ADAM Hastings fends off inquiries about his father Gavin as abruptly as he might stiff-arm a would-be tackler in the open field. With Stuart Hogg and Sean Maitland yet to prove their fitness, and stand-in full back Blair Kinghorn and wing Tommy Seymour lasting barely half an hour on Saturday against Wales, Hastings Jnr impressed in the role his dad perfected over the course of a nine-year Scotland career which harvested 61 appearances and 667 points even in this agonising 18-11 defeat to Warren Gatland’s Grand Slam-chasing outfit.

An alluring opportunity might just be opening up to start at full back against England at Twickenham on Saturday but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if he is so downbeat about the notion of checking out sepia-tinged footage of his dad’s heroic exploits at the home of the Rugby Football Union. For a start, he would have to search far and wide to find some.

One of Gavin’s claims to fame was the barnstorming break and kick ahead which led to Tony Stanger’s try in the 1990 Grand Slam decider against Will Carling and co. at Murrayfield but victories at Twickenham have been far harder to come by. In four jousts against the Auld Enemy at Twickenham in the colours of Scotland, he only ever tasted the losing side.

A venue where Scotland haven’t won in 36 years, big Gav was even sidelined with a groin injury when the Scots at least avoided defeat with a 12-12 draw back in 1989. Perhaps the best young Adam could do if he wants to see his dad lording it at Twickers would be locating the video of the 1984 Varsity Match, where he scored a try in a famous 33-6 win for Cambridge against Oxford.

Taking on England on their own path might be a daunting task – particularly for survivors of the gut-wrenching 61-21 defeat in March 2017 - but at least the likes of Hastings, Darcy Graham and Jamie Ritchie can be guaranteed to approach to the task of defending the Calcutta Cup with zeal. It should be noted too that Hastings Jnr has previous for re-writing the history books against the English, having played a key role in the 24-6 win against England’s Under-20 team which was our first win at that age level.

“I’ve played full-back a handful of times,” he said. “Have I ever watched any of my dad’s videos? No. Would I go to him for advice? Yeah, maybe, I dunno. We’ll see.

“Look, I think it’s a great challenge,” added Hastings. “Where would be better to win than down there, against that team? We’re really up for it. I’ve been there once for a school sevens tournament, a final. I wasn’t playing, I’d hurt my knee – and they lost!

“But I would love it. I love playing for Scotland and I wouldn’t shy away from it. The wingers can make me feel pretty comfortable in terms of my position. I’d be looking forward to it, to be honest - I’ve not got any demons there. That’s a good thing.

“And that’s maybe what’s good about this young squad, that we’re a brave bunch and we’re not scared of these big teams. We’ll look to go down there and get a win.”

If the experience of Calcutta Cup battle behind enemy lines can be assured of putting a young player through the wringer, it should be pointed out the 22-year-old earned his stripes in a tough situation on Saturday. Building on a nice little cameo in a losing effort in Paris, Scotland were on the ropes when Hastings arrived onto the field, but he immediately threw himself into a huge try-saving hit on Josh Adams, earning a cheer from the Murrayfield crowd just for being passed fit to get back and man the barricades again.

Then there was his role in Graham’s try, an attacking line to get on the end of Finn Russell’s pass which was right out of his old man’s playbook. Knowing he would have been stopped short, he had the wherewithal to offload to his former Under-20 colleague Graham.

“I was pretty prepared to come on that early - I’d had to go on pretty early against France too,” he said. “So I’m learning pretty quickly that, in international rugby, you have to be ready for these scenarios.

“We had conceded a try and then they were dominating possession a bit when I came on. We couldn’t really get it going. But from half-time we dominated possession. And I think we all felt pretty hard done by at the end of that game.

“Maybe for half a second I thought about going for it myself. Then I realised I didn’t have the pace, so I thought I’d better give him [Graham] the ball. We are both at similar stages of our career, it’s nice to be out there with him and it was great for him to score his try. We were buzzing – and I firmly felt we were going to win the game at that time.”

That wasn't to be, but Hastings was feeling pretty good about himself as he left this stadium on Saturday nonetheless. ‘I feel like I got to press the reset button on my season," he said. "I had a frustrating few weeks when I wasn’t getting much game time. Boys were playing well ahead of me. But off the bench against France, that was me hitting the reset button. I’m not taking anything for granted now. I have to keep pushing.”

With the World Cup looming, how all Scotland fans would love to hit the re-set button on a winless Twickenham run which dates back to 1983. “What’s missing?” said Hastings. “Just a bit of accuracy – and our defence can get a bit better too. We tend to concede points early on, which hurts us later in the game, even though we tend to finish games really strongly.

“If we could win at Twickenham, I think that would be a huge statement for this team,” he added. “We’ve been there or thereabouts in every game we’ve played in this Six Nations, even if we've lost. So it would be a massive statement to go down there and win, especially in a World Cup year.”