LISTS and statistics can be both informative and entertaining, and as someone who has kept a record of every book he has read since 1974, I yield to no-one in my enthusiasm for them. The World Rugby rankings, for example, have a clearly informative aim, and, with Scotland now up to seventh, these days they certainly make for pleasant reading as well.

Granted, the rise of the national team from ninth before the weekend’s win over Argentina has been overshadowed by a far more remarkable rankings achievement, that of Andy Murray in ending the tennis year as world No 1. But in context it is nonetheless an indication of Scotland’s significant progress under Vern Cotter, and could well have a beneficial effect years after the New Zealander has been succeeded as head coach by Gregor Townsend.

The point of being inside the top eight as opposed to just outside it, as you have no doubt heard countless times by now, is that it means a place in the top two groups of seeds for the next Rugby World Cup. The draw for the 2019 tournament will be made next spring - which seems ludicrously early, by the way, but so be it - and time is therefore running out for those teams hovering just outside the top eight.

Scotland were one of those teams before the weekend, but Saturday’s 19-16 win at Murrayfield saw them swap places with the Pumas and go from ninth to eighth, and then France’s defeat by Australia thanks to an individual piece of brilliance from Tevita Kuridrani meant Cotter’s team went up another place. They are now at their highest ranking since late 2011, and have the likes of Wales and South Africa in their sights.

So precisely what kind of difference can we expect this climb up the rankings to make, presuming there is no change between now and the World Cup draw? At its simplest, it means Scotland can only be drawn in a pool with one of the teams currently above them - one, that is, from the top four, currently New Zealand, England, Australia and Ireland. If they had been outside the top eight and therefore one of the third seeds they would still have met one of that quartet, but also one from the second group - Wales, South Africa, France and Argentina.

Presuming the Springboks recover from their present sorry plight by 2019, you would not want to be in the same pool as them and, say, the All Blacks. England and Wales would be a tough combination too, or, for that matter, Australia and France. So there are clear advantages to being inside the top eight.

Having said that, however, and even allowing for the lift to morale that comes from seeing Scotland so high, there are a couple of reasons why we would do well to keep it all in perspective. First, there is the chance that it might not make any difference; that Scotland displace Argentina from the top eight but end up being draw against them anyway.

Second, given the two-year gap between draw and tournament, there is a strong possibility that one or more of the teams in the top eight go into a relative decline before the action in Japan kicks off. Samoa were among the second seeds for last year’s tournament in England, but there was no way the Pacific Islanders were one of the best eight teams in the world by then, and, while they fought well against Scotland, in the end it was Cotter’s team who got the win that took them into the quarter-finals.

More generally, there can be a tendency among some players and supporters to become so obsessed with the rankings that they assume almost greater importance than the reality they are there to reflect. For example, if you fret endlessly about the need to get into the top eight, failure to get into it is going to have a strong adverse effect on you - perhaps even enough to constitute a psychological barrier to progress.

When you go into a World Cup, you should be preparing yourself to take on and beat the best teams on the planet anyway. You shouldn’t be thinking ‘Oh no, we’re up against a side ranked fourth so we’re bound to lose’.

The whole point about the biggest tournament in the sport is to rise to the occasion when it comes round once every four years. If there is ever a time to upset the established order and beat one, two or more highly-ranked teams, it is then.

Cotter, for one, kept it all in perspective last week in the build-up to the Argentina game. While we were all speculating about the implications of a possible Scotland victory, the coach insisted that he and his players had simply not discussed the issue. They were too busy planning on how to beat Argentina in the real world.

So yes, the Scotland squad and their supporters can feel good about their rise in the rankings. But let’s not presume it brings with it any real or enduring security.