit and keep interested.

"He said the squads in Edinburgh and Scotland play a very different way. It was hard to come into the squad and play the way they wanted. Now with a period of time together I can get into that structure and the way they want to play as we work towards the final cut."

His call-up came when the part of the squad who had been in France had been given a week off, and it started with a surreal drive to catch up on the fitness work they had been doing in the opening section. A few days later, the rest returned and he has been going full swing into proving himself before the World Cup 31 is chosen three games into the four-match warm-up sequence.

"To begin with it was a lot of weights and conditioning, now rugby is coming to the fore," he said. "I am sure we will look closer at things when the Ireland game [the first warm-up] approaches but we have to stay positive. Everybody pushes each other so it is a good environment.

"The games will be a big factor before they choose the squad. The training as well. It is good to have those two or so games to show what I can do [nobody will play all three]. We have not been on the pitch for a while but that is what we are here to do and I am looking forward to the chance.

"Last year I learned a lot rugby-wise, the ups and downs of the national squad, and I played in Europe. I feel in a good place to go to the World Cup and help the team."