Scotland, currently 5th in the world rankings, go into this World Cup in buoyant mood.
This will be the 10th men's Rugby World Cup, the second in France, after a memorable event in 2007. The sport celebrate 200 years since school pupil William Webb Ellis was credited with inventing the game of Rugby, by showing "a fine disregard for the rules" in catching the ball and running with it in 1823.
Scotland will be in Pool B , first match is the current World cup winners South Africa, alongside New Zealand, have won the World Cup on three occasions. Next up they play Tongo ,whose bid to qualify started just over a year ago, they were beaten by Samoa in both legs of their Oceania play off (42-15) to lose 79-28 on aggregate.
Last up is Romania, who prior to this, never made it beyond the pool stages , on two occasions returned home without a win (1995 and 2011)
Scotland finish up against the four times champions of the six nations Ireland most recently in 2018 (2014 , 2015 and 2018 also Ireland have been in the quarter finalists seven times.
Head coach Gregor Townsend has picked a 33 man squad for the tournament from an impressive pool of players. Former captain Stuart Mclnally has been added to the squad along with Murphy walker , Josh Bayliss and Jamie Dobie.
Edinburgh hooker Mclnally, who led Scotland at the world cup in 2019 in Japan, is now due to retire. George Turner , Dave Cherry and Ewan Ashman are remaining hookers. Mclnally who missed the 2015 through injury, scored 11 tries in appearances.
Scrum half Ben White is also included, and at 37 Edinburgh prop WP Nel is the oldest member of the squad ,as he prepares for his third world cup.
With just one international start and newly arrived Edinburgh fly half Ben Healy is the least experienced member of the squad. Full back Ollie Smith is the youngest,recently turned 23. Grant Gilchrist ,fellow lock Richie Gray and fly half Finn Russell will experience the world cup for the third time.
Star full back Stuart Hogg,31 , had planned to retire before this world cup but has been brought back, whilst Exeter lock Jonny Gray is still recovering from a dislocated kneecap.
Best finish was 1990 in the semi-final against England at Murrayfield , losing 9 points to 6, an impressive defence.
Scotland's tally of 34 points against Australia in their world cup in 2015 quarter final was the joint number of points scored by a team in a world cup match without them winning the game (Wales 37 against New Zealand)
