Karma?

Cosmic balance? Second-season syndrome? Call it whatever you like, but Dave Denton is adamant that the rollercoaster ride he took between his first and second campaigns as an international player should, more than anything else, be a learning experience that will inform and guide him throughout the rest of his career.

Few players have ever made a more impressive first start in international rugby than the one Denton delivered for Scotland against England at Murrayfield last year. His powerhouse performance brought him not just a man-of-the- match award, but the unbridled admiration of the rugby commentariat who instantly anointed him as a Lions No.8 in waiting.

Yet little more than 12 months later, Denton had dropped so far out of that reckoning that some among the sport's chatterati considered him lucky even to be awarded a place on the bench during Scotland's 2013 RBS 6 Nations campaign. In Edinburgh colours, his displays had been measured on a spectrum between ordinary and awful, while his attempts to recapture his best form had been hamstrung by a series of injuries.

"Every time I felt I was coming back into form I had to take a few weeks or even a couple of months out," Denton recalled. "That was the most frustrating thing."

Not just for him, but for the Scotland supporters as well. Denton had been the country's golden child in his breakthrough season, but the whisper was that posterity might come to bracket him alongside all those other one-season wonders whose lights had flickered briefly, and all too quickly died. However, Denton himself had a rather different career trajectory in mind.

His road to redemption began in South Africa during the recent summer tour. He put in a superb shift against the Springboks after coming on as a first-half replacement for Ryan Wilson, then backed that up with another solid showing in Scotland's victory over Italy. Better still, his early-season form for Edinburgh has recalled some of his efforts in his breakthrough games a couple of years ago. All the signals suggest that Dave Denton is now back.

"It's awesome just to be playing again," the 23-year-old forward said. "Last season was tough because I didn't get a run of games. But I think I played nine on the bounce for Edinburgh at the start of this season. A few of the guys were getting rested, but for me it was important to get as many games as I could.

"I had no interest in getting rested because I hadn't played a lot of rugby. I had that conversation with Solly [Edinburgh coach Alan Solomons] and I was more than happy to keep going."

But what has he learned? Denton was never exactly brash, but he had a healthy and well-justified belief in his own abilities when he first started to establish himself in the Scotland side. Is he more cautious on that front now that he knows the gods of rugby do not always smile. Has he been chastened by the experiences of the past year?

"I wouldn't say it has changed my thinking," he said, "but what it has done is show me what can happen. I had a horrible run of luck, and I didn't play well when I was fit at the start of the season. But I think that's something I had to experience to learn from. Look, I understand that I will have a bad game here and there, but what I've learned is how to come back from it now.

"The way I'm playing is relatively similar. I still focus a lot on what I'm good at and make sure I don't forget that, but the way I hold myself around the pitch is very different. I feel a lot more experienced and a lot more confident on the field. That's important. When you are in tough situations it's good to have a calm head and be able to think things through."

Clearly, Denton has responded well to the arrival of Solomons at Edinburgh. The arrangement is something of a mutual admiration society, as Solomons has spoken highly of his player's abilities, but the most important element of it is that Denton feels comfortable that he has the faith of the coach on his side. He is also comfortable, rather than anxious, about adding the layers to his game that Solomons wants to see.

Denton said: "He [Solomons] is putting a massive emphasis on me doing a lot more around the field. I think I need to use my size and athleticism in as many ways as I can. I'm trying to make sure I make as big an impact in defence as I make in attack, and in particular at the breakdown. For Scotland and Edinburgh the breakdown is massively important to the way we want to play so that's an area I need to be very good at."

Whatever else might be said of Japan, Saturday's visitors to Murrayfield unquestionably bring a kind of exuberant energy, both in contact and around the field. So it's probably just as well that Denton is feeling fit and eager again. He knows what is coming Scotland's way.

"They are going to be a very tough team to play," he said with firm conviction. "We're going to have to stick to our systems to make sure we can put them away. Johnno [coach Scott Johnson] reckons we're going to run more in this game than in any other this season.

"Japan play a very high tempo game and they play from anywhere as well. That's a massive contrast to most other Test nations who don't like to play in their own half. It's going to be tough physically. But we have the ammunition in our team to get through it."