In making the changes to his game that have earned him a first Scotland start, Blair Kinghorn believes it was more a matter of committing more fully to what he was doing than doing anything fundamentally different.
Viewed, as this season began, as a gifted, but erratic full-back, the 21-year-old has rapidly earned the confidence of his coaches at club and international level, but it seems that the key was pushing aside his own doubts.
"I feel like I always backed myself because, if you ever doubt yourself, that's when you make mistakes,” he explained.
“If I feel it's the right decision and I put everything into it. It's just working on those skills under pressure. I've been working quite closely with [Edinburgh backs coach] Duncan Hodge on my kicking – making sure I can execute the skill under pressure.
"I feel my consistency has got better week to week. That comes from playing and also working hard on your extra skills after training, whether that's kicking, catching, passing. I feel like I've just been a bit more consistent in the last couple of months and looking at the little parts of my game I can improve."
The improvement has been such that he has been entrusted with taking on a huge challenge in playing out of position against a team that is run by two of the smartest play-makers in the global game, but as surprised as he admitted to having been, he also seems ready for it.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m really, really excited for the weekend. I can’t wait to get out there,” he said.
“I feel quite comfortable on the wing. I’ve run in there a couple of times, been training there most of the time I’ve been in with the squad, so I’m looking forward to it.
“It's just a bit different with your positioning in the back three. It is quite similar to 15. We've worked hard all week and I've been working on all the positions."
As a newcomer to the squad, Kinghorn has paid close attention to the more experienced figures around him, not least the man he is replacing.
He’s been fantastic,” he said of Tommy Seymour.
“He’s a great player and he’s been really helpful for me over the last couple of weeks while I’ve been in camp. I’ve been speaking closely to Hoggy [Stuart Hogg], Tommy and Sean Maitland who have been really helpful – especially position specific – and the more experienced guys in the team like Greig [Laidlaw] and Barcs [team captain John Barclay].
They are constantly chatting on the pitch. Just little things – telling you where to go and where the space is – and you are trying to feed that information back into them.
“Hoggy is very loud at the back so it is really helpful for us wingers and centres in attack and defence.”
In his cameo appearance against England, Kinghorn made a number of tackles as part of what had become a rearguard action and while he was given no chance to play to his own strengths with ball in hand, he is grateful for that experience.
“It was good to get out there and play in front of that many people and get a feel for what it is like at Test level,” he said.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind, I can’t really remember much of it, but it was a brilliant game to get my debut.”
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