SINCE Glasgow 2014, sevens rugby has been on the verge of being scrapped within Scotland and so this leaves head coach John Dalziel in no doubt as to the importance of his team’s performance at Gold Coast 2018, which begins in less than two weeks.

Scotland were defeated in the quarter-finals four years ago, losing out to South Africa at Ibrox and if they are to improve on that this time round, they must reverse that result.

The rugby competition does not begins until the 13th of April and Scotland have been drawn to face Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and world number twos South Africa in their pool in Gold Coast and with only the group winners progressing to the semi-finals, Scotland’s will have to put in the performance of their lives to give themselves the chance to fight for a medal.

It is a tough ask but Dalziel is in no doubt that his 13-strong squad has the quality to spring a few surprises.

“It’s going to be very tough and we have the added obstacle of having the world champions, South Africa, in our group," he said.

“We have to get clean through the first two games and the last game, in the evening, against South Africa could very much be the game that gets us into the semis. So it’s all to play for on day one – it’s three huge games. But we’ll take nobody lightly, and we’ll do our due diligence.”

Scottish Rugby may not have always deemed sevens rugby as worthy of support but the same cannot be said for the players. While the Commonwealth Games squad includes a number of sevens specialists including captain Scott Riddell, there are also a number of established internationalists at the fifteen-a-side game who have stepped in to aid the Scottish squad’s quest for their first-ever Commonwealth Games rugby medal.

Those pro players include no less than Lee Jones, who has previously been a part of Scottish Commonwealth Games sevens teams but is currently fresh from Scotland’s Six Nations squad, internationalist Ruaridh Jackson and Glasgow Warriors duo Matt Fagerson and George Horne.

The mix of sevens experience and big-time players is, says Dalziel, a perfect combination to ensure the team is as strong as possible come the Games.

“The lads who are actually full-time in the programme are the experts, subsidised by really good professionals coming in," he said.

"We’ve had excellent dialogue with the pro coaches and the governing body was involved in getting the best possible squad for Team Scotland. Ruaridh is a classy operator and was quite an easy pick for us. And Lee has been in the Scotland squad as 24th man recently, so Gregor (Townsend) has looked at him.

"So it's a good blend in the squad."

The Scotland team cannot yet turn their thought to the Games though. En route to Australia, the squad will make a pit-stop in Asia to play the Hong Kong Sevens at the start of April and while it is a testing schedule, Dalziel is confident it is the best preparation for the squad.

“We had a real joined-up discussion about everything," he said.

"A lot of teams are going to look at going to the Gold Coast and preparing there but we’re taking this team to Hong Kong as a group, the guys from the pro teams, as well.

"We’ll have a full week in Scotland, travel to Hong Kong and have a full week there before playing in the tournament, then go to the Gold Coast – by which time we’ll be in our third week of prep together.

So I think, when we get there, we’ll be in a really good place as a group.”