IT IS not hard to spot the differences between BT Murrayfield and CREPS, the sports performance centre that has been a home from home for the Scotland squad this past week.

Murrayfield is at sea level, or at least Water of Leith level, whereas this small settlement - the acronym translates as centre of research and expertise in sports performance - is nearly 2,000 metres up the Pyrenees. The Avenue Pierre Coubertin, a snaking, treelined road from the village of Font Romeu to the centre, is an altogether more picturesque approach than Roseburn Street. Oh, and, unlike back home, it's high summer here.

This pleasing contrast has provided Vern Cotter's squad with the perfect setting for the start of their Rugby World Cup preparations, although no matter how idyllic their surroundings, the players have had a far from relaxing time.

Their night up a mountain last week with some French commandos was a real trial: the sort of thing you might look back on fondly once you have come through it, but an unsettling, unpleasant experience at the time.

Strength and conditioning sessions have been more demanding than ever, with yesterday's work dividing the squad into three groups, according to whether they needed to work most at this stage on fitness, speed or strength.

And, while the difficulties of altitude are about to be left behind when everyone heads down to Perpignan today, the activities in the two days there will include an outing with the marines. The players have been told little about this but after their overnight ordeal they are prepared for almost anything.

With a couple of months of more routine, rugby-orientated work coming up, Cotter thought it important that the squad's preparations start off on a different footing. He did not want to introduce novelty for its own sake, instead his aim was to stretch the players mentally as much as physically. Looking back yesterday at the end of the first full week since the squad convened, the head coach declared himself satisfied with the way things have gone so far.

"I'm always thinking of how to make things better but I think the players have really put the effort in," Cotter said. "Today was been a tough day and we've been going for seven days now. This is where the character kicks in and people have to stick in and look at their improvements.

"The altitude makes it hard, even for us [coaching staff] walking up and down the stairs. But I've really enjoyed it and been very pleased with the way the players have taken to their tasks.

"They've all chipped in and rolled their sleeves up and now we keep moving through and moving upwards towards the World Cup. I take my hat off to the strength and conditioning guys, who have done a great job, and the medical staff who have had to work. We've been doing a bit of cross training with judo and wrestling, which some of the players aren't used to, and we've had sprained toes and other injuries we're not used to.

"I think it's important for players to get to know each other. The group had just come together [into training camp]. You put them into a little bit of difficulty.

"They had to chip in with providing the firewood to cook food and organising themselves in four different groups. Within those groups they had to work and help each other. it's a good starting point.

"They are those types of challenge where you're challenged mentally and physically. You have to find the resources to stay positive and keep moving while still focusing on your objective and understand that what we're looking at is a World Cup - a once in a lifetime opportunity for some. That day, we know we won't have again. Time is our enemy and we have to maximise to get into the best position possible."

One player who knows the area well is Alasdair Strokosch, the former Edinburgh back-row forward having joined Perpignan in 2012. He agreed that the timing of Scotland's visit was ideal.

"We [Perpignan] come up here every year," he said. "We don't stay in the camp, we stay in a hotel in town, but we use all the facilities here for training.

"It's good fun. It's all part of rugby that you have to build a team and there's more than one way to do it. We work hard together and then enjoy each other's company as well.

"I think it's a good thing to do early on. I think the idea was to get everyone together and put them in some stressful situations and try to build some cohesion. It seems to be working so far."

There is a long way to go, of course, before the action starts and returning to the more mundane life of Murrayfield will bring its own challenges. But this has been a promising beginning and when the players return home they will do so as a significantly more united group than they were when they met up just eight days ago.