He has picked a squad of 50 for Scotland's first international training session of the season, but Frank Hadden, the coach, admits that he has no idea how many of the players based in England and France will turn up at Murrayfield next week. The main point of the gathering will be for the players to get to know his new assistant coaches, Mike Brewer and Graham Steadman, making it an important stage in the build-up to the autumn internationals in November.

“I have been visiting all the clubs where our exile players have been playing, talking about the release we would like to have,” Hadden said. “The first test will come on Monday when we see who is available to turn up and if the clubs release the players. We are not all that sure at the moment who is, and who is not, going to be there.Sometimes we get assurances that people are going to be there and then the situation changes. We have to be realistic. We would be delighted if everyone was there but we will have to see.”

In all Hadden will be sweating over 14 players from clubs in England and France who have been invited to the session, including Scott Murray of Montauban, who is still hoping to add to his 87 caps, and, at the opposite end of the scale, Steve Jones, from Newcastle, who is one of seven uncapped players in the squad - the other six are all based in Scotland.

The session will give Hadden a good indication of which players are likely to be available for two weeks before the start of the international windows in November and February, but he also sees it as vital because it will be the first time the exile contingent will have had a chance to meet Brewer and Steadman, who have both been working with the Scottish professional teams and have already done a lot of their groundwork with the Scotland-based players.

That has certainly made a big difference to Brewer: “It is a huge advantage that Scottish rugby has over the likes of Ireland and England that everybody is talking off the same hymn sheet,” he said. “Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are looking to coach their players and drive their players for the good of Scottish rugby. The end result is that the Scottish team will be as good as it can be, with the players getting better.

“Steadman's role, and mine, with the teams is to try to develop the individuals, the systems and the structures, so that when we get the limited amount of time that we do for internationals, we don't have to reinvent the wheel and can look at strategy instead of technical coaching. One of the most exciting things about the Scottish role is that the average age of the team is about 25 but many have a number of years experience.”

Brewer, the forwards specialist, and Steadman, who will be looking after the defence, have both been getting involved with Glasgow and Edinburgh on technical skills and Brewer believes that he has inherited a pack full of potential.

He prides himself on his one-to-one coaching of the technicalities and believes that he can achieve rapid results by tightening up the scrum, the lineout and the breakdown. “There is huge potential right through from one to eight,” he said. “My whole approach is about working with the individual. There are some serious technical issues, the luxury that we have is that the club sides have been open to us working on those issues, not to tell them how to play but helping to sort out these issues. It helps them, instead of them trying to do it on their own.”

Scotland training squad

Backs M Blair, B Cairns (both Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Perpignan), S Danielli (Ulster), N De Luca (Edinburgh), R Dewey (Ulster), M Evans, T Evans (both Glasgow), P Godman (Edinburgh), A Henderson (Glasgow), S Jones (Newcastle), R Lamont (Sale), S Lamont (Northampton), R Lawson (Gloucester), C MacRae (Edinburgh), M McMillan, G Morrison, D Parks (all Glasgow), C Paterson (Edinburgh), G Ross (Saracens), H Southwell (Edinburgh), N Walker (Ospreys), S Webster (Edinburgh).

Forwards J Barclay, J Beattie , K Brown (all Glasgow), D Callam, G Cross (both Edinburgh), A Dickinson (Gloucester), R Ford (Edinburgh), D Hall (Glasgow), C Hamilton, J Hamilton (both Edinburgh), N Hines (Perpignan), A Hogg, A Jacobsen, G Kerr (all Edinburgh), A Kellock, M Low (both Glasgow), S Lawson (Gloucester), S MacLeod (Scarlets), E Murray (Northampton), S Murray (Montauban), M Mustchin, R Rennie (both Edinburgh), A Strokosch (Gloucester), S Taylor (Stade Français), F Thomson, D Turner (both Glasgow), J White (Sale).