RUGBY union will take over a small corner of Ayrshire this month.

It was restricted to the parameters of a football pitch earlier this week, Chris Paterson having been invited to Kilmarnock's home ground as an emissary for a sport which will expand its borders during the viagogo Autumn Tests.

Rugby Park has been chosen as the venue for Scotland's final fixture of the series and a plan is in place to give the stadium the necessary facelift ahead of the meeting with Tonga. The current goals will be replaced by rugby posts, temporary monuments to the national team's inaugural first-tier match in Ayrshire.

Scotland have obligations at BT Murrayfield before then - the matches against Argentina and New Zealand will each be played in Edinburgh - and Kilmarnock have a league match at home to Ross County. All three games are likely to include a ball being hoofed over a crossbar.

Paterson united the teams further during his visit to Rugby Park, taking on Kilmarnock players Josh Magennis and Conor Brennan in a penalty competition. The former Scotland internationalist also conceded a spot-kick taken by Herald Sport, the 36-year-old diving the wrong way having been given the eyes. Paterson was back on his feet quickly, his pride bruised but otherwise unscathed after throwing himself on to the artificial surface.

Kilmarnock elected to roll out a 4G pitch during the close season and on November 22 the SPFL Premiership club will provide the stage for the first tier-one rugby union international match to be contested on synthetic grass.

Many footballers continue to consider such surfaces unnatural to the game, even though they have become increasingly popular among Scottish clubs. The pitches have grown on Paterson too; concerns over a greater capacity for injury, of an abnormal bounce of a ball - much less of a problem in rugby, admittedly - each defeated with the certainty of one who has spent ample time field testing the pitches in training. A Scotland player for 12 years before becoming a specialist coach, Paterson has found little need to tread carefully on 4G surfaces.

"I've never played on one, though I used to train on them often, and the fears [about injuries] aren't really backed up by the stats," said Scotland's record point-scorer. "The pitches are all strenuously tested and are safe to play on; there doesn't seem to have been any spike [in injuries] as yet.

"It's usually a much quicker game [on artificial pitches]. Your body falls more like a sevens-type scenario. The ground is going to allow you to put a bit more footwork on your opposition, so the whole tempo speeds up a little bit, which makes it exciting to watch. I think it should be good for the game, bottom line. In terms of the time it takes for the ball to be played, on average it is quicker on an artificial surface when the ball's in play than it is on grass. There tends to be a trend there."

Paterson is also satisfied with the trajectory the Scotland national team are on since Vern Cotter took charge as head coach earlier this year. The 52-year-old led his side on a four-week excursion across three continents in June and Paterson is confident that the team have come a long way since then. He remains hopeful, too, that Scotland's progress will carry them through the Autumn Tests and into the RBS 6 Nations campaign, during which Cotter's influence will be defined more clearly.

"The summer tour was Vern Cotter's first to, well everywhere, really - USA, Canada, Argentina and South Africa - and he would have learned a lot from that," said Paterson. "The players - I think there were about 50 in total on that summer tour - will know what he expects, so I think that they are in a good place."

Paterson expects that optimism to extend to unfamiliar surroundings on November 22, when rugby takes residence in Ayrshire. In addition to the changes that will be made to Rugby Park, there may also be a few conversions.